Junior football coach banned until 2017 for not doing enough to stop on-field brawl

A JUNIOR football coach in Adelaide has been banned until 2017 after a tribunal found he failed to stop an on-field brawl — and he’s “bitterly disappointed”.

A JUNIOR football coach has been banned until 2017 after a tribunal found he failed to stop an on-field brawl during a match that was eventually called off.

The SA amateur league suspended Salisbury under-18 coach Byron Mordaunt at a May 20 hearing for bringing the game into disrepute and deliberately misleading the tribunal.

It followed umpires calling off the club’s under-18 match against Mitcham at Salisbury Oval on May 10 midway through the final quarter because of a prolonged melee.

The punishment comes 11 months after the league banned Mordaunt for two games for misconduct.

He cannot hold an official role in the league until January 1, 2017.

League chief executive John Kernahan believed Mordaunt should have shown more control in stopping his players’ poor on-field behaviour.

“When an umpire has to take the extraordinary means of having to call a match off, something is wrong,” Kernahan said.

The league forced Salisbury’s under-18 team to forfeit its May 24 and May 31 games, fined the club $500 and banned Magpies player Sean Hee for six matches (two for deliberately misleading the tribunal and four for striking).

The league will deduct four premiership points from Salisbury’s four senior sides if any of its players or officials are found guilty at the tribunal.

“If it’s one in all in, then that’s how we’re going to apply our penalties as well,” Kernahan said.

“Clubs in general will need to get used to the idea of the entire club being held accountable for players making a habit of wandering off the reservation.

“The league does not enjoy handing down these penalties, but it is the given club’s responsibility to ensure their players are aware of the consequences of not complying with our code of conduct.”

Mordaunt, 50, defended his actions and said he had done nothing wrong.

He said once the melee started he grabbed the club’s water bottles and walked into the changerooms because he was punished last year for stepping on to the oval after one of his players was hit and knocked out.

“I made the mistake last year of running on to the ground,” Mordaunt said.

“I didn’t want to go on the ground and get blamed.

“I thought at the most I’d get a couple of games.

“I’m bitterly disappointed.”

Mordaunt said he forgot his team manager’s name at the hearing, which prompted the league to charge him with misleading the tribunal.

“If I did withhold evidence I didn’t mean to,” he said.

“I just forgot my team manager’s name under pressure.

“I wanted to go in and tell the truth and that’s what I’ve done.”

Mordaunt, who has been involved in junior football as a coach, assistant or runner for two decades, hoped Salisbury would appeal the decision.

Salisbury president David Ward said the club was very disappointed with the incident.

He said the club’s senior players would help mentor the under-18s to improve discipline.

Ward said the club would appoint a new coach in coming weeks.

Mordaunt is the third junior coach the league has suspended in the past 12 months.

In July last year, Smithfield under-18 coach Dean Martin received an 18-month ban for failing to stop umpire abuse and intimidation.

Modbury under-16 mentor Mick Teague was suspended for five matches for abusive language that same month.