Adelaide Footy League games should all be filmed in wake of Salisbury West football violence, Trinity Old Scholars says
The football club on the receiving end of Salisbury West captain Adam Jones’s violent incidents wants all Adelaide Footy League games filmed to reduce the likelihood of on-field thuggery.
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ALL Adelaide Footy League games should be filmed to help reduce the threat of on-field violence.
That is the view of Trinity Old Scholars Football Club in the wake of its player Carl Teusner having his jaw broken by Salisbury West captain Adam Jones in a division six qualifying final on Saturday.
The league’s tribunal on Wednesday night banned Jones for 27 games for four offences, resulting in him being deregistered for exceeding the competition’s 12-game suspension threshold.
Jones received 10 games for kneeing Teusner – an incident police have been investigating – as well as eight matches for elbowing, six for a separate kneeing charge and three for tripping.
The league also removed Salisbury West, which had been on notice for previous incidents of bad behaviour, from the competition.
Trinity Old Scholars president Nathaniel Eldridge, whose club has been one of 30 in the competition to pay a videographer to record its games, believed all league matches needed to be filmed for player safety.
Before this year, only a handful of clubs filmed matches in-house for coaching purposes or to create online highlights clips.
“We feel really strongly about filming games,” Eldridge said.
“We see the benefit for player safety and I think it’s needed in all levels of football, unfortunately.
“Every player should have the right to step on the field and feel safe, within the rules.
“You can take a hard tackle or hip and shoulder, but when things go past that it’s where players, people and even parents look at it – you want your kids or family members out there feeling safe.”
Teusner, who underwent three-hour jaw surgery on Wednesday, backed Eldridge’s call.
“I think any club on an AAA (league amended affiliation agreement) should be made to have their games filmed by someone independent then submitted to the league to be scrutinised,” Teusner said.
Teusner left hospital on Thursday after undergoing a three-hour surgery to fix his shattered jaw.
A metal plate and screws were inserted into his jaw to hold the fracture together and bolts were drilled into the gum on either side of his mouth for rubber bands.
Jones had already been suspended for seven games previously before the weekend.
Teusner was glad to see Jones, who has also been banned from every other league in Australia, removed from the game.
“I believe everyone deserves a second chance, so looking at my incident alone and given that the league life ban is 12 games, 10-11 games is about right,” Teusner said.
“Unfortunately, he used all of his chances and some in one game.
“As for Salisbury West, that’s for the league to deal with.
“They’ve made their decision and that’s their right.”
Salisbury West’s committee accepted the club’s punishment and tonight released a statement apologising to Teusner, his family, Trinity and the league.
“The Salisbury West Football Club does not accept these actions of any player, nor condones any behaviour that breaches our amended affiliation agreement,” the statement said.
The club also said it would review its football department over coming days “to also remove anyone who could have avoided this situation”.
“The Salisbury West Football Club will continually co-operate with the league over the coming days and months moving forward.”
Salisbury West joins fellow northern suburbs club Salisbury North in being removed from the competition.
The league booted out Salisbury North in June after one of its players received a five-week striking ban.
League chief executive John Kernahan said the organisation would love all matches to be filmed for a whole range of reasons, not just player safety.
But Kernahan said it was up to clubs to organise their matches to be recorded because the league did not have the capacity to film every game across all 21 divisions itself.
“Clubs can use the footage to advertise sponsorship and in turn offset costs,” Kernahan said.
“We’re attempting to create a model whereby all A-grade matches are recorded at the very least, but anti-social behaviour doesn’t discriminate against division.
“In an ideal world, we’d enjoy video presence from the start of the first match to the end of the last.
“What clubs need to identify is where it sits in their own priorities.
“Maybe we’ll get to the stage one day whereby our member clubs cast a vote that every club must video matches and that’s a cost of being a member of our league.”
Kernahan said Jones’s actions were not a reflection on the rest of the competition.
“What gets lost in this is 98 per cent of our players have never seen the inside of our tribunal room,” Kernahan said.
Kernahan said the futures of Salisbury West and Salisbury North would be determined after this season.
WHAT IT ALL MEANS:
THE CLUB
■ Salisbury West was immediately removed from the competition and booted from the division six and division six reserves finals series.
■ The club will need to reapply for affiliation next year but there is no guarantee the league will accept the application.
■ If re-accepted the club will likely be subject to even stricter conditions.
■ Salisbury West’s junior sides will not be affected because they play in the SANFL juniors competition.
THE PLAYER
■ Adam Jones will not be able to play in anywhere in the Australia.
■ His tally of career games suspended (34) takes him beyond the Adelaide Footy League’s 12-match threshold and the national 16-game limit.
THE FINALS
■ Rosewater, which was scheduled to play Salisbury West in a semi-final this Saturday, have now progressed directly through to the September 1 grand final.
■ Trinity’s semi-final against Fitzroy this weekend will now become a preliminary final, where the winner will face Rosewater in the decider.