Eastern Park player Nathan Leonard deregistered from Adelaide Footy League after eight-game striking suspension
Last year the Adelaide Footy League deregistered six players for bad behaviour. On Wednesday, it deregistered its first for 2019 – a player who copped an eight-game striking ban.
- Eastern Park kicks out player for headbutt
- Seven-game suspension but no other sanction
- Salisbury West captain receives life ban
- League’s best and worst behaved sides
Adelaide’s largest grassroots football competition has deregistered a senior player for bad behaviour for the first time this season.
The Adelaide Footy League’s tribunal handed Eastern Park’s Nathan Leonard an eight-game striking ban on Wednesday night, taking his career total to the competition’s 12-match suspension threshold.
Leonard was found guilty of an intentional, high hit in play on a Pulteney opponent in their division five reserves game at Dwight Reserve on Saturday.
There was no footage of the incident but umpires reported him on the day.
Leonard is the first senior player to be deregistered from the competition since Salisbury West captain Adam Jones last August.
Jones, who was suspended for 27 games after being found guilty of four incidents in a division six match, was one of six players to be deregistered from the league in 2018.
Unlike Jones, Leonard can continue playing in other competition because he has not surpassed the 16-game threshold of football’s national deregistration policy.
“The league has never apologised for having a higher standard than that of the national threshold and the league will continue to drive that agenda in an effort to ensure a culture that promotes participation,” league chief executive John Kernahan said.
“We’re reasonably buoyed that it adds weight in being the first for 2019, whereas in years past there’s been half a dozen to 10.”
Kernahan said the league was happy with Eastern Park’s proactive stance and level of responsibility in responding to the incident.
“Regardless of the outcome of last night’s tribunal, they had taken the appropriate action that they were going to deregister him from their club,” he said.
Eastern Park president Craig Wilson could not be reached for comment.
Pulteney officials did not want to comment.