Henley Sharks have seventh player suspended at Adelaide Footy League tribunal in 12 months

Henley Football Club is seeking to address on-field behavioural issues following its seventh player suspension since the start of last season.

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Henley Football Club is seeking to address on-field behavioural issues following its seventh player suspension since the start of last season.

The Adelaide Footy League’s tribunal last week banned Sharks player Harris Jessen for four matches for rough conduct in a division one match against Adelaide University at Henley Memorial Oval on May 11.

It was Henley’s second suspension this year – division two reserves player Nathan Pierson received six matches for striking last month – and it took the Sharks’ tally of games banned to 30 in 12 months.

Sharks coach Jarrad Parker said club officials had “some really honest conversations” with the squad but they did not believe any Henley players were trying to deliberately hurt opponents.

Harris Jessen in action for Henley against Athelstone last year. Picture: AAP/Keryn Stevens

“We’re stripping everything back to find out what the root cause is,” Parker said.

“We’re looking internally, reviewing our practices and seeing how we can get better.

“That’s a weekly thing now, where we are reminding players of their responsibility to the football club, to each other and to the opposition.

“Culturally, we’re making a change.

“When he (Jessen) got sent off he was really shaken by it and disappointed with himself, because he understands the expectations that we’re setting.”

Jessen’s suspension also moved Henley up to category three of five in the league’s new behavioural rating system.

It would be higher if not for the Sharks’ good on-field behaviour in 2016 and 2017.

Parker said the club had introduced a range of measures to try to improve behaviour, including taking players off the field for short periods if they needed calming down.

“Perhaps emotions get the better of them while they’re out there and that’s another thing we’ve had discussions about,” he said.

League chief executive John Kernahan said he’d had some “frank” conversations with Henley but was “pretty confident we are all singing from the same hymn book”.

“To turn it around is their responsibility and theirs alone,” Kernahan said.

“The whole functionality of the BRS (behavioural rating system) is to allow clubs to benchmark themselves against the rest of the competition, as opposed to being micromanaged by the league.

“Henley has had a less than ideal 2018 season, much less the start to this one, but they also have some credits in the bank for an incident free 2016 and 2017 to allow them some breathing room.”

Salisbury West was removed from the competition last year after a string of suspensions and the league then introduced the new system in the off-season.

“The lessons learned from the Salisbury West matter in 2018 have served us well to ensure every I has a dot and every T is crossed,” Kernahan said.

“We have a degree of confidence that the Henley Football Club aren’t any more happy with their position at the moment than the league.”

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