Adelaide Crows assistant coach Ben Hart has apologised for the Barossa training breach which saw him suspended for six weeks
Adelaide Crows assistant coach Ben Hart has apologised for breaching the AFL’s training protocols and has said he’s relieved the club was spared harsher penalties.
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Stood down Adelaide assistant coach Ben Hart has apologised for breaching the AFL’s strict training protocols and said he is relieved the club and those players with him in the Barossa Valley were spared hefty penalties and sanctions.
In a statement on the club’s website Hart said he accepted the penalty imposed and apologised for the part he played in the breach.
“It was unintentional and purely an innocent mistake but nevertheless it was a breach,” he said.
After an AFL investigation into the incident that came at the end of a two-hour training session on the Tanunda Pines golf course on Thursday, Hart was stood down by the league for the next six weeks after he and the 16 players were found to have committed an “inadvertent” breach of training protocols.
Hart, who like the players was self-quarantining at the Novotel Barossa Valley Resort next to the golf course, was found by the investigation to have been supervising the kicking drill when the breach occurred.
In the drill, four pairs of Crows players came together as a group, breaching the limit of two imposed by the AFL.
The 16 players have been issued with a suspended one-match sanction, that will be triggered if they breach COVID-19 related protocols again.
The 300-game Crow, who is also the club’s forward coach, said he was pleased they weren’t hit harder.
“I am relieved they have avoided a hefty penalty and each of them will be able to train and play when the competition resumes,” he said.
The lack of any club sanction outside of Hart’s ban and the suspended sanctions to the players has drawn the ire of numerous commentators in Melbourne, such as former Demons captain Garry Lyon who has called for the Crows to be stripped of draft picks for the breach.
Hart said he was thankful the club was not sanctioned.
“It is full of dedicated and hardworking people, many of whom have been stood down from their duties while trying to push through this difficult period as best they can,” he said.
“They have offered their full support to the players and myself through this event and I cannot thank them enough.”
The Crows got approvals from the AFL and SA Police to send Hart and the 16 players to the Barossa Valley before the breach occurred.
Following it the players now can go outside their hotel rooms only by themselves.
Hart cannot have any contact with players or go to the club until his ban expires on June 22.
Adelaide head of football Adam Kelly said the players themselves had paid to stay at the Novotel with “a couple of people involved in the club” paying any shortfall.
Earlier on Tuesday, Crows board member Mark Ricciuto said the club’s sanction is a “fair outcome”.
“I think it’s a fair outcome for what was an embarrassing thing that happened up there,” he said on Triple M Adelaide.
“Benny Hart hasn’t made a mistake since 1991 since he’s been a player, a coach at Collingwood and a coach at the Crows.
“He hadn’t put a foot wrong, he’s never done anything silly but he’ll put his hand up and say it was dumb.
“If he didn’t quite understand the drill he should’ve asked about it and be a bit clearer and he’s paid the price.
“There was a lot of young players, 14 players were young, they were first-year or second-year players so you gotta be easy on those guys but they’ll learn a lesson to speak up if they think it’s not quite sure, and Kyle Hartigan who’s 30 years of age should’ve put his hand up and asked more questions and Tom Doedee who’s an emerging leader and has just been put in the leadership group should’ve asked questions as well.
“They’d be hurting, they need to learn from it, an opportunity to get better and the club has gotta do all things a little bit better whether that’s Nicksy, whether it’s the bloke who wrote the program for the day.
“I’m not saying the board hasn’t made mistakes in the past, of course we have, everyone does.
“But the social distancing thing, we’re all making mistakes, 90 per cent of the public haven’t broken the rules and I’m not saying they mean to but it just happens out there because it’s tough time.”
While the club dodged a hefty fine, as previously speculated, the AFL came down hard on Hart after the investigation found he supervised the kicking session where the breach occurred.
The AFL investigation found that the breach by the players and Hart “was inadvertent and not done to create a competitive advantage”.
However the 300-game Crow – who returned to the club for a second spell as assistant coach in 2018 – has been stood down from coaching duties for six weeks.
Hart will not be able to access the club’s facilities or have contact with the players until June 22.
The 16 players have received a suspended one-match sanction for the rest of the 2020 season.
They are; Kyle Hartigan, Will Hamill, Ayce Taylor, Ben Davis, Lachlan Sholl, Jordon Butts, Lachlan Gollant, Ronin O’Connor, Ben Keays, Fischer McAsey, Josh Worrell, Billy Frampton, Tom Doedee, Elliott Himmelberg, Myles Poholke and Lachlan Murphy.
The suspended match sanction will be triggered if any of the players breach COVID-19 imposed rules or protocols again this season.
Any other indiscretion by the players will be assessed by the AFL on a case-by-case basis.
AFL general counsel Andrew Dillon said everybody in the footy industry had a responsibility to adhere to the rules.
“The protocols are clear and the actions in this matter, whilst not pre-planned are a breach of them,” he said.
“We take this matter extremely seriously. We will not compromise the health and wellbeing of the community, and remind everyone in the industry – players, coaches, officials and staff – that they have a responsibility to adhere to the rules for the safety of everyone in the community.”
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The Crows players were spotted by a group of eagle-eyed golfers on a sectioned-off area of the Tanunda Pines golf course – next to the Novotel resort.
Crows senior coach Matthew Nicks told The Advertiser on Friday as a result of some of the wording in a kicking drill towards the end of the session, eight players ended up in what was considered a group activity rather then the intended pairs.
The AFL was tipped off about this, and contacted the club.
After investigating the claim, and speaking with the AFL, the Crows self-reported the incident to SA Police.
The AFL investigation found the players had been compliant with the training protocols for the majority of a two-hour session on the golf course before separating into two larger groups of eight.
One group was to complete an eight minute kicking drill, while the other was to do a running drill in pairs.
The investigation found the Crows had provided written and verbal instructions to the players and Hart to comply with the protocols in place.
But Hart “had accepted that his instruction was not in line with either the rules or the club’s instructions”.
In a statement the Crows accepted the sanctions.
The Crows had informed the AFL and SA Police of its plan to send 16 of their players who had returned to Adelaide from interstate, plus Hart, to the Novotel Resort in the Barossa Valley.
The Novotel was previous closed and through a deal with the resort the cost to send the Crows players to the Barossa to undergo their required self-quarantine was under $10,000.
This cost was mainly borne by the players who went there.
The players initially had the green light to leave their hotel rooms and move around the boundary of the resort and train in pairs, but after the training breach they have only been exercising individually.
Along with Hart, a Crows dietitian is also at the resort to help cater meals for the players.
Nicks told The Advertiser on Friday that Hart would not receive any internal punishment for the breach.
Hart was in the vicinity of the Crows players when the training session was held, but was maintaining social distancing in an attempt to ensure no groups over two were formed.
Crows board member Mark Ricciuto said the club did deserve some punishment for the mishap, but said the AFL should not throw the book at them.
“It was dumb and it was stupid and they should get a little whack for it,” he said on Triple M.
“We deserve to get a smack on the wrist and little bit more than that.
“They were not trying to cheat.”