State league to urgently review rules and approach AFL after it was kept in the dark over Sam Powell-Pepper ruling

THE SANFL will urgently review its player regulations and is privately seething the AFL kept it in the dark over a ruling that banned Port Adelaide’s Sam Powell-Pepper from playing with the Power but cleared him for the Magpies on Wednesday.

Sam Powell-Pepper was given the all-clear to play SANFL footy yesterday morning just hours before the grand final rematch with Sturt. Picture: Matt Turner.

THE SANFL will urgently review its player regulations and is privately seething the AFL kept it in the dark over a ruling that banned Port Adelaide’s Sam Powell-Pepper from playing with the Power but cleared him for the Magpies on Wednesday.

Port Adelaide notified the SANFL at 10am that Powell-Pepper was eligible to play in the grand final rematch against Sturt at Unley while serving an on-going three-game ban at AFL level for a city nightclub incident on April 8.

If a player is banned by the AFL tribunal or match review panel for breaching a rules of the game law, the ban also applies to all competitions.

But there is no consistency with disciplinary matters such as Powell-Pepper’s behaviour that was deemed unbecoming of an AFL player.

Powell-Pepper was not named in the Magpies team by the Monday night deadline and his late inclusion is expected to draw a $500 fine. The star midfielder had 24 disposals and was solid without being outstanding in the loss to Sturt.

The SANFL released a statement at 1pm - just 10 minutes before the first bounce - saying it was not consulted by the AFL and only informed of the outcome on the day of the Anzac Day blockbuster.

“As a consequence of these circumstances, SANFL will be reviewing its regulations with regards to the application of disciplinary sanction for AFL-listed players and how that impacts on its State League competition,” the statement said.

The SANFL’s grievance is not with Port Adelaide but with the AFL given it made a ruling without the SANFL seeing the integrity unit’s investigation or being briefed on its findings.

The Advertiser understands the highest levels of the SANFL are furious at a public perception the state league may be seen as a second-class citizen because Powell-Pepper’s behaviour was deemed not acceptable for the AFL but OK for the state league.

Last year Richmond premiership player Nathan Broad was banned by the AFL for the first three games of this season for circulating a photo of a topless woman without her permission, but he was allowed to play state league in the VFL and returned to the Tigers’ senior line up on Tuesday night.

SANFL rules state that if an AFL player at Adelaide or Port Adelaide is fit and available for selection then they must be picked in the regular season and hence Powell-Pepper came straight in yesterday.

SANFL general manager of football Adam Kelly told The Advertiser the league would be discussing the issue with the AFL on Thursday morning.

“The critical thing for us is what was the day of a match, to find out in the morning that a player who was subject to investigation and subsequently sanctioned and received a three-match penalty, to find out today that he was eligible for selection at SANFL level has been disappointing,” Kelly said.

“To find out at such late notice because that has had a flow on affect and we’ve had to communicate to the Sturt Football Club that he was going to play, so we’re disappointed that that process unfolded on the morning of the game.

“It’s not something with precedent because we haven’t had a situation previously where a player has been under a disciplinary sanction of the AFL but has subsequently been made available for state league selection.

“It’s not something we’ve dealt with previously and that being the case we would have preferred to be in dialogue with the AFL on his availability to play and the SANFL competition.

“We’re not privy to any of the investigation.

“From here we’re going to converse with the AFL about maters of discipline and how that implicates at a state league level so we’ll be making the call tomorrow to talk through the handling of this matter and the flow on affect of that.”

Sturt coach Martin Mattner said he had no issue with his team playing against Powell-Pepper and praised Port Adelaide for its communication.

“Port were really good about it, as soon as they found out he could play they let us know, so from that stance and the Magpies there were no issues at all,” Mattner said.

“That’s another issue the other side of it (investigation and AFL ruling), we don’t know the full details, we were just told he was able to play SANFL.

“We talk about playing against the best players and best teams and he makes them better, so even better for the win today.”

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