Josh Barnes: It’s not Adem Yze’s fault Noah Balta will return before his court date

When it comes to football, teams will always do what they can to try and win. Josh Barnes writes, Adem Yze has done his job by picking Noah Balta. The issue is, he shouldn’t have been able to.

In the end, when it comes to football, teams will always do what they can to try and win.

Noah Balta has been picked to play against Gold Coast on Saturday night, three days before sentencing following a guilty plea to assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

It is a decision that few outside of Punt Rd will back.

It is a situation that could have been avoided so many times, but nobody stepped in to stop coach Adem Yze doing what he should do – picking his best team.

It’s not Yze’s fault that Balta will line up for his side on Saturday.

It is the job of the coach and his selection panel to pick the best team to win based on who is available.

The issue lies with Balta being available.

Balta will face the Suns on Saturday, then court on Wednesday. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Richmond thought it hit the right mark in January when it banned the premiership full back for the first four games of the season, with two pre-season matches thrown in.

But that was before video of Balta’s attack on Thomas Washbrook became public and put rolling images to his deed.

Balta has since settled a civil suit with Washbrook.

And it was before the sentencing date was locked in, for April 22.

All along, almost everybody in the industry thought it would have been a simple fix for the Tigers to hold Balta out for two extra weeks – last weekend and this coming weekend – and get to sentencing.

That way Balta wouldn’t be on the field one day and potentially, even if it is a very slim chance, in jail three days later.

But nobody put their hand up and stood in the way to stop Yze picking his best team.

The AFL could have got further involved, but having been part of the discussion on the initial ban, stepped back from enforcing anything further.

Richmond has stood by its initial call, with club CEO Shane Dunne telling this masthead on Tuesday: “We are really comfortable that it was a strong decision, he has served his match penalties now and he is available for selection”.

If the sanction was once strong, Balta playing this weekend feels wrong.

A ‘stronger’ action would have been to push any return back another week, allow the court process to run out and then make another decision on Balta’s selection next week.

Instead, the buck was handed over to the coaches.

The added irony in this case is that Richmond has publicly acknowledged this season is not all about winning, but instead growing the youngsters and giving them a chance.

In this case, defender Jacob Blight, who had shown some positive signs this year, has been dumped to the VFL.

Balta will take his place in defence and likely play some ruck minutes.

Despite the position clubs often parrot about being community leaders and being a force for good for all of us, in the end, everything comes back to trying to win games.

Originally published as Josh Barnes: It’s not Adem Yze’s fault Noah Balta will return before his court date