Man escapes jail after backyard NRL argument ends in court
A man has escaped jail after a backyard barbecue discussion over rugby league players’ training and pay ended with one mate in hospital with a smashed eye socket.
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A BACKYARD barbecue discussion over how hard rugby league players train and how much they deserve to get paid ended with one mate in hospital with a smashed eye socket and the other facing assault charges.
But Western Sydney man Ewing Joseph Filipo managed to escape jail after pleading guilty to striking a friend multiple times at a family barbecue.
The court heard the victim, William de la Garde, and Filipo had been on friendly terms for the better part of 20 years when Mr de la Garde attended a barbecue at Filipo’s Doonside home on January 1.
Police documents tendered to court said Filipo was not intoxicated and only halfway through his first beer when he, Mr de la Garde and another man began talking about rugby league.
But things swiftly got heated.
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Filipo told his friend: “You don’t know what you’re talking about” and “Stop moving your f. king hands around”, according to court documents, which clarified that Mr de la Garde “usually moves his hands around when he speaks”.
Filipo then punched Mr de la Garde twice in the right eye socket and followed with an elbow strike to the same eye socket.
Court documents said: “ (Filipo) has a background in mixed martial arts and has mentioned to the victim that he had competed in cage fighting.”
Mr de la Garde was taken to hospital for surgery where a metal plate was inserted around his eye socket.
Filipo was taken to Blacktown Police Station and charged with assault occasioning grievous bodily harm.
Filipo offered something of an explanation when questioned by his lawyer Stephen Alexander in Blacktown Local Court.
“We were talking about the football and … (he) was saying that NRL players don’t train hard, they wake up, go eat and they don’t do nothing hard,” Filipo told the court.
“I said: ’Nah, these guys train really hard y’know. Now they put a toe on the line’,” he said. “I said anyone can (earn) $200,000 but that only adds up to three grand a week and these guys are smashing their heads in and can’t even get $1 million … and he’s like: ‘Nah, they are not even worth it, they don’t even train’.”
Filipo told the court those comments stung because he and his brother previously played representative rugby league and he lashed out because Mr de la Garde kept pushing the point.
Mr Alexander argued his client did not intend to inflict such serious injuries.
Filipo was instead placed on an intensive corrections order.