‘Hope he never comes back’: Calls to keep banned AFL star sidelined as court fate looms

A Richmond premiership player is in line to return after a ban, but the father of a coward-punch victim says he should never play again.

Richmond’s Noah Balta is in line to make his season debut after serving a club-imposed four-match suspension — but the ‘sickened’ father of a coward-punch victim says the defender should never play for the club again.

Balta in March pleaded guilty to a single count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm — which attracts a maximum penalty of five years in jail under New South Wales law — after leaving another man in hospital with a head injury following an incident in the early hours of December 30 in regional NSW.

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But after sitting out the Tigers’ opening four matches of the 2025 season, Balta is expected to line up for Adem Yze’s side when it plays Fremantle at Gather Round after participating in the entirety of main training on Tuesday.

“It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if he was made to wait (to play AFL),” Demons great Garry Lyon said on AFL 360 of Balta’s potential selection this weekend.

“I also find it really hard (to have a stance), because the counter-argument is he’s been suspended, he’s done his time, he’s now available, so he plays. But I think starting in the VFL is not the worst thing for him.

“He’s fortunate that he’s still got a career ... the circumstances around that (incident) may have been a lot worse.”

Noah Balta’s sentencing hearing is set for April 22. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Lyon’s comments came after Matt Cronin, the father of coward-punch victim Pat, said he was “sickened” by the vision of the incident involving Balta.

Cronin lamented the AFL’s call not to overrule Richmond’s four-match sanction with Balta’s sentencing hearing set for April 22.

“They’ve ticked it off, there’s no doubt about it,” Cronin said on 3AW of the AFL’s stance. “I think they’ve made their decision, sadly.

“The AFL has a terrific opportunity to set a benchmark.”

Cronin, a club member and spearhead of the Pat Cronin Foundation after his son was tragically killed by a coward punch outside a pub in 2016, said he never wanted to see Balta in the yellow and black ever again.

“I’m really disappointed as a Richmond supporter,” he said. “I hope he never comes back. That’s my opinion of him.

“He has brought Richmond into disrepute.”

Herald Sun journalist Lauren Wood said “pressure is mounting” on the AFL and Richmond to extend his suspension at least until his sentencing hearing takes place.

“All of the rhetoric is that they (the AFL) won’t (step in), and I guess that’s what the conjecture is around at the moment,” she said on Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle.

“Richmond, as it stands, is happy to essentially let this run until team selection. They’ll have their main training session on Thursday. Noah trained fully this afternoon (on Tuesday). From a match perspective, they’re happy to let this run.”

Fellow Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph said his expectation of Balta’s upcoming hearing was that “it will not be a jailable offence”.

“He’s more likely to get a community service (order) and maybe a conviction. So, the view of AFL and Richmond here is that they made a considered decision in first week of January over that four-week ban. All of us now would feel like that’s too light.

“Then the video came out. I don’t think Richmond or the AFL had seen that, the optics of it were horrible. But I think their view right now is ‘if every time we assess a penalty and then we second-guess ourselves and change it, what’s the point of us putting those penalties in?’”

Midweek Tackle co-host Corbin Middlemas attended Tigers training on Tuesday and believed Balta looked a near-certainty to be picked for the Dockers clash.

“If you were at training today, you would believe that it’s highly likely that he plays,” Middlemas told Fox Footy.

“He was involved in match simulation when they put the main team together and they were going through the drills. He was at full back, (Tom) Lynch was at full forward, all the key midfielders were there.

“He got through it; he completed the whole session.”

Originally published as ‘Hope he never comes back’: Calls to keep banned AFL star sidelined as court fate looms