SFNL: A Division 1 player’s latest report has tipped him over the deregistration threshold

A local footballer has lost his permit to play with competition officials forced to hand him a deregistration notice over a swearing charge. See the latest.

Southern league Division 2 preliminary footy final: Chelsea Heights v Caulfield Bears. Luke Tapscott - Chelsea Heights. Picture: Valeriu Campan

A decorated Southern league footballer has been deregistered after clocking up more than 16 weeks in suspensions.

Chelsea Heights top-liner Timothy Brook was reported for using abusive, insulting, threatening or obscene language in the Division 1 match against St Paul’s McKinnon on May 20.

It’s understood the language was directed at an opposition player.

Offered a one-week penalty that would have taken him to the deregistration threshold of 16 games, Brook challenged it at the Southern league’s independent tribunal, was found guilty and suspended for two matches.

It put him in breach of the AFL’s “national player and official deregistration policy’’, which states players will have their registration removed when they hit 16 weeks of suspensions.

Tim Brook has received a deregistration notice.

Brook had received eight games in the Kyabram District league, three in the Ovens and Murray, two in the Northern Territory Football League and two in the NEAFL.

“He’s been issued with a deregistration notice,’’ Southern CEO Lee Hartman said.

Hartman said a deregistered player could apply to AFL Victoria to be re-registered but only after sitting out of the game for 12 months.

The AFL said the deregistration policy was developed to “provide a risk management framework and policy basis for community football administrators to recognise a duty of care with respect to players and officials who could pose an unacceptable risk to other players and officials’’.

Picture: Valeriu Campan

Asked if a swearing charge should lead to deregistration, Hartman said: “Once anyone reaches 16 weeks, the deregistration, as I’ve been quoted on before, is a good rule.

“Within the laws of Australian football, verbal abuse or threatening abuse to people is a reportable offence.

“So to answer your question, yes.’’

Brook, fit midfielder and forward, kicked six goals against St Kilda City in his first game this season for the Demons.

He joined the club in 2020, having played a lot of football in the strong Ovens and Murray league, mostly with North Albury.

Brook also had a stint with Southern Districts in the NTFL and was added to NT Thunder’s NEAFL list in 2018.

Chelsea Heights declined to comment.