Southern league: assistant coach suspended for six matches over clash with opposition player

Moorabbin has jumped to the defence of assistant coach Danny Osbaldeston after he was suspended for six matches over a clash with an opposition player.

Moorabbin said Danny Osbaldeston was “incredibly remorseful’’ over the incident.

A non-playing Southern league assistant coach has been suspended for six matches over a clash with an opposition player.

Moorabbin’s Danny Osbaldeston pleaded guilty at the tribunal on Tuesday night to a charge of misconduct.

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The report sheet on the Southern league website lists the misconduct as “headbutting’’.

But Moorabbin president Leonard Gould said the club had insisted at the hearing that “headbutt’’ be struck out of the report.

The former Kangaroos senior coach was reported by an umpire over an incident with Carrum Patterson Lakes player Andrew Curd at quarter time in the Division 4 match at Roy Dore Reserve last Saturday.

It was not picked up on video.

Osbaldeston is a senior premiership player at Moorabbin and is serving as a non-playing assistant coach this year.

Gould said Osbaldeston was “incredibly remorseful’’.

“Danny is an extremely passionate, dedicated member of our footy club,’’ he said.

“He’d had the head coach (Paul Youle) go down and four blokes go down within a period of about three minutes and he was managing the sidelines himself. He was under the pump and he wasn’t impressed by some of the on-field stuff that was going on between players and he had a moment, a moment he felt was in self-defence.

“He’s incredibly remorseful and we feel it’s no reflection of him as a person or of the club.

“It was a heated moment in a game of footy. Danny has been nothing short of upstanding in terms of not just what he gives to the club but his support mechanisms. He’s devastated about this.’’

SFNL chief executive officer Lee Hartman said he was disappointed to learn of the incident.

“We don’t want players to get involved in this sort of situation, let alone assistant coaches from the bench,’’he said.

“Hopefully his sanction of six weeks sends another strong message that we won’t be tolerating this sort of conduct, having club officials involved in fracas.’’