Shaydon Bloomfield: Red Hill footy player jailed for druggie coward punch

Out of bounds: A former football star who flew high — on and off the field — will now have to train in a prison exercise yard.

Shaydon Bloomfield

A Peninsula footy player who knocked out a fellow drug user in a violent one-punch attack at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting has been jailed.

Shaydon Leigh Bloomfield has been given five months in prison for delivering a vicious blow which sparked out another user at the end of a substance addiction counselling session.

The 32-year-old, who now plays for Red Hill Football Netball Club, was a hero at Lara and Albion before his drug issues and a gambling addiction sent him off the rails.

He regularly kicked big bags and was described by the Geelong Advertiser as someone who could have been drafted to the AFL.

They said he was “the ultimate excitement machine”, and there was “no more watchable player in the GFL than Shaydon Bloomfield”.

Bloomfield, who has a history of violent offending, was sentenced on a recklessly cause injury charge at the Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.

On March 23 this year Bloomfield and the victim were attending a Narcotics Anonymous meeting at the Benton Square Community Centre in Mornington.

When they both left the victim was approached by Bloomfield, who threw a punch at him, but it didn’t land.

A second punch did hit the target, striking the man square in the face and knocking him unconscious.

He fell to the ground and Bloomfield left the area while other people from the meeting helped the prone man.

He was in a lot of pain, had a bad headache and suffered a depressed fracture of the cheekbone.

Bloomfield was later arrested in Frankston and gave a no comment interview.

The court heard as well as a footballer and a father of a 10-year-old, he was also an indigenous artist and video producer who designed the Red Hill reconciliation jumper.

Defence lawyer Sally Vardy said her client was grieving the loss of his brother, a boxer, who had died of a heart attack a few months prior to the assault.

She said Bloomfield had been provoked by the man but knows he “should have walked away” and punching someone was “not an appropriate way to deal with his emotions”.

She said he had had significant issues in the past with drugs, alcohol and a gambling addiction, but was working hard to try and avoid relapses in the future.

Magistrate Julian Ayres said Bloomfield had shown an ability to function as a “positive person” at times, but the community needed protection.

“(The victim) was knocked unconscious, it was potentially a fatal one-punch attack,” Mr Ayres said.

“This was inexplicable; and it occurred in the context of a history of violent offending.”

Bloomfield was sentenced to five months in prison minus 83 days he has already spent on remand.

He was told if he hadn’t pleaded guilty he would have been slotted for nine months.