AFL slammed over handling of ‘sickening’ Noah Balta situation

The Victorian premier has slammed the handling of an ugly AFL situation as Richmond make a call amid debate around a banned player.

Victorian premier Jacinta Allen has taken aim at the AFL after the league said it was up to Richmond to decide when Noah Balta plays again amid debate over whether his ban should be extended.

The Tigers premiership defender has not been included in Richmond’s line-up for Sunday’s game against Fremantle at Gather Round after speculation he was set to make his return at AFL level.

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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On Thursday, Allan said: “Having looked at the footage ... what a sickening attack that was.

“Like many Victorians ... I’ll be sitting down with the kids, they’ll be watching Hawthorn, I’ll be looking at Essendon’s results. Either way, when we sit down (and watch the footy), how do we explain to kids, particularly, how do we answer that question?

“How does the AFL and the Richmond Football Club answer that question about what’s going on here? What sort of message does this send to kids about what’s right and what’s wrong?

“I think that’s really a question that the AFL and Richmond need to answer.

“Let’s remember the victim here who would no doubt be deeply traumatised by this experience.”

Richmond’s Noah Balta is nearing a return to AFL action. Picture: Michael Klein

Premier Jacinta Allan said the AFL and Richmond could have handled the situation much differently. Picture: David Crosling

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said on Wednesday: “The AFL process was completed in February. Noah has served his suspension. He’s also undergone behavioural frameworks, which he’s been adhering to, and ultimately now is available for selection.

“But it’s up to Richmond whether they select him.

“He has completed the suspension, and he’s done everything that was asked of him, but he is in the middle of a court process that continues.”

Tigers football boss Tim Livingstone said on Thursday night opting to leave Balta out of the Gather Round team was a “football decision”.

“Noah will return through our VFL team this weekend given the time he has spent out of the game,” Livingstone said.

“This is purely a football decision that we have made to ensure Noah builds important match conditioning before returning to AFL level.”

Balta has not played since Richmond’s final round clash against Gold Coast in August last year.

It comes as Matt Cronin, the father of coward-punch victim Pat, said this week 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.

Noah Balta at Richmond AFL training in Melbourne. Picture: David Crosling

“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?’”

Originally published as AFL slammed over handling of ‘sickening’ Noah Balta situation