Former AFL player Ryan Bastinac slams ‘coward acts’ in local football after suffering facial injuries from headbutt
A former AFL player has taken aim at coward acts in local footy after being headbutted, in what he described as ‘Bailey Smith times 10’, which left him with facial injuries.
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Former AFL player Ryan Bastinac has slammed “coward acts” in local football after he revealed facial injuries he suffered in an on-field hit in the Mornington Peninsula league.
Bastinac posted images to social media showing deep gashes above his eye, which needed treatment in hospital after he was headbutted during a match on Saturday.
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The former Kangaroo and Brisbane Lion told the Herald Sun he required six stitches after the incident while he was playing for Pearcedale against Langwarrin.
Based in Brisbane, Bastinac has been playing as a “fly in, fly out” player for Pearcedale where his father, Peter, is coach.
— Ryan Bastinac (@rbastinac) June 5, 2022
Bastinac said he had been targeted increasingly each week, but felt compelled to call out the treatment after it escalated to a “massive” headbutt from an opponent in an incident he described as “Bailey Smith times 10”, referring to the act last Friday night which cost the Bulldogs star a two-match ban.
The 30-year-old said there had been no report made at the time, but a free kick had been paid.
AFL South East, which oversees the MPNFL, has been contacted for comment.
Bastinac said it was time to call out “these cowards” and stamp out such actions on the field in a hard-hitting social media post.
“Coward hits in local footy are not on in this day and age,” Bastinac posted on Twitter alongside images of his injury.
“The footy field isn’t free reign to go out and assault people. Put some gloves on and try yourself the right way if that’s what you want to do. But we know that never happens.
“People shouldn’t play the game they love and enjoy and have to worry they are going to get assaulted.
“Footy is a tough, hard and fair game but we need to do more to protect all the players who are playing the game the right way. The “hard and fair way” and stamp out these cowards because there is no place for it.”
Bastinac played 121 games for North Melbourne and 43 for the Brisbane Lions before his AFL career came to an end in 2019.
He later detailed the incident, which he said had quickly escalated from a “tussle” to what he described as a “coward act” he was not going to tolerate.
“I have been copping it all year and it has always been good tough banter and the physical side but on the weekend it just went to a new level with this situation,” Bastinac said.
“This bloke tried to elbow me and missed me there and then I gave him a shove in the back and he turned around and we grabbed each other’s jumpers and had a good little tussle, which is fine.
“Then he just went the massive headbutt and they are the things that I am not going to put up with at local level. It’s just a coward act and you can’t have people getting away with stuff like that.
“There was no concussion but it just split me really well. I had to go to the hospital after …. it was right in front of my mum and all that.
“They understand I am going to cop it each week being an AFL player but just not to that extent. You don’t want to see that happen to anyone.”
Bastinac said he feared this kind of treatment would turn other ex-AFL players off wanting to give back to football at the local level.
“I can see how it might affect other AFL players wanting to come back to the level,” Bastinac said.
“And that’s what you want, you want really good past players, ex-AFL players coming back and playing country footy because the locals like seeing that.
“If this stuff keeps happening then you won’t get that. Something needs to happen because you can’t do that stuff at AFL level but for some reason you can get away with it at local and nothing is really said of it.
“There are blokes out there like that getting away with it each week. So we’ve got to try and do something to stamp it out.”
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