Suspended Leongatha player John Ginnane’s withdraws Supreme Court bid to play finals

A Gippsland League footy star took his bid to play finals to the Supreme Court after copping an eight-week ban for a brutal hit.

A suspended country footy player’s fight to play finals has been dashed after his Supreme Court battle against AFL Victoria collapsed before it even began.

Leongatha star John “Jack” Ginnane was suspended for eight Gippsland League matches over a brutal on field hit on Wonthaggi footballer Jordan Staley.

The round 12 incident, captured on camera, resulted in Staley being hospitalised and having surgery for fractures on his left thumb and right clavicle, which needed a plate, six screws and seventeen staples.

Despite already losing his bid to overturn the ban at the AFL Victoria Country Appeal Board earlier this month, Ginnane took his fight to the Supreme Court on Tuesday with no greater success.

His barrister David Mence told Justice Andrew Keogh that “the next four matches are very important ones, both for Mr Ginnane and for his club because starting this weekend is the finals series”.

Leongatha player John ‘Jack’ Ginnane was rubbed out for eight matches.

“If Mr Ginnane is unable to play that does weigh very heavily on him because he has been historically and continues to be one of the best players in the club and has won the best and fairest several times.”

Ginnane’s team will take on arch rival Wonthaggi in the Gippsland League’s second semi final on Saturday, with the winner earning a grand final berth.

Leongatha, which finished the home and away season undefeated, has produced AFL talents such as Hawthorn great Jarryd Roughead, Essendon captain Dyson Heppell and young Bombers defender Zach Reid.

Ginnane earns a “modest” commercial return by playing alongside Heppell’s younger brother and former Essendon listed player, Aaron Heppell, at Leongatha.

Mr Mence argued the penalty handed down to his client for unbecoming conduct was “impossible” considering his “exemplary playing history” since Under 11s for the Leongatha Parrots.

Ginnane tackles an opponent. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

He claimed the strike was careless but not intentional, the penalty was unreasonable and that Staley wasn’t as seriously injured as the tribunal was told.

Staley said he’d be off work from his injuries for three months, but Mr Mence said he was actually absent for a matter of weeks.

Mr Mence said “at the guts of it” was a “failure to afford procedural fairness” by handing down a suspension of “manifest excess”.

By serving the full eight weeks ban handed down by the Gippsland tribunal in mid-July and upheld by the appeals board, Ginnane would be halfway to a permanent disqualification from the league, which had an automatic eviction on 16 match suspensions.

Ginnane made an urgent application to stay – or delay – the ban, despite having already served four of his eight match suspensions. But his court battle was over within two hours of beginning on Tuesday morning after it was agreed that the case had been filed in the wrong way.

Rather than a judicial review, the case should have gone ahead as a breach of contract matter in the commercial court.

Ginnane decided to withdraw his case, putting a nail in the coffin of his chance to play finals.

Barrister Ben Ihle QC, for the AFL Victoria Country Appeal Board, said the whole case was misconceived “factually, legally and jurisdictionally”.