Mariners striker Roy O’Donovan hit with eight-week ban for headbutt on Manny Muscat

MARINERS striker Roy O’Donovan has paid the highest penalty for his headbutt on Wellington defender Manny Muscat after being handed an eight-week ban.

GOSFORD, AUSTRALIA - DECEMBER 20: Roy O'Donovan of the Mariners looks dejected after the loss during the round 11 A-League match between the Central Coast Mariners and the Brisbane Roar at Central Coast Stadium on December 20, 2015 in Gosford, Australia. (Photo by Ashley Feder/Getty Images)

MARINERS striker Roy O’Donovan has paid the highest penalty for his headbutt on Wellington defender Manny Muscat on Friday, hit with an extraordinary eight-week ban by the A-League’s independent disciplinary committee.

The Irishman will sit out most of the rest of the season, after a penalty was handed down which the committee said would have been even higher but for O’Donovan’s almost unblemished disciplinary record.

The Mariners instantly signalled a determination to appeal against the sentence, which equals the second-highest penalty in the A-League’s history.

The moment Roy O'Donovan though he was in Liverpool!

O’Donovan had pleaded guilty to the charge of violent conduct while not challenging for the ball, for which the minimum sanction had been two games, after he struck Muscat in apparent retaliation for an elbow from the Phoenix defender moments before. At the time he was only booked, but FFA cited him the day after.

Muscat was banned for two weeks earlier this week, and while O’Donovan admitted to the disciplinary committee that he should have been sent off, he claimed a “media storm” since the incident had “muddied the waters ... I’ve never been cited before, this has been the most stressful week of my professional career.”

The Mariners argued that O’Donovan was effectively acting in self-defence, but saw their striker banned for the same number of games as Kevin Muscat received in 2011 for a tackle that effectively ended a player’s career, as well as the ban given to Brazilian defender Tiago Calvano for grabbing a referee’s arm.

“We are extremely disappointed at the decision,” said Mariners CEO Shaun Mielekamp. “The disparity in sanctions issued for this match highlights the flaws in the system. The media circus around the incident has had a high impact on the result and we will look at our various avenues for appeal.”

Originally published as Mariners striker Roy O’Donovan hit with eight-week ban for headbutt on Manny Muscat