By Angus Delaney and Danny Russell
In today’s AFL briefing:
- Adem Yze speaks after the sentencing of Noah Balta.
- Darcy Moore will not play for Collingwood on Friday, with Nick Daicos to replace him as captain
- Kangaroos leap to the defence of coach Alastair Clarkson.
Hawthorn’s Conor Nash has been suspended for four matches for his reckless spoil that concussed Geelong forward Gryan Miers.
The incident occurred at a stoppage during the tightly contested game on Easter Monday when Nash flung his arm at Miers as the Cats forward grabbed the ball, and struck him in the head.
Miers was helped off the field and will be absent for Geelong’s game against Carlton at the MCG on Sunday. Nash’s hit was assessed by the match review officer as careless conduct and severe impact with high contact.
Gryan Miers was forced from the field after this incident with Conor Nash.Credit: Seven Footy
On Wednesday night, tribunal chair Jeff Gleeson KC said, although it was not intentional, Nash’s hit was significantly careless.
“The angle for which he swung his arm, and the force he swung his arm, meant that it was all but inevitable he was going to make contact with Miers’ head,” Gleeson said.
The AFL’s lawyer, Andrew Woods SC, said the “forceful and flush” contact to the head of Miers showed a clear lack of prudence and warranted a four-week suspension.
“Whatever Nash’s intention was ... it was always going to have a significant impact on the player,” said Woods. “The reality of those things would have and should have been clear to Nash.”
Hawthorn’s lawyer Myles Tehan argued the contact was not excessively careless and therefore Nash should be given a three-match suspension.
Tehan said Nash was trying to slap the ball out of Miers’ hands, but when the Geelong forward lowered the ball it exposed his face.
“At all times … Nash’s eyes are only at the ball,” said Tehan.
Heavy hit: Miers was helped from the field as Nash watched on.Credit: AFL Photos
“The level of the arm and the level of the ball are the same … the ball gets lowered out of that range and the consequence is ... the inside of the bicep [of Nash] makes contact with Mr Miers.
“This was not a dirty act, it was an obvious football act.”
But Gleeson said it should have been obvious such a careless act would have a significant impact to Miers.
Until Wednesday night, Nash had an unblemished tribunal record in more than 100 AFL games. He said it was accidental and the result of a legitimate football play.
“I simply tried to grab the ball and tap it free with my hand,” said Nash. “I was looking at the footy the whole time.”
After the game Nash, who expressed his remorse during the hearing, said he tried to find Miers and apologise. The following day he sent Miers a text, which he recited to the tribunal.
“I wanted to check in on how you’ve pulled up today,” Nash texted Miers.
“I’m also reaching out to let you know that there really was no malice to that hit. I tried to play the ball I just got it badly wrong ... very sorry for what happened.”
Nash will miss Hawthorn’s games against West Coast, Richmond, Melbourne and Gold Coast.
Moore to miss Anzac Day clash
Danny Russell
Collingwood have pulled Darcy Moore out of Friday’s Anzac Day match after the Magpies captain started experiencing vertigo from an ear injury.
It means that vice captain Nick Daicos, at just 22, will become the youngest player to skipper the Pies in 57 years. The star onballer has played just 76 games and is in his fourth top-flight season.
At 22 years and 112 days Daicos will become Collingwood’s fourth-youngest skipper, after Len Thompson in 1968 (20 years and 244 days), Dick Lee in 1910 (21 years and 91 days) and Murray Weideman in 1958 (22 years and 62 days).
Darcy Moore has been ruled out of the Anzac Day clash.Credit: Getty Images
Moore copped an accidental knee to the left ear from teammate Jeremy Howe during a marking contest in Collingwood’s 52-point win over the Brisbane Lions last Thursday.
The skipper was taken from the ground at the time with blood trickling from a split at the bottom of the ear.
The cut needed stitches, but Moore was cleared of concussion during the match and again during the week.
Magpies coach Craig McRae announced during his press conference on Wednesday that Moore would not be playing against Essendon.
“Darcy’s got a bit of an inner-ear issue,” McRae said. “We are not sure exactly what it is. He has got a bit of vertigo symptoms at the moment.
“We’ve had scans, he is probably off to see a specialist now to see what is going on there.”
McRae said Moore had not been able to train because of the lingering issues.
“I just chatted to him prior to training, and he goes, ‘It just sort of comes on and goes away’,” the Collingwood coach said.
“I haven’t experienced vertigo, but he is using that language. We don’t know the answers yet. He is going to go and have some tests, and we might be able to report something this afternoon.”
The Collingwood match committee sit on Wednesday afternoon to name a replacement for the key defender.
“Lucky enough we have got a few players we think we can bring in,” McRae said.
“Whether we go tall or we go smaller in our backline, we will work through that, but it leaves a hole.”
Richmond coach Adem Yze.Credit: Getty Images
‘Any questions about the game?’: Yze fed up with Balta questions
Danny Russell
Richmond coach Adem Yze has shut down a barrage of questions about Noah Balta’s assault case as he revealed that the Tigers had ruled out appealing his punishment because it would stretch the matter out for another six weeks.
Yze fronted a press conference at the Tigers’ Punt Road headquarters on Wednesday morning, speaking for the first time since Balta was sentenced to an 18-month correctional service order in Albury Local Court on Tuesday for assault.
Balta’s penalty included a three-month nighttime curfew that will rule him out of at least four AFL games, including the Anzac Eve clash on Thursday night against Melbourne as well as the traditional Dreamtime at the G nighttime blockbuster against Essendon at the MCG in round 11.
The Tigers coach spoke for four minutes about how the club would help a “flat” and “remorseful” Balta deal with his unusual penalty, which requires him to give up alcohol and be in his house between 10pm and 6am for the next three months, before declaring he had said “enough”.
“To be fair, that’s about six questions I’ve answered about Noah,” Yze said.
“Our job right now, he’s been sanctioned, we’re going to support him from now moving forward, and we’ve got a massive game against Melbourne. No more questions. Any questions about the game?”
The Richmond communications department then told the media pack that they were “moving on”.
Earlier, Yze had said the club and Balta accepted the court’s punishment and would now set a plan for him, “understanding which games he won’t be allowed to play”.
“To go through an appeal process would be almost giving him the license to get back in and [say that] footy was more relevant than the sanction,” Yze said.
“He knew that he did wrong, and he was going to be punished. So to go through that for another six weeks, we just thought it was too hard, not only on him, but on our footy club and our playing group, so we accept the decision, and we move on.”
Yze said the club had not expected a curfew, but they knew the defender was going to be sanctioned.
“Dealing with that is just part of it,” he said. “Like I said, he’s really remorseful. We knew that he was going to be punished, and we went through that process yesterday, and now that’s one little element that we’ll have to play around with and deal with as a club.
“But at the same time we have got to wrap our arms around him and help him through this.”
Richmond banned Balta, 25, for four AFL games and two pre-season matches after it was revealed he had assaulted a man outside Mulwala Water Ski Club in the early hours of December 30 last year.
But Yze defended Balta’s decision to not speak publicly about the court case.
“He will speak in time,” the Tigers coach said. “It’s pretty tough to go through. There’s a fair few players that don’t like speaking in front of the media, and they’re not trained for that.
“And going through what he went through yesterday, you’re obviously a little bit worried about what he could say.
“He was he’s obviously disappointed, he’s flat, he’s emotional, so we’ve just got to protect him with that. He’ll speak when he when it’s his right time to speak and you will sense how remorseful he is.”
Balta played his first game of the season against the Gold Coast last Saturday, and will be expected to line up for the Tigers again against Hawthorn in a day match at the MCG in round eight.
Yze said Richmond would bring in 195-centimetre youngster Campbell Gray, 21, to make his debut on Thursday night. Gray was taken at pick 16 in the 2024 mid-season rookie draft.
Roos lash out at ‘coach bashing’ of Clarkson
AAP
North Melbourne have come out swinging in defence of Alastair Clarkson with football boss Todd Viney lashing “disrespectful” criticism and “coach bashing” of the Kangaroos mentor.
North have lost their past four games by an average of almost 59 points and reached a season-low with an embarrassing 82-point defeat to Carlton on Good Friday.
Clarkson has come under fire, but Viney, who also worked with him at Hawthorn, scoffed at any suggestion the four-time premiership mentor had lost his edge.
“I find it amusing, really. I find it probably disrespectful,” Viney said on SEN on Wednesday.
Tough days: Alastair Clarkson is working to turn North Melbourne’s fortunes around.Credit: AFL Photos
“This is not only to Clarko but this is something that’s pointed at senior coaches all the time. It’s almost like a sport ... There is a sport around putting undue pressure on senior coaches in my view.”
Viney pointed out 2025 was the first season where Clarkson hadn’t also been dealing with the fallout from the Hawthorn racism saga.
“Not many clubs can really perform at their best when they’ve got such distractions going on,” Viney continued. “He’s had enormous distractions, unwarranted criticisms, judged unfairly – it’s taken an enormous toll on him over those two years.
“Eventually we’re into this third year, two years and six games in. He’s a rejuvenated person, back to his old self, a lot of energy, seeing the game as well as he’s ever seen it.”
Viney was adamant Clarkson was well supported and seeing the game “as well as he ever has” but the Kangaroos were in the early stages of building their game.
“The criticism is really unwarranted,” he said. “I think it’s a bit of a sport, the coach-bashing thing.
“It’s a tall poppy syndrome which is the Australian culture – we pick on the guys who have been successful and in time ultimately bring them down.”
Ahead of Saturday’s away clash with Port Adelaide, Viney was adamant the Kangaroos were strong and aligned across the board and wouldn’t deviate from their plans.
“A lot of things are going well so we won’t be fractured, we won’t fall into jumping at shadows with all the noise,” he said. “We understand the game gives us nothing and we need to deserve to win games.
“No one’s going to give us anything and we don’t expect it, we expect to cop our right whack with performances like the weekend.
“But we won’t hear that everything we’re doing is not right because there is a lot of positive things that are going right.”
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