Richmond coach Adem Yze says Noah Balta has been punished enough, Jacinta Allan doubles down

Premier Jacinta Allan has doubled down on criticising Richmond over selecting Noah Balta this weekend after Adem Yze this week said the swingman had been ‘punished enough’.

Premier Jacinta Allan has doubled down on her criticism of the Richmond Football Club in the wake of their decision to let Noah Balta play this weekend.

Ms Allan, who last week took aim at both the club and the AFL, said Richmond now needed to justify why it was appropriate for the 25-year-old to be selected in their matchup against Gold Coast on Saturday night.

It comes after Matt Cronin, father of one-punch victim Patrick, said he hoped that allowing Balta to take to the field would lead to a conversation about sparking change.

Ms Allan said she supported Mr Cronin’s comments in the Herald Sun, adding that it was “important to educate our young people about why this sort of behaviour can be deadly”.

“My thoughts are with every victim and every victim’s family who have had that devastating experience of having a loved one either seriously injured by a coward punch, or worse, have lost their life,” the Premier said.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan at the Royal Children’s Hosptial on Friday. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

“I understand that this individual (Balta) is still awaiting sentencing.

“It’s up to Richmond Football Club to explain why they’ve made this football decision as parents around the country are going to sit down with their kids and watch the footy this weekend and try and explain to their kids why this behaviour is wrong and dangerous.”

Richmond has been contacted for comment.

Earlier this week, Tigers coach Adem Yze has declared Noah Balta available for senior selection, saying the club has “punished him enough”.

Balta has served the six-match suspension handed down by the club after he was charged with assault in January.

The 25-year-old has pleaded guilty and will face sentencing in Albury Local Court on April 22.

The Tigers have come under fierce scrutiny for their stance on Balta after the footage of his assault was made public.

Yze on Wednesday refused to confirm whether Balta would play against Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium on Saturday night but said he had “served that sentence”.

Noah Balta attempts to mark in a VFL hitout. Picture: Getty Images

“We’ve got our main session today and I feel a little bit awkward trying to predict our team before a main session,” Yze said.

“He’s available to play this weekend, he got through what he needed to get through, he’ll get through training today and then as a match committee we’ll go through that later today.

“Unless ‘Dimma’ (Damien Hardwick) is happy to tell us who’s playing for Gold Coast this weekend, I am not going to divulge who we’re going to put in our team today before we go through selection and before we need to.

“He will be available and as I said if he gets through training today, we’ll have that discussion later this afternoon as a match committee.”

Balta played for Richmond’s VFL side in a match against the Under-18 AFL Academy on Sunday to build match fitness.

Yze noted how Balta sat out of an extra week to build conditioning and said he was itching to “earn the respect back”.

“He’s served his suspension, we went really hard in doing so and he’s been dealing with that for three months,” he said.

“He missed another game of footy, we suspended him for four (home and away games) and now he’s had five weeks out – we’ve got to make sure we’re looking after the player as well.

“As I have said all along, that’s been a discussion we had with the AFL at the start of this process.

“He’s been working on himself and he can’t wait to try and earn the respect back of not only us as a club and his teammates but our supporters and the AFL community.”

Yze said Richmond’s six-week ban – which included two pre-season matches – was not only to sanction Balta but to set the standard to its young players.

“He pleaded guilty by the fact he told us what had happened, that’s why we went hard,” he said.

“We’ve got young players on our list who needed to understand what he did was wrong, that’s why we went really hard, right now he’s served that sentence.

“Now it’s around performance, on the weekend it was about getting a game under his belt and he needed to warrant playing.

“We’ve got to go through that today, whether he played well enough to play AFL footy and we’ve got a big game against a quality team that hasn’t lost a game of footy.

“We’ve got to pick our team to put on a good performance and one we’re proud of.”

TIGERS BACK ‘STRONG DECISION’ OVER BALTA BAN, STAY COY ON SELECTION

Richmond has defended its suspension of Noah Balta as Tigers CEO Shane Dunne confirms a decision on whether the defender will play this weekend again rests with the coaches.

Richmond didn’t pick Balta to play in Gather Round last weekend, despite his four-game club suspension expiring before the Fremantle, with the premiership player instead playing in a VFL hitout.

He trained on Tuesday and could play on Saturday against Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium.

Balta is due to face sentencing on April 22 after pleading guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm following an incident in Mulwala in December.

Last week, Richmond said the choice not to pick him in the AFL team was a “football decision”.

In January, the Tigers hit Balta with a ban of four AFL matches and two pre-season games, as well as being sent to undertake counselling and education programming.

Richmond has come under fierce criticism for not extending Balta’s ban until after his sentencing hearing but Dunne said the club stood by its decision.

Noah Balta is in the frame to return at AFL level this weekend. Picture: Josh Chadwick/AFL Photos/via Getty Images.

“There has certainly been some chatter but from our point of view, we thought we made a really strong decision at the time,” he told this masthead.

“We think it is a strong decision. People may have some other views, but we think it is a strong decision.

“Noah’s got a court process he needs to go through and the court will make its own determination and we have no comment on that until after the hearing. Noah’s acts in terms of the expectations of a football player we took action on and we think it was a strong decision for him not to be available for six weeks.

“We are really comfortable that it was a strong decision. He has served his match penalties now and he is available for selection.”

Richmond is expecting defender Nick Vlastuin to play against the Suns despite a broken nose, while forward Tom Lynch has not been named on the club’s injury list after being subbed out of the Dockers loss, a decision the club said was to limit his minutes.

Noah Balta was in action with Richmond’s VFL side over the weekend. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

But Harry Armstrong’s serious hamstring injury opens a need for a tall option in Adem Yze’s side.

The coach said on Sunday of Balta: “if he plays well enough (in the VFL hitout) he’ll warrant selection”.

“Nothing changes from last week … he has completed the club sanction now,” Dunne said.

“It remains a football decision based on what they saw on the weekend and team selection.”

Dunne said the counselling was an important part of Balta’s club sanction.

“We want to make sure if he is ever confronted with a situation like this, that he makes a better decision,” he said.

“That is the ultimate thing. That he learns from this and grows from this and we are never in this situation again. Violence can never be the answer and Noah knows that and I am sure he will have more to say after the court hearing.”

Originally published as Richmond coach Adem Yze says Noah Balta has been punished enough, Jacinta Allan doubles down