Herald Sun |
A FRUSTRATED Jason Akermanis says he was asked to send the umpire-bashing texts and videos to a country league official which have landed him at the centre of a cyber-bullying investigation.

The Ovens and Murray league — where Akermanis coaches North Albury Hoppers — launched a 21-day official investigation on Monday to determine if the AFL legend has a case to answer.

Akermanis said that with a large discrepancy between the playing and umpiring standards in the league, he was asked to give feedback to umpire development manager Mark Bywater.

"Maybe the odd swear word was used here and there, but if that's the case he's got to charge the rest of the league because they've done the same thing," Akermanis told the Herald Sun.

"The last time I checked cyber bullying is constantly harassing people and making derogatory remarks. We're not doing anything like that to this guy, we are helping him with his job, we are sending him video of umpires which is his domain.

"We'll never hide form the fact that we helped the guy do his job and the protocol was for 17 weeks to let him know and then one week he says, 'No, you can't let us know, it's now bullying'."

The Brownlow medallist and 325-game AFL star said the league had reneged on keeping the investigation confidential and said investigators were yet to interview him.

"I'm pretty sure that (breaching confidentiality) makes it null and void anyway," he said.

"Hopefully they talk to me. I'll show them all the evidence, I'll happily expose exactly what's happened.

"I welcome the investigation, because all I've done is what they've asked me to do which is send information in on umpiring and the like.

"It's the senior coach going straight to the umpires' boss, the way it's supposed to be."

Ovens and Murray general manager Aaron McGlynn said AFL Vic Country investigation officer Enzo Bevacqua would report back to the league with his findings, which could trigger a tribunal hearing.

AFL North East Border — which employs Bywater — instigated the investigation and its regional manager, John O'Donohue, said Akermanis did not stop despite being issued a warning.

On that allegation, Akermanis said: "Well, I can guarantee you — I just spoke to my president — not one of us has heard anything from Bywater at any stage".

"When it comes to this sort of thing we do, and the AFL, take it pretty seriously. Regardless of who it is it goes through the process and is dealt with appropriately," McGlynn said.

"It's certainly new territory for our league. In terms of state-wide obviously the policy has been in place for a few years now.

"I know (in other leagues) there's been period-of-time suspensions, matches and there can also be financial sanctions."

Akermanis signed on as captain-coach of the North Albury Hoppers before last season. He lifted the team from last on the ladder to an elimination final in his first season in charge, but this year the Hoppers are seventh in the 10-team league with six wins from 17 matches.

He retired as a player last week but has signed on to coach again next year.

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