Weekly Times | A NAGAMBIE player says he has “come out pretty lucky by all reports” after he was kicked in the head by an opposition player during a reserves match against Ardmona on Saturday.
Ben Robinson briefly lost consciousness and was taken by ambulance to hospital after an opponent kicked him during the final term of the Kyabram District league reserves match.
Nagambie reserves playing coach Michael Sloan said he was about 30m away at the time of the incident, which sparked a melee that led to the game being called off early by an Ardmona club umpire.
Nagambie won the match by 97 points.
Robinson underwent a CT scan to check for swelling on his brain and fractures in his face and neck, but was given the all-clear and discharged that night.
He was back at work on Monday.
The Ardmona player was reported for intentionally or carelessly kicking another person, league operations manager Grant Wilson said, and the tribunal was scheduled for tonight.
The Weekly Times understands the report was laid by an Ardmona club umpire.
Robinson said there had been some push and shove between him and the Ardmona player in the lead-up to the incident, then he was knocked over by a bump to his side from another player.
“The last thing I remember, I got on my hands and knees to get up and that was the end of it,” Robinson said.
“I woke up a bit later on with everyone standing around me,” he said.
It is understood the incident happened in the vicinity of play.
Sloan, who works for Robinson, alleged the kick was deliberate.
“I’ve played footy for a long time, I’ve seen a lot of dirty things on the football field, like elbows and that, but to see someone take two or three paces and kick him in the head, it is unbelievable,” Sloan said.
Robinson said “nothing untoward happened before leading up to it and nothing else during the game that would’ve instigated something like that”.
“It’s something that no one should have be on the receiving end of and no one wants to see, really,” he said.
But Robinson made special note of Ardmona’s response and said on Monday he had been contacted by Ardmona’s president, Dwayne Young, on several occasions “to make sure I was OK”.
“All their players and everyone were very apologetic to all our players and everyone else concerned,” he said.
“(They are) most apologetic and probably taken as hard a stance on what happened as anybody.”
Goulburn Valley Football Umpires’ Association president Darren Meek said he spoke to Young on Saturday.
Meek said Young had described the Ardmona club umpire as “very distraught about it”, and asked if the GVFUA would supply an advocate for the tribunal to support the club umpire “and I said yes, we definitely will”.
Young could not be reached for comment.