Geelong Advertiser | EAST Geelong star Lachlan Szponar is free to play in Saturday’s crucial match against Inverleigh after being found not guilty of kicking at last night’s AFL Barwon tribunal.
Szponar, who was reported for kicking Samuel Jacka in Saturday’s clash against Thomson, was relieved to be cleared after the hearing.
“It’s good to hear,” Szponar said. “You don’t really want to be coming here on a Monday night.”
Szponar admitted the kicking charge did not sit comfortably for him in the days after the match. “You don’t want to be known for that sort of thing, so I’m happy I got off and I look forward to next week,” he said. Szponar claimed it was “incidental” contact.
“I just went to change direction and caught his right leg and he fell over and the umpire thought I kicked him,” he said.
“I can’t really do much about that.”
Umpire Stephen McDonald told the tribunal, chaired by Dennis Gilmore, that Szponar used a kicking motion “as you would strike a soccer ball and kicked Samuel in the right ankle”.
“That actually made Samuel fall to the ground. I was adjacent, 10-15m away, and I blew time-on and ran towards him and gave him a yellow card,” McDonald added.
McDonald said the force of the contact was “three out of 10”.
Under cross examination from Eagles advocate Kevin O’Leary, McDonald said he “knew the difference between a kick and trip”.
Jacka said he was kicked in the lower leg which resulted in him going to ground. “I was kicked from side on, just above the ankle,” Jacka said.
Szponar claimed he was running about 1m behind Jacka and attempted to change direction and clipped his leg, causing the Thomson player to fall. The ball was about 50m away.
Gilmore said on the evidence supplied Szponar was not guilty.
