Riverine Herald |
The three players who appealed their two-week suspensions were all dismissed at an independent tribunal on Sunday morning.

Club presidents are upset but Murray Football League general manager Dale Norman stands by the decision made to suspend four players for neglecting their commitments to the interleague team.

Three players — Deniliquin's Nick Howe and Tongala's Jordan Souter and Adam Lovison — lodged appeals on the two-week suspension.

The appeals were heard on Sunday morning and dismissed.

Rumbalara's Nathan Kerr accepted his initial two-week suspension.

The general manager said the league was comfortable with the process of determining the suspensions, but said it was not the outcome it liked to come to.

''No-one's ever happy with suspending players, but the policy we put out, the executive have stuck to that policy, so whereby players making themselves unavailable or not withdrawing in the time period were suspect to suspension,'' Norman said.

The executive was not satisfied with the reasons given and the clubs were given the chance to appeal, from which the independent tribunal heard the appeals and dismissed them all, Norman said.

Deniliquin Rams president Scott Barlow said the whole situation was ''absurd''.

''Unfortunately the whole issue appears to be a misinterpretation of communication,'' Barlow said.

''In hindsight it appears he should have simply made himself unavailable and escaped without penalty like a significant number of other players did.

''The other unfortunate part is that players who are now likely to take that course of action in the future will undermine the objectives of the new interleague rules, which are supposed to encourage participation, not discourage it.''

Tongala president Barry Nexhip said he accepted the decision.

''Lesson learnt,'' he said.

''The league's made a statement. I just hope it continues on next year,''

The most disappointing thing about the result was the impact on the club's 30-year reunion of the 1983-84 premiership teams at Tongala's next home game against Nathalia next Saturday.

''Two of the blokes in that team, Mike Lovison and Mick Souter, would've liked to have shown the others their sons (Adam and Jordan) playing for Tongala, but it's not to be now,'' Nexhip said.

There was no doubt the clubs affected would be upset by the league's decision to suspend their players, Norman said.

''It's always going to be a difficult and emotional subject,'' he said.

''It was always going to be a difficult task the first year implementing this policy.

''In my case we've got to justify the amount we spend on interleague and clubs want a return on the amount spent.

''It's hard when we go to Mildura and put on a performance like we did.

''We had to do something about it. That's why these harsh penalties came into play.''

The league would consequently look at the process and improve it for future years, with communication especially important, he said.

''I think we have learnt a hell of a lot from that (this year),'' Norman said.

''Whether to take coaches out of (communication on availability) all together and just have one person at each club and one person at the league who are responsible to communicate with their players.

''The main thing is communication, ensuring we get that right.''

Norman said some of the clubs affected suggested their players may not take part in interleague in future years.

''That's the immediate response, but hopefully we'll work through that,'' he said.

''We're hoping this puts a precedent in place, whereby the league continues to follow it if we run into this situation again.

''The policy has been made fairly clear to clubs.

''We will continue to discuss it at league level and make sure we get it even better next year.''

By Geordie Cowan

Article first appeared The Riverine Herald July 5, 2013