Weekly Times | RED Cliffs will not appeal the penalty handed down to John Jackson at Wednesday’s tribunal hearing, which will result in the midfielder being deregistered and banned from playing football.
Jackson was found guilty of conduct unbecoming by the Sunraysia league independent tribunal and suspended for five weeks. The penalty took his career suspension tally past the 16-week threshold at which deregistration occurs.
Jackson pleaded not guilty to the charge, which stemmed from an incident on July 25 that was investigated. It was alleged Jackson spat in the face of Merbein’s Jeremy Weinert.
Red Cliffs had until 2pm this afternoon to lodge an appeal against Wednesday’s result, but club president David Hensgen, who did not attend Wednesday’s hearing, said the club would not be appealing.
He said representatives were looking at “a couple of other avenues we might be able to do after this season”, but nothing that would allow Jackson to play this year.
Red Cliffs will play the first semi-final against Irymple on Sunday at Merbein.
Hensgen believed there was “reasonable doubt” in the case, citing in particular the fact the incident was not reported by the umpires.
“The thing that bothers me is it’s really Merbein’s word against our word,” he said.
“For a guy to get put out for life you’ve got to be 200 per cent sure that it did happen and there were nine umpires officiating that game and there were no reports from any of those umpires.”
League administrator Peter Walker said the investigation officer interviewed all parties and recommended there was case to answer, while the tribunal made a decision based on the evidence presented.
That evidence included several witnesses who said they saw the incident, including an “independent witness” from the crowd.
“It is what it is, and these rules and penalties are in place. The players are aware what the ramifications are,” Walker said.
“It’s unfortunate for John Jackson but it’s his actions that actually got him in strife, so hopefully other players take this on board and behave themselves on the footy field.”
Merbein president Toney Hurley said Weinert and his family were still feeling the impact of the incident.
“You don’t want anyone to get deregistered, don’t get me wrong. Jacko off the field is a really good bloke, I’ve got no problem with Jacko personally,” Hurley said.
“But he’s just one of those guys who walks the fine line when he’s out there, and there’s plenty of players who do that, plenty of players getting away with stuff, but probably not as serious as spitting into someone’s mouth.”
