Maitland player Ryan Clarke suspended for 12 months for playing under someone else's name in an all age semi.
It won't be overturned on multiple eye witness accounts including macquarie officials and referees who were there on the day. How do you think it will be overturned? Witnesses 1 2 3 4 5 &6 can you identify the player. The 6 witnesses identify Ryan Clarke. Ryan Clarke's reply, " it wasn't me, it was my mate Nick Harmon".
Ohhhh, ok sorry Ryan , our mistake you can continue playing
I would think that they would have more than 1 witness saying it was him to get the sanction he got.
From the article in todays Herald it seems they are interested in an appeal on the severity of the punishment
Yeah the punishment is excessive no doubt but we all know the rules so play by them.
It also to me indicates some acknowledgement of the illegal player issue being him to be true.
If it was not true the appeal would be based on the wasn't him aspect and it was someone else and they have the wrong man
Does this consequence fit this crime?
I think Kahibah went through anyway so the finals werent really affected.
12 months is a fair wack although this stuff does need to be stamped out.
maybe a fine (money goes to Kahibah and assoc) and shorter suspension? or smash him for longer? idk
Last edited by hawk; 08-11-2015 at 04:10 PM. Reason: corrected team names
Adamstown went through but were rightfully kicked out due to playing with a ring-in. Kahibah went to Semi's instead. I played in this grade and our first game was against a nine-man Adamstown. Think they had issues with numbers a couple of times. There's been a fair bit of publicity compared to what you'd normally see so hopefully it does make players and teams think twice next time. Bringing an NPL player into AA/H grade is a totally unfair advantage.
From the Herald's article "Macquarie Football, who handle interdistrict disciplinary matters, had received evidence from witnesses who identified Clarke as the player." Plural is used there so it would appear more than one person's word against Clarke. Also don't you think they would need to prove it before issuing a ban?
As MFKS said Maitland have indicated they will be appealing the length of the sentence and not the sentence itself. But I don't see an issue with him being banned from playing for that long, a high profile player with that many years experience deserves to have the book thrown at him simply because he should know better.
Fair enough and I was under the understanding that it was only 1 person who came forward as a witness, also seeing as though he is registered through NNSWF shouldn't NNSWF hand down the ban? I find it strange that NNSWF have left it in the hands of Macquarie as he doesn't fall under their banner.
If he did it then I'm happy for a big ban but maybe not 12 months, either way if I was a Maitland official I would be filthy at him.
But he played in a competition run by Macquarie Football so they would determine any disciplinary actions for incidents that occur in their competitions.
Oh no doubt they have been pissed off.If he did it then I'm happy for a big ban but maybe not 12 months, either way if I was a Maitland official I would be filthy at him.
They as in the club? It's an all-age team I doubt the club had any idea who played the game until the association told them they had been kicked out. And having the team disqualified from the competition is a serve punishment on the team. Not one of those registered players got to continue to play for any remaining finals games.
Played golf with a certain person on Friday, witness's must be telling fibs