Technicalities at a tense tribunal

A total of 11 weeks suspension and $2,100 in fines – that’s the wash up from the round 11 clash between Doveton and Pakenham. 170107 Picture: ROB CAREW

By David Nagel

Doveton players Aaron Henwood and Kaleb Van Beek have each been suspended for two matches by an independent tribunal at a tense hearing held over two nights at Casey Fields this week.
The charges emanated from the round 11 clash against Pakenham at the Doves home ground at Robinson Oval on Saturday 1 July.
The tribunal sat on Tuesday and Wednesday night, the result of Pakenham asking the South East Football Netball League (SEFNL) to launch an investigation into several alleged incidents from the match, which Doveton won by 29 points.
The independent investigator saw fit to lay 17 charges, ranging from engaging in a melee, striking and attempted striking, against a total of eight Doveton players.
The melee charges were first to be heard on Tuesday.
Henwood was suspended for his part in the last-quarter scuffle, with several of his team-mates escaping suspension but being fined. Russell Gabriel, Matt Jameson and Harley Primrose were fined $600 each with Kyle Hendy, Sam Raru and Shannon Brennan all $100 out of pocket.
Henwood’s two-week penalty will be added to a three-week suspension he is currently serving for head-butting Narre Warren’s Dean Kelly in round 9. That penalty was also the result of an investigation that led to a tribunal hearing.
Van Beek was one of three players expected to front the tribunal on Wednesday night, but a bizarre twist was to take place before the cases were heard.
The hearings of Jameson and Primrose, for attempted striking, were both dismissed on a technicality. Doveton lobbied successfully to the panel that the correct procedures had not been followed by the SEFNL administration.
Although that judgment was open to interpretation, the independent tribunal elected to dismiss the cases against Jameson and Primrose instead of adjourning the hearings to a later date.
The panel members had the option of adjourning the hearing, allowing the correct procedures to run their due course, with a new independent tribunal to run a fresh set of eyes over the matters.
But the cases are now closed.
Van Beek’s two-week suspension came as the result of a striking charge against Pakenham’s Tom Blackwood, he pleaded not guilty.
Pakenham ruckman Sam Cole and forward Jayden Bootsma were reported on the day, Cole receiving a two-match penalty for a charge of unduly rough play on Doveton’s Tyson Bellinger, while Bootsma received a three-match ban on a charge of abusive language.
Pakenham unsuccessfully appealed the decisions, Cole’s two-match ban extending to three – Bootsma’s growing from three to four.
Requesting the investigation cost the Pakenham Football Club $500.