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Akermanis gets one match
6:56:06 PM Tue 30 April, 2002
Samantha Lane
afl.com.au
Reigning Brownlow Medallist Jason Akermanis is ineligible to defend his award this year after being found guilty at the AFL tribunal tonight of kneeing and suspended for one match.
Akermanis pleaded not guilty kneeing West Coast's Daniel Kerr at Subiaco last Saturday, however tribunal chairman Shane Maguire described Akermanis’ actions as “reckless”.
Reporting umpire Mark McKenzie said West Coast players had informed him that Akermanis had kneed one of their players during the final quarter of Brisbane’s surprise 46-point defeat.
Kerr was on the ground, having been tackled by Brisbane’s Simon Black, when Akermanis approached and appeared to move his right knee into Kerr’s buttock area twice.
Akermanis, a dual-All Australian player who has already had an outstanding season, said he had been attempting to verbally and physically provoke Kerr all day, and that he had merely intended to push the young Eagle.
“I hadn’t realised I’d actually done that,” Akermanis said. “You’re assuming my knee has made contact … it was only a push.”
While admitting if he was an umpire he would have also taken the matter to the tribunal, Akermanis said the video evidence was inconclusive and his focus was on the ball.
“It’s a simple wrestling move they taught me in year nine ... If I’d made any contact at all it would have been very slight.”
Kerr, who wasn’t injured, recalled feeling contact to his hip and buttock area, but was unable to describe the exact sequence of events, saying he didn’t feel any contact following the initial scrimmage.
“I actually didn’t know Akermanis was there because my focus was on Black,” he said.
For the second straight week the tribunal’s verdict has thrown Brownlow betting wide open. Adelaide’s Andrew McLeod, an early medal favourite and top three finisher in the last two years, was also suspended for one match last Monday.
Akermanis, 25, had one prior conviction. He was givent a one-match suspension for striking in 1998.
6:56:06 PM Tue 30 April, 2002
Samantha Lane
afl.com.au
Reigning Brownlow Medallist Jason Akermanis is ineligible to defend his award this year after being found guilty at the AFL tribunal tonight of kneeing and suspended for one match.
Akermanis pleaded not guilty kneeing West Coast's Daniel Kerr at Subiaco last Saturday, however tribunal chairman Shane Maguire described Akermanis’ actions as “reckless”.
Reporting umpire Mark McKenzie said West Coast players had informed him that Akermanis had kneed one of their players during the final quarter of Brisbane’s surprise 46-point defeat.
Kerr was on the ground, having been tackled by Brisbane’s Simon Black, when Akermanis approached and appeared to move his right knee into Kerr’s buttock area twice.
Akermanis, a dual-All Australian player who has already had an outstanding season, said he had been attempting to verbally and physically provoke Kerr all day, and that he had merely intended to push the young Eagle.
“I hadn’t realised I’d actually done that,” Akermanis said. “You’re assuming my knee has made contact … it was only a push.”
While admitting if he was an umpire he would have also taken the matter to the tribunal, Akermanis said the video evidence was inconclusive and his focus was on the ball.
“It’s a simple wrestling move they taught me in year nine ... If I’d made any contact at all it would have been very slight.”
Kerr, who wasn’t injured, recalled feeling contact to his hip and buttock area, but was unable to describe the exact sequence of events, saying he didn’t feel any contact following the initial scrimmage.
“I actually didn’t know Akermanis was there because my focus was on Black,” he said.
For the second straight week the tribunal’s verdict has thrown Brownlow betting wide open. Adelaide’s Andrew McLeod, an early medal favourite and top three finisher in the last two years, was also suspended for one match last Monday.
Akermanis, 25, had one prior conviction. He was givent a one-match suspension for striking in 1998.
