THE Hanwood Football Club has been left outraged by the reduced sentence of a Leeton United player, after he seriously injured star striker Jason Bertacco in a late tackle in their fiery round-six clash.
The incident lit the fuse for a running battle between the two clubs, despite measures by both committees to smooth relations which were seemingly on stable ground after United's Daniel Alampi was given nine weeks for a tackle that was described by witnesses as "bizarre", "horrendous" and "disgraceful".
However, last Thursday night the Griffith Football Association's independent judiciary reduced Alampi's sentence from nine to three weeks with a two-week suspended sentence.
When contacted by The Area News to gauge their reaction to the decision, Hanwood Football Club declined to comment, saying they vowed to fight the judiciary's decision at a Riverina level.
Griffith Football president Angelo Dotta confirmed the matter was still under the microscope and said he forwarded Hanwood FC's appeal documentation to the Riverina board yesterday.
While acknowledging the judiciary is an independent body from the main association board, The Area News asked Dotta if he had been made aware why the sentence was reduced by so much given the seriousness of the tackle, which left Bertacco with a dislocated ankle and ligament damage and potentially sidelined for three months.
"I don't know why (the sentence was reduced) I haven't spoken to anybody on the judiciary and to me it's a bit of a weird one (decision)," Dotta said.
"Hanwood Football Club has appealed the decision on leniency and they (Riverina) will have a look at it and see if there's grounds for appeal and they'll process it within about a week.
"If Hanwood want to take it further they can appeal to Football NSW, so that's the next avenue after that."
Dotta also said people of all clubs need to understand the system by which foul play is punished saying the hearing last week was not an appeal but rather the first hear of the issue.
"People have said they (Leeton) appealed but they didn't as such and that's where people have to get the wording right," he said.
"He (Alampi) was sent a fax saying 'this is the charge you have been hit with and under the guidelines we'll give you, say five weeks suspension', now they can take that or face judiciary.
"So they (Leeton) chose to go to judiciary and if they think they got a severe sentence they can appeal to us the association, but in this case because it has been such a hot issue, we're referring it to Riverina so there can be a hearing without any sort of influence."
The Hanwood FC appeal will be chaired by people from the Riverina committee, which excludes Dotta because of an obvious conflict of interests, with members to come from Wagga and Albury
There are three outcomes possible from the next stage with Hanwood's appeal thrown out, the existing punishment of three weeks is deemed suitable or that a harsher penalty is required.
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