North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson must clarify himself to the AFL over his expletive-laden and “inappropriate” outburst in direction of St Kilda’s Jimmy Webster and Dougal Howard.
Clarkson was incensed after Webster’s excessive, late bump on Jy Simpkin in Sunday’s observe match left the Kangaroos co-captain in concussion protocols and the Saints defender with an imminent tribunal listening to.
The coach reportedly used the phrase “c*******er” throughout an alternate of phrases with Webster and fellow Saints defender Howard at quarter-time.
Clarkson has already apologised, however he has been issued with a “please explain” from the AFL concerning the alternate and the alleged homophobic slur.
AFL chief govt Andrew Dillon took a dim view of the incident.
“Senior coaches or officials approaching players at breaks in play isn’t something that we want to see anyway,” Dillon mentioned on Fox Footy’s AFL 360.
“When you overlay what’s been reported, it’s language that Alastair has already come out and said it’s inappropriate, it’s something I don’t like, and we don’t need it in our game.
“We do not wish to get forward of the method, so what we do is present a ‘please clarify’ and provides Alastair the chance to return again to us.
“We’ll talk to St Kilda, and once we’ve got all that information we’ll look at that and weigh it against what our rules are and then deal with it that way.”
Clarkson had mentioned he was “deeply disturbed” by the Webster bump on Simpkin, who has a latest concussion historical past.
“At the quarter-time break I voiced my displeasure to St Kilda players Jimmy Webster and Dougal Howard as they made their way to the quarter-time huddle,” he mentioned.
“This was an exchange that was emotional in defence of our captain, but unnecessary, and the language I used was inappropriate.
“I’ve reached out to (Saints coach) Ross Lyon and each the St Kilda gamers to apologise.”
Suns counterpart and Clarkson’s close friend Damien Hardwick said: “Look, Clarko will probably be apologetic.
“The language he used is obviously not on and he accepts that.
“But once they’re your gamers, they’re your boys, they’re like your youngsters. You get very protecting of these guys.
“And that’s not to say that you should overstep the line, but the reality is every now and then we’re going to do it.”
Carlton coach Michael Voss understood Clarkson’s protectiveness in direction of Simpkin.
But he added: “We can also understand that that’s probably just a little bit too far and we probably do need to keep our emotions in check there.”
Clarkson has a prolonged historical past of fiery moments, together with needing to be held again from Essendon champion Matthew Lloyd after he broke Hawk Brad Sewell’s cheekbone with a bump in 2009.
He additionally punched via the MCG teaching field wall in 2012.
In 2017, he was fined $20,000 by the AFL ($15,000 suspended) after he mentioned he couldn’t touch upon “disgraceful umpiring” in Hawthorn’s loss to Gold Coast.
Last February, he apologised for a heated confrontation with a TV reporter.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
