Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
Richmond defender Luke Trainor will miss the Tigers’ clash in Adelaide this weekend for a gut-wrenching stomach punch on Sunday after head coach Adem Yze said he didn’t “want to be losing players through stupidity”.
The 20-year-old was cited by the Match Review Officer in the second quarter of the Tigers’ win against the Eagles for a strike on West Coast’s Jack Williams’ stomach.
The pair had been exchanging light jabs up until the incident, where Trainor’s frustrations boiled over resulting in the gut-punch on the Eagles utility.
Williams fell to his knees and clutched his stomach, before eventually recovering to his feet and heading to the bench moments later.
The Match Review Officer graded the incident as intentional, medium impact and body contact, resulting in a one-game ban.
Richmond head coach Adem Yze told media post-game the he “hadn’t seen” the incident yet.
“If he’s gone and done something wrong, we will look at it,” Yze said.
Yze praised Trainor’s performance in the Tigers’ first win in 11 weeks.
“He grew again, Luke today, he played big,” he said.
Yze said the club had “gone through” conversations with the players around avoidable suspensions.
When we’ve got lack of availability through injury, we don’t want to be losing players through stupidity,” he said.
“We’ve educated our players and they understand what’s right or wrong.”
