Sydney Swans VFL player Paddy McCartin has been suspended for five weeks by the VFL tribunal.
The VFL Match Review Panel charged McCartin for striking Geelong player Aaron Black during the first quarter of the VFL Round 3 Match between the Sydney Swans and Geelong on Saturday 1 May at Lakeside Oval.
Based on the available video evidence and medical report, the incident was assessed as Intentional Conduct with Severe Impact and High Contact.
Prior to Tuesday evenings tribunal hearing, McCartin apologised to the Geelong skipper for the out of character act and provided the following statement:
I'd like to apologise to everyone about what happened on the weekend. I’m really disappointed over my actions.
Firstly to Aaron, I’m really glad he’s okay. I spoke to him yesterday and he let me know he’s okay which I’m really happy about. I want to apologise to him and his family for what happened. I am really really sorry, and deeply regretful over what happened. Hopefully next time I see him I can shake his hand and we can move past it.
To the wider footy community. A lot of people have supported me on my journey over the last few years. I want everyone to know how sorry I am for what happened. I know that through some actions I made on the weekend I probably would have lost some of the respect of people in the footy community and that’s something I’m really upset about, and disappointed in. Hopefully the actions I make on the field but also in the wider community going forward and the things that I do can go about earning back some of the respect I’ve lost. I’ll do everything I can to do that.
Lastly, to the Sydney Swans Football Club. I haven’t been here for a long time, and I’m on the VFL list at the moment but I know exactly what the culture here stands for. I know when you put the jumper on every weekend, you stand for something much bigger than yourself. It’s not just players that are here now, but people who have been here before me, supporters, fans, members and sponsors. What I did on the weekend let a lot of people down and I’m really upset about that and really apologetic for it.
I’ll do everything I can to earn back the respect of everyone that I’ve lost. I’ll go about showing people what happened isn’t a pattern of behaviour of mine and it’s not something that’s engrained in my personality. It was a mistake and I’ll do everything I can to learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
-Paddy McCartin
You can watch the statement in the video below.
