Country footy captain Brad Watts was suspended for abusing his own players with an "obscene" spray on the weekend.
Bannockburn Tigers coach and former Geelong AFL player Peter Riccardi was shocked by the umpire's decision to report his captain for the incident during Saturday's loss to Thomson.
The Tigers skipper was addressing his players after the half-time siren when the incident occurred and was penalised with a yellow card, missing most of the third quarter.
He was reported for โusing abusive, insulting, threatening or obscene languageโ and handed a one-match ban.
โI was frustrated and I gave the boys a spray about little things that we were doing wrong, some things that needed to sink in,โ Watts told the Herald Sun.
โI did use colourful language, Iโm not arguing that I didnโt, I may have half a dozen times truthfully, but the colourful language was not directed at any individual.
โUnbeknown to me I didnโt realise that the umpires were gathered around the boundary listening.
โIn the heat of the moment I didnโt think about crowd members or umpires; I just thought I was in the huddle with my men and addressing them with tone and volume.โ
Riccardi was bewildered by the sanction and thinks Watts should contest the ban.
โIโm dumbfounded,โ Riccardi said.
โThis is the first Iโve ever heard of a person getting reported for abusing his teammates. And the more people you talk to, the more they canโt believe it either.
โHe wants to challenge it. It wasnโt like he was abusing anyone, he was just rallying the troops and obviously a few F-bombs were dropped.
โHe (Watts) was saying to them (umpires), โWhy didnโt you come to me and say enough of the language?โ
โBut they were walking off the ground and they didnโt say anything to him.
โIโve got no idea why they reported him. Itโs a new one for me and itโs a new one for a lot of people.
โItโs a joke, seriously. I understand if it (abuse) was towards an umpire or an opposition player or towards someone in the crowd, but I just think itโs a joke, to be honest.
โItโs a deadset joke if he gets a week for that.โ
Watts has never been suspended in his long senior career and vows to challenge the ban.
โI thought they were calling me over for a warning but they handed me a card straight away,โ Watts said.
โAt the time I wasnโt warned or anything like that so Iโm going to fight it.
โThey could have walked over and tapped me on the shoulder to calm down.
โThomson were the far better side today, take nothing away from them, which was part of the reason why I gave the boys a spray.โ
