Aussie Keeper Charged With Violent Conduct On Ref

It was a weekend marked by “violent” – even if unintentional – conduct on the pitch, as the Eduardo injury pushed absolutely everything to the back pages. Arsene started out by calling for Matrin Taylor’s career on a platter, then retracted his statement, but Taylor is surely do for a spell on the sidelines. Probably won’t be as long as Central Coast Mariners keeper Danny Vukovic, however, who was just handed a 9 + 6 month ban (latter being a suspended sentence) for “violent conduct on a referee” during the A-League Final yesterday. Even if it was maybe just an overzealous high-five.

The outburst was the reaction of a penalty non-call in the dying moments of Central Coast’s 1-0 loss to the Newcastle Jets (which marks the only time a team named Newcastle is going to keep a clean sheet for the rest of the year). As you can see, Danny argues something and then proceeds to hit out at the referee’s outstretched hand – which did look like a high five. Probably not helping matters was that he started running away, proclaiming his guilt. This whole situation could’ve been avoided had he just given the ref a big hug afterwards and said “good call”.

Regardless, you can’t hit refs, and he’ll be out until late Novemeber at the least before a 6 month probation period. If he re-offends, he’ll be sat for another six months. Good to see leagues cracking down hard on player-ref interaction. (Nicola Legrottaglie should be glad he’s not in the A-League.)

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Category: Australia