Balta back as Tigers aim to spoil Hawthorn’s party
Shayne Hope |
A refreshed Noah Balta will return to bolster Richmond’s chances of delivering a little “payback” to Hawthorn by spoiling their AFL milestone party.
Balta was forced to sit out the round-seven loss to Melbourne due to his court-imposed curfew, which requires him to be at his home between 10pm and 6am.
It is part of the 25-year-old’s punishment for assaulting a man in regional NSW on December 30 last year.
Balta, who was sentenced on April 22, also sat out of VFL action last week, in part because of a short break between matches.
The premiership defender had made his AFL comeback in a surprise win over Gold Coast in round six, after serving a club-imposed four-match suspension relating to the assault.
Barring any unforeseen issues, Balta will return for Richmond when Hawthorn celebrate 100 years in the AFL/VFL in their home game at the MCG on Sunday.
“He’s in a good spot,” Richmond coach Adem Yze said on Thursday ahead of his team’s main training session.
“He had a great session over the weekend and he’s had a great week on the track.
“He’s such a good teammate, the players love having him part of the group, and he’s a leader out there.
“He’s had a nice week and he’s ready to go.”
Hawthorn will mark their anniversary a little more than 100 years to the day since first lining up in the VFL against Richmond on May 2, 1925.
And Yze has not forgotten the last time the two sides faced off in a significant milestone encounter.
A record crowd of more than 92,000 was on hand in June last year when Dustin Martin played his 300th game, and the Tigers’ legend kicked the first goal.
But Hawthorn were comfortable 48-point winners over the eventual wooden spooners as they marched towards a finals appearance.
“It’s a bit ironic,” said Yze, who was a premiership-winning assistant coach with Hawthorn under Alastair Clarkson.
“In Dusty’s 300th we played against the Hawks and they spoiled the party that day, so it might be a bit of payback (this week).”
But under no illusions about the size of the task against a Hawthorn side in flag contention, Yze is also on guard for a shift from umpires over the stand rule in round eight.
It comes after AFL football boss Laura Kane revealed the league had written to all 18 clubs about liberties players are taking when manning the mark.
“That’s a really hard one to umpire. We understand that,” Yze said.
“We reviewed that last year and we tried to get some clarity around it.
“There’s games that we man the mark and other times we don’t.
“But playing on a Sunday is nice; if there is a change in adjudication then you’ll get a sense for it.
“It is a tough one to umpire and we’ll just see how that goes over the weekend.”
AAP
