Richmond and Noah Balta were left “shell-shocked” by a “curveball curfew”, according to Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle panel, who on Tuesday night detailed the Tigers’ decision to not appeal a key element of a Magistrate’s decision.
Balta on Tuesday morning was spared jail time, instead receiving an 18-month community corrections order and a criminal conviction after pleading guilty to assault for an incident outside a Mulwala venue last December 30.
However the sanctioned CCO includes a three-month night curfew where he cannot consume alcohol nor leave his house between 10pm and 6am. It’ll significantly disrupt Balta’s playing schedule, as the Tigers are scheduled to play multiple night and interstate games between now and the end of Balta’s curfew (July 22).
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Speaking on Fox Footy’s Midweek Tackle on Tuesday night, Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph said not challenging the curfew indicated that “Richmond and Noah Balta finally read the room” after the defender returned to the Tigers’ AFL team – and starred against Gold Coast – on Saturday night.
“They spent a couple of hours after his sentencing shell-shocked,” Ralph said on Midweek Tackle on Tuesday night. “They didn’t realise that this potential 10pm curfew was any possibility – a curfew that might see him miss seven games across the back-end of the season.
Noah Balta’s 10pm curfew explained | 02:10
“They knew the community sentiment would be totally against them if they tried to appeal it or tried to get an exemption. But according to the Tigers tonight, they were always going to accept whatever the suspension was and whatever the conviction was.”
Fellow Herald Sun reporter Lauren Wood added the curfew element of the Magistrate’s verdict caught the Tigers and Balta off-guard – and disrupted plans for Balta address reporters on Tuesday morning.
“I think the plan was, at that stage (on Tuesday) morning, Noah was going to speak outside court,” Wood said on Midweek Tackle. “I think we all would’ve liked to have heard Noah speak – we’ve heard a lot about how remorseful he is and he released a statement this afternoon – but the curfew curveball came out of nowhere.
“In that courtroom his lawyer raised the concern about him playing and whether the potential of an exemption might be available to them – and basically told (by the magistrate) ‘too bad … that is the punishment’.
“As the day wore on – to use the words of another magistrate legal eagle in Justice Michael Lee a few months ago – you escape from the lion’s den, as Noah Balta did, but you don’t exactly go back for your hat in that scenario.
“So they weighed up all the options, obviously dismissed the appeal pretty quickly because he’s going to miss quite a number of games with these conditions upon him.”
Balta is now expected to miss the Tigers’ next game against Melbourne in the annual Anzac Day Eve clash, followed by clashes with Essendon (Round 11), the Giants (Round 12) and West Coast (Round 19). And depending on how the AFL’s floating fixture lands from Round 16 onwards, Balta could also be unavailable for matches against Adelaide (Round 16), Geelong (Round 17) and Essendon (Round 18).
It means Balta could end up missing as many as 11 AFL games this season after being suspended by Richmond for its first four matches before coming back via the VFL during Gather Round.
Balta avoids jail but hit with curfew | 01:05
Ralph said he’d spoken to Bernie Balmer, who’s one of Melbourne’s leading criminal lawyers with decades of experience representing clients in similar situations to the one Balta has been in.
Balmer, according to Ralph, said the curfew was “really unusual”.
“He (Balmer) says Richmond would’ve had a case to answer for an exemption,” Ralph said.
“He said: ‘With a community corrections order, the magistrate has the power to do it, but if it is going to affect your employment, it is unusual. It is odd, it is quirky. If you were stacking shelves at Woolworths, you’d be hoping to get some kind of exemption … When you are a footballer, you get punished five times. By the courts, by the public, by the politicians, by the AFL and by your club.’”
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