Richmond coach and players condemn Shai Bolton over his classless fourth quarter tauntA Richmond’s star showboating exploits have left him on the hot seat with his own club after his coach and teammates called the act out.
James McKern
HeraldSun
June 17, 2022 Shai Bolton has drawn the ire of social media on Thursday night after taunting Carlton’s Sam Docherty on his way to kicking a goal early in the fourth quarter.
As Richmond held a slender lead, the Tigers livewire got on the end of a loose ball and scooted away from Blues defender Docherty.
But before slotting the ball through the big sticks, Bolton extended the ball out in his left arm behind him in the face of Docherty.
The Tigers held on to record the 11.15 (81) to 9.12 (66) victory after the Blues surged in the fourth quarter behind three straight goals to Harry McKay to bring the margin to 9 points.
At the end of the third quarter a scuffle broke out between the playing groups of both teams with Mitch Cleary saying Bolton and Docherty were the last two in the heated exchange.
“Shai Bolton and Sam Docherty were the last two players exchanging words after the 3QT push and shove. Bolton wanted to remind Docherty over something said earlier,” Cleary tweeted.
The showboating didn’t sit well with those watching on and the club was quick to pull the young star into line.
“Yeah look he’s made a mistake, it’s not us – it’s not what we’re about,” Damien Hardwick said post-game.
“He’ll be regretful no question, he’ll be accountable and responsible for it. It’s certainly not part of who he is and part of what we are.
“We’re disappointed, but we’ll work our way through it and support him and you know he’ll learn some lessons from it. It’s not a great look.”
Tigers defender Nathan Broad, on SEN, said he’d already spoken to his teammate about the moment: “I’ve already had a chat to Shai. It’s not a great look. I think he went up and apologised after.”.
Richmond skipper Toby Nankervis said it wasn’t a good look for a club trying to be as humble as they could be: “(Shai’s) a great player & he plays with a lot of flair but I was a bit worried, there was still 15 odd minutes to go, so I wouldn’t be doing that, & I don’t think Shai would have done that if he had his time again,” Nankervis said on ABC Grandstand.
“We want to be a really humble football club that plays footy in the right way and I love the way Shai plays the game, and maybe that overstepped the mark a little bit.”
“Shai Bolton lucky he isn’t playing in the 80s…. Yucky behaviour, deserved of a clip around the ears,” Will Schofield wrote.
“Nice little showboat from Bolton after 13 touches and 450 unforced errors,” Daniel Moor wrote.
Bolton had earlier in the contest taken a mark inside 50 and opted to quickly rush a snap around the body which fell short and resulted in only a behind.
“Reckon when you’ve missed about five sitters in a week you’d want to kick the goal before showing the footy,” Code sports’ Daniel Cherny wrote after the showboating.
https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/shai-bolton-roasted-over-classless-showboating-before-goal-against-carlton/news-story/9c68a9dc75a3a6206b4bd8cbaee26fa3
