Jake King suspended for two games but cleared of meleeBruce Matthews | August 19, 2009
RICHMOND's Jake King doesn't have to pay a cent for causing a melee that left 18 players a total of $23,400 out of pocket. The Tigers' instigator and teammate Brett Deledio had their $1200 fines overturned by the AFL Tribunal last night.
But King's season is over after he accepted a two-game suspension for striking Collingwood's Alan Didak at the MCG on Saturday.
The melee involving 20 Richmond and Collingwood players erupted from that behind-play blow.
Ten Magpies were fined $13,800 and eight Tigers docked $9600.
King told the tribunal jury, Wayne Schimmelbusch, Stewart Loewe and David Pittman, that "the boys weren't happy" about the incident that led to him being reported in the second quarter.
The melee erupted after he dispossessed Didak when the Magpie forward went to play on after the free kick.
"I obviously knew he was going to play on and I was able to strip the ball from him," King said.
"Next thing I knew there was a fair weight on top of me, hands and elbows were pushing me down."
The Tiger tagger told the hearing he felt contact to the throat and face.
"Obviously, people weren't happy," he said.
King argued he was the passive victim in the melee and that Magpie Tarkyn Lockyer had even pulled him down again when he tried to regain his feet.
Deledio said his act of attempting to get Collingwood players off King happened several times in a game.
"As I pulled (Dane) Swan off of Jake, Shane O'Bree got me in a headlock," he said.
"I was clearly getting the opposition off Jake King, they were piled on top of him."
Richmond football manager Ross Monaghan said after the hearing the club thought King and Deledio were "the least guilty, if you like" of any charge from the melee.
"We thought Jake had absolutely no case to answer and, clearly, the tribunal found that way. In Brett's case, we didn't think he did anything other than what he would normally do in a normal game. Things escalated from there," Monaghan explained.
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