Turvey Park captain-coach Truman Carroll will now miss the opening three weeks of the season due to suspension.
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Carroll was already due to miss round one from a suspension last year but has received an extra two weeks from an incident in a trial game.
Carroll took an early guilty plea and a two-game suspension for making high front on contact in the Bulldogs’ final pre-season trial game against Charles Sturt University.
Carroll was reported for collecting CSU’s Nick Wright in the first quarter of the trial game at Maher Oval.
It was graded as careless, medium impact and high contact. Carroll’s bad record meant it resulted in a base sanction of a three-game suspension, but he accepted two games with an early guilty plea.
Carroll was already going to miss Turvey Park’s season opener against Coolamon on Saturday at Maher Oval, but will now also miss their next two games against Wagga Tigers and Collingullie-Glenfield Park.
Carroll concedes he needs to change the way he plays.
“Over the last 12 months it’s something that has popped up a couple of times, in terms of the speed of how I go into things,” Carroll said.
“I’m used to being on the bike and going in 100 miles an hour. It’s something I’ve got to change because the game’s changed and you can’t go in like that anymore.
“When others slow down, I go quicker, it’s just instinct but it’s something I need to change.”
Carroll is particularly disappointed to miss the Tigers game, with the Bulldogs hosting a premiership reunion on that day.
Turvey Park has the bye in round three so Carroll will not be free to play until after the representative bye on Saturday May 26, when the Bulldogs host Griffith at Maher Oval.
Carroll is the second Riverina League coach to receive a suspension from a trial game this off-season.
Wagga Tigers coach Shaun Campbell received a three-game suspension for rough conduct, also against CSU.
Both Carroll and Campbell will be unable to coach in either game.
Under AFL NSW-ACT generic bylaws, any suspended player or coach is ineligible to act as a coach, trainer, runner, water-carrier or any official on-field capacity.
A suspended coach is prohibited from displaying visible signs of coaching, which includes communicating to the players, coaches, runners etc during the match.
They are unable to enter the playing arena or be within 25 metres of the interchange bench during the game, or enter the change rooms before or during a match.
