White Line Fever
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Many sports fans reckon that what happens on the field, should stay on the field. It is clear enough in the majority of sporting injuries that you suffer willingly because you volunteered. However there is a point where the actions of players against other players steps outside the boundary between hard play and criminal assault. It is amazing that players cowardly assaulting other players are raised as heroes. Leigh Matthews , premiership player & coach is considered one of the icons of Australian football but he has to live with the attack on Neville Bruns that gave him a criminal record. There is something admirable about the player who can strike fear and apprehension into opponents but there is a point when the injuries inflicted by thugs should lead to consequences legal and financial. Recently a rugby player in the UK sued the players of an opposing club as well as the club. The plaintiff suffered a loss of sight in one eye due to a king hit . Further he alleges that the players were acting as vicarious servants of the club. Most people would consider that a player who acts in a manner is off on a frolic of his own. Rugby league great the late Steve Rogers sued because his jaw was broken when opposing players were encouraged by their coach to “take him out”! However in one of my own cases in Bega, NSW in a verdict for the Plaintiff the Chief Judge of NSW District Court, Mr. Justice Blanch ruled that the conduct of a player in a game was the club’s responsibility if during the course of a game that player injured another player as a result of foul play amounting to an assault. Damages were assessed at $41,808.10 plus costs I have also sued other players and clubs who carried out assaults on my clients. In one case the attacker was fined $7000 in the County Court of Victoria not only for the attack on my client, which shattered his jaw but for assaults on other players in other games. He was a player should have been rubbed out at the game but he was considered a hero & awarded best and fairest awards in spite of his cowardice although it seemed from the reports of the attacks his specialty was the king hit when opposition wasn't looking. The player’s club came up with all sorts of self serving rubbish as they attempted to paint themselves as victims when they were included in the law suit.
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