Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley has backed Marley Williams after the young AFL defender was found guilty of grievous bodily harm.
Williams will learn in April if he is going to jail for an incident in late 2012 that left another man with a broken jaw.
Buckley said Williams, 20, was continuing to redeem himself.
An Albany jury found Williams guilty on Friday and Collingwood released a statement soon after, with the club also supporting him.
“It is really early, the dust is still settling as you can imagine,” Buckley said after Saturday’s pre-season loss to Richmond.
“It is a fair shock to him, but as we have said in our statement, we support him absolutely.
“We don’t condone violence in any shape or form and Marley has shown great remorse for his actions, but his behaviour and his actions since that day have been exemplary.
“He is a young man who has made a blue, but we will give him every chance to redeem himself, as he has in our eyes in that last year and a half.”
Williams was named in Collingwood’s squad for the match against Richmond in Wangaratta but he did not play on Saturday.
He is a chance to return to the side for the Magpies’ last pre-season game on March 2 against Gold Coast.
Williams had to be granted permission by a judge to train while on bail during the trial.
Prosecutors applied to have Williams jailed until the sentencing hearing, but that was rejected.
Instead, he was bailed, with conditions he report weekly to Richmond police station.
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