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Banned Adelaide chief executive Steven Trigg and club chairman Rob Chapman offered strong contrasts in their reactions to the AFL commission’s penalties over the Kurt Tippett affair.
Trigg wanted to offer an explanation, more than apologise, and described his six-month ban as “extraordinarily tough”.
Chapman’s first comment was to unreservedly apologise to everyone at the club for the Kurt Tippett saga.
The Crows board will now decide Trigg’s fate, with his punishment putting him out of action for the first six months next year.
Along with a $50,000 fine, Trigg is banned from the AFL from January 1.
His total suspension was a year, but half will be suspended for five years.
While Chapman took questions when he fronted the media after Friday’s marathon commission hearing, Trigg would only read from a prepared statement and cited legal sensitivities for doing so.
“As chief executive then and now, I’ve accepted full responsibility for what the AFL considers to be a significant transgression of those rules and for that, I’m very sorry,” Trigg said.
He later added on his suspension: “it’s unprecedented and it’s impossible to sit here without feeling it’s extraordinarily tough.
“Obviously, an example has been set.”
Chapman then spoke and clearly his top priority was to say sorry.
“The first and most important thing that I want to say tonight is to sincerely apologise to everyone associated with Adelaide,” he said.
“I’m talking staff, coaches, players and members, supporters and importantly our sponsors.
“I am sorry on behalf of everyone involved.”
Trigg and football operations manager Phil Harper, who is banned for two months, have Chapman’s personal support.
But it will be up to the board to decided whether the Crows retain the two key officials.
Trigg has been Adelaide’s chief executive for more than a decade and he also received endorsements from AFL chairman Mike Fitzpatrick and chief executive Andrew Demetriou after the Tippett hearing.
“This looked not like a systematic breach, from our point of view,” Fitzpatrick said.
“Clearly, Steven would like to have his time again.
“It’s fundamentally the one transaction … in other ways, Steven Trigg has been an exemplary chief executive.”
Demetriou said he would gladly work again with Trigg, Harper and former Crows football operations manager John Reid, who also received a six-month ban.
“He knows he made a mistake, in many ways it’s an act of stupidity, because it’s not in keeping with his performance and his character,” Demetriou said of Trigg.
“This is a very hefty sanction.
“He will learn from this and will be welcomed back into the industry.”
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