North Melbourne’s Tarryn Thomas has been handed an 18-match suspension by the AFL, according to reports.
The 23-year old, who faced the league’s Integrity Unit in January over new domestic violence allegations against him, has had the whopping ban confirmed by the AFL Commission, with Nine‘s Tom Morris reporting his season is now all but over.
Heading into the final season of his Kangaroos contract, Thomas will now only be able to manage four matches in 2024 – unless the club acts early to move the troubled potential star on after years of serious allegations against him from a number of women.
Speaking on 3AW, Matthew Lloyd was in no doubt that the suspension will prove the death knell to his AFL career, describing Thomas as ‘one of the most wasted talents that we’ve ever seen in the game’.
“He’ll be lost to football,” Lloyd said of Thomas, before revealing he had advised the Kangaroos during a recent media session at the club that they couldn’t afford to continue expending so much energy on one player.
“You could sense the way they [Kangaroos staff] were talking that it had been a draining issue for them,” Lloyd said of the latest allegations against Thomas.
“It’s been left in the hands of the AFL; they were expecting to hear three weeks ago what was going to be happening.
“John Quinn, our long-time fitness coach at the Bombers, said there was one particular player that he said ‘I spent 90 per cent of my time dealing with his issues and his matters as a head of strength and conditioning coach – so for 40 other players, who are doing all the right things, I’m spending 10 per cent of my time on them’.
“I raised this with North… it was just a candid chat, and I could see a few nods, saying yep, I can understand what you’re saying, because that’s been Tarryn Thomas.
“We’re forever being sidetracked by issues when we want to put all our energies into getting ourselves back on our feet as a football club, yet we’re constantly dealing with off-field matters with Tarryn Thomas.”
In 2023, Thomas was charged with threatening to distribute intimate images of his former partner, with the Roos standing him down as a result, though he avoided sanction after attending court in July.
He had also been stood down earlier in the season after the allegations first emerged.
He returned after undertaking a club-ordered respect and responsibility education program to play 12 AFL matches last season, bringing his career tally up to 69 since making his debut in 2019 – and even finishing sixth in the Roos’ best and fairest despite playing in barely half their games.
After being taken with pick 8 in the 2018 draft, the Tasmanian has shown glimpses of his exceptional talent, but they have been comfortably outweighed in recent years by the litany of off-field allegations against him.
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