Former North Melbourne captain and current Richmond assistant coach Jack Ziebell was sensationally sent from the field in his return to local footy in the EDFL.
Ziebell, playing for Avondale Heights in the Essendon District Football League on Thursday, was shown a yellow card in the Premier Division game.
Facing off against Aberfeldie, Ziebell, now 33, went back with the flight but mistimed his run and collected defender Daniel Thompson high with a stray arm. Thompson is reported to have suffered a broken nose as a result, according to News Corp.
Thompson took a while to get back to his feet before being taken from the field under the blood rule, in which time numerous Aberfeldie players came to fly the flag against Ziebell.
Following a back and forth, the 280-game AFL veteran then appears to send his forehead into Abers player Joey Dimasi and is given a yellow card by the officiating umpire, seeing Ziebell off for 15 minutes.
Ziebell’s Avondale Heights side went on to lose by three points, 13.16 (94) to 15.7 (97), with former Sydney forward Ben Ronke booting four goals for the victors.
Aberfeldie co-coach Clay Illman was full of praise for his players for the way they handled one of North Melbourne’s greatest ever players.
“It was a team effort against Jack, he’s still obviously a high quality player being straight out of the AFL,” Illman said, per News Corp, after keeping Ziebell goalless.
Ziebell joined Richmond as an assistant coach under Adem Yze in October last year, less than two months after he played his final game for the Kangaroos.