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Premiership Bomber to miss rest of the season, Echuca star ruck accepts guilty plea

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A mutliple premiership-winning Bomber will miss more than a month of football after he was found guilty by the tribunal on Wednesday night. Photo by Megan Fisher

Kyabram and Echuca will be without two premiership heroes on Saturday for the Goulburn Valley League second semi-final clash.

Multiple premiership-winning Bomber Kayne Pettifer will sit out the remainder of the finals series after he was issued a lengthy suspension at Wednesday night’s tribunal hearing.

The tribunal found the former AFL talent guilty and suspended him for five matches.

Pettifer was reported by the Match Review Officer (MRO) for kneeing Mansfield opponent Luke Menhennet in last weekend’s elimination final win at Mooroopna.

The third-quarter incident ― that led to Menhennet leaving the field and taking no further part in the game ― was graded careless conduct, severe impact and high contact and the champion forward was referred directly to the tribunal.

Echuca will enter Saturday’s crucial clash at Euroa’s Memorial Oval without its premiership ruckman Kane Morris.

The star Murray Bomber was reported by the MRO for engaging in rough conduct against Seymour’s Jack Murphy in the qualifying final win.

Morris’ charge was graded careless conduct, medium impact and high contact.

The talented tall accepted an early guilty plea and will miss one match.

Morris’ teammate Sam Willoughby escaped suspension and is free to play this weekend after he was reported for striking Seymour’s Nathan Fowler.

The striking charge was graded intentional, low impact and body contact.

The VFL-listed talent accepted an early guilty plea of a reprimand.

Meanwhile, Mansfield ruck Jack Tomanovits will sit out the first round of 2024 after he accepted an early guilty plea of a one-match suspension for his striking report in the loss to Kyabram.

Tomanovits was reported by the MRO, the charge graded as careless, medium impact and high contact.

Elsewhere, Mooroopna trainer James Woods accepted an early guilty plea of a two-match suspension after he was reported by the match day umpire in the elimination final loss to Euroa.

Woods was cited for using abusive, insulting or obscene language towards or in relation to an umpire.

And an under-18s a Murchison-Toolamba player accepted a reprimand for a striking report in the semi-final win over Undera.

The charge was graded as intentional, low impact and to the body.