Player banned after YouTube fight scene

A West Coast rugby league player has been banned for eight matches over punching and kicking an opponent in a video that was posted on YouTube.

West Coast Rugby League president Peter Kerridge said Runanga loose forward Matthew Sweeney had been suspended for the rest of the 2007 season and the early part of the 2008 campaign.

The incident was captured on film and broadcast on the YouTube website before being removed on Friday.

Sweeney was involved in an altercation with a Waro-Rakau opponent in a West Coast premier grade game at Greymouth's Wingham Park last Sunday.

He was sent to the sinbin by the referee but there appeared to a verbal exchange between Sweeney and the Waro-Rakau hooker.

Sweeney punched his rival in the head, knocking him to the ground.

He hit him again and kicked him once before he was dragged away by Runanga team-mates.

Kerridge said Sweeney had claimed provocation.

The loose forward gave his account of the incident at a West Coast board of control meeting on Monday.

However, he was handed an eight-match ban by a three-man judiciary panel on Tuesday.

Kerridge said Sweeney would miss "two to four" games this season, depending on whether Runanga qualifies for the West Coast grand final and the new national interclub competition which kicks off next month.

He would also be out for between four and six games in 2008.

Runanga is lying third in the five-team West Coast premiership behind Suburbs, which is already assured of top spot for next weekend's play-offs, and Cobden Kohinoor.

Waro-Rakau is fourth and will play top seed Suburbs in the semi-finals.

- © Fairfax NZ News