FORMER AFL ruckman Brad Ottens was last night acquitted of a charge of striking Bell Park's Tim Sheringham in their clash at Newtown at the weekend.
Ottens pleaded not guilty at last night's Football Geelong tribunal and gave evidence that the only contact between himself and Sheringham had occurred when the Bell Park player's chin had made unavoidable contact with Ottens' upper arm.
The tribunal earlier heard from central umpire Davin Reid that he saw contact made between Ottens' elbow and the left hand side of Sheringham's face.
But in his own evidence, Sheringham told the tribunal that the contact was with the right side of his face.
Tribunal chairman Geoff Stribley said after a only a few minutes of deliberation that there were inconsistencies between the evidence and the DVD video of the incident, which was shown to the tribunal several times.
In the tape Sheringham appears to be falling backwards towards Ottens after the Bell Park player took a mark, and this was when the contact occurred.
Ottens, who chatted with Sheringham while the tribunal conferred, said afterwards that he was relieved with the outcome.
"I am happy with the result I was concerned about Tim's welfare and the good thing is he is OK, too, so it's a good result," he said.
"Obviously we spent a bit of time together at Geelong and I was a bit concerned for his welfare.
"I felt pretty confident with what I had done."
Newtown & Chilwell president Ian Spolding said the club was delighted with the result.
"We value Brad at our football club and we are terribly excited that he will be able to grace the field on Saturday and continue on playing good footy as he has."
Ottens hung up his boots after an ultra-successful stint with Geelong in which he won three premiership medals. The big ruckman started as a forward at Richmond in 1998. He played 129 games with the Tigers before playing 116 games for the Cats.
Ottens signed with Newtown & Chilwell earlier this year and has played nine GFL games.
Last Modified on 07/01/2013 16:19