DEAN Harding has lashed Wodonga Raiders for citing Tim Kindellan, saying it “reeks of sour grapes”.
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The Wodonga coach leapt to the defence of the Bulldogs tagger, who was rubbed out for four weeks at the Ovens and Murray tribunal on Wednesday night.
Kindellan was cited on video evidence for striking Steve Jolliffe in the midriff during the second quarter of the Bulldogs’ memorable win over their cross-town rivals at Birallee Park.
The former Kiewa-Sandy Creek player carried a two-match suspended sentence into the hearing after being found guilty of striking Lavington’s Kade Stevens earlier in the season.
He was found guilty of striking Jolliffe and handed a further two-match penalty, meaning he will miss four games and won’t play again this season unless the Bulldogs reach finals.
Harding said Kindellan had been unfairly maligned and that he was paying the price for the Raiders’ costly loss to the Bulldogs.
“I am extremely disappointed that (coach) Daryn Cresswell, Steve Jolliffe and the Raiders would go down this path of trawling through footage to throw something up,” Harding said.
“It reeks of sour grapes and certainly doesn’t help with the building of relationships between the two clubs.
“Whilst we need to move on quickly to prepare for Lavington this week, we are 100 per cent behind our player.”
Cresswell refuted Harding’s claim, saying the Raiders were sticking up for Jolliffe after Kindellan had been suspended last season for striking Todd Grayson.
“It’s definitely not sour grapes. They beat us fair and square and deserved the four points, we didn’t,” he said.
“They worked harder and they wanted it more, so they got the right result but I’m not going to have my players felled or hit behind play when they’re not ready for it.
“The disappointing thing for me is that it happened last year when Grayson copped a broken nose off the same player and this year ‘Joffa’ has copped a whack off the ball when he’s not ready for it.
“I think the frustration from Wodonga should be at the player for putting himself in those positions and not at the Wodonga Raiders.”
Bulldog Dylan Beattie accepted a two-match set penalty for striking Jolliffe in the final term.