Watch the ump-bump footage that cost a country footballer a league medal for misconduct

This is the second-hand ump-bump that cost country footballer Jai Thompson his second consecutive Horsham District Football Netball League medal.

Wearing the North Melbourne blue and white vertical stripes, the Harrow Balmoral coach topped the Dellar Medal count with 27 votes on Monday night but was ruled ineligible because he had been reprimanded for misconduct.

Footage from the opening game of the season shows Thompson jostling with an opponent in the centre square at the start of the game but as he pushes the Taylors Lakes player to the side he collides with the central umpire.

Thompson was hit with the misconduct charge on the Monday after the game and accepted a reprimand for the low-level offence.

Loading

While he did not miss a game through suspension, the league’s rules state: “Any player who has been found guilty of an on-field offence during the home-and-away season shall not be eligible to win the award.”

The league medal went to Pimpino midfielder Matt Rosier on 18 votes.

Harrow Balmoral president Tereasa Hobbs said the ump-bump incident happened at the “first bounce of the first game” against Taylors Lakes.

She said Thompson chose not to challenge the decision, even though “he did not agree with it”, because he did not want to risk a suspension.

“We didn’t fight it at the time or appeal it because round two was a big game – we had our unfurling of the flag – and Jai did not want to miss it,” Hobbs said.

“He wanted to play with the boys and took the reprimand and, unfortunately, it cost him at the end of the year.”

Hobbs said the club was disappointed for their coach to miss out on the award on a technicality.

“But you follow the rules and the rules are there for a reason,” she said. “What people think of the incident is up to them.”

Hobbs said Thompson was an “in and under” workhorse who was always around the ball.

“He’s had such a good year, and to poll nine votes ahead of the person who was awarded the medal, it’s a big gap,” she said.

“But he is a very humble man, and he said, ‘it is what it is, and I’ve got bigger things to worry about’.”

Those bigger things include this weekend’s Horsham District Football Netball League grand final at Natimuk.

Harrow Balmoral take on Noradjuna Quantong in a bid to win their third consecutive premiership.

Thompson had not dropped a game as coach until round eight this year when his side lost by 35 points to Noradjuna Quantong, ending a 42-game winning streak.

Click here to read article