Yze speaks on Balta’s likely return
Angus Delaney
Noah Balta is likely to play in Richmond’s AFL side on Saturday just days before he is sentenced for assault over a December attack on a man in Mulwala, if he makes it through training uninjured.
Coach Adem Yze said Balta had been “punished enough” and was available to be selected after serving a six-match suspension – including two pre-season games – and playing in the club’s VFL side last week.
“I’m not going to divulge who we’re going to put in that team today before we go through selection and before we need to,” said Yze.
“If he trains well enough, he’ll be available for the selection this weekend and we’ll make that decision later tonight.”
Balta pleaded guilty in the Corowa Local Court to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, which carries a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan is among those who have called for 25-year-old Balta to continue to sit on the sidelines until he is sentenced and said last week that the attack was “sickening”.
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon previously said the league was “comfortable” in allowing Balta to play before being sentenced in court.
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Yze said Balta had served his league suspension and last week’s stint in the VFL stint was to prove the key defender was match fit.
“At the start of this whole process, he’s been working on himself, and he can’t wait to get out and … try to earn the respect back of not only us as a club and his teammates but … our supporters and the AFL,” said Yze.
“He’s a Richmond man … we’ve punished him enough.”
After fielding several questions about Balta, Yze he was “not going to answer any more questions about him” and wanted to focus on the club’s upcoming match against undefeated Gold Coast.
Balta settled a civil case with assault victim Thomas Washbrook last month after a NSW court was shown CCTV footage of the assault. He is due to be sentenced on April 22.
AFL exec calls it quits
One of the AFL’s top executives has resigned, joining Gillion McLachlan and Kylie Rogers as high-profile departures from the organisation in recent years.
Brian Walsh, the AFL’s executive general manager corporate affairs, government and communications indicated last year that 2025 would be his final season with the league, and his departure was confirmed on Wednesday.
The AFL said Walsh would continue in his role in an advisory capacity, while it searches for his replacement. He first worked for the AFL as corporate affairs manager from 2006 until 2011, before returning in his most recent role in 2019.
“I love this industry and have had the pleasure of serving three incredibly talented CEOs and three chairmen who I have admired greatly and learnt a lot from,” Walsh said in a statement.
AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon said Walsh left a lasting mark on the league.
“Brian has been a valued colleague, friend, mentor, sounding board, and a calm and trusted voice in the room when it mattered most,” said Dillion.
Walsh is among a number of executives who have left the AFL since 2023. Former chief executive Gillon McLachlan is now at Tabcorp. Former executive general manager customer and commercial Kylie Rogers is now chief executive of the Victorian Racing Corporation, and Travis Auld departed the league in 2023 to head the Australian Grand Prix Corporation.
Rioli back at training, Hinkley calls for social media accountability
AAP
Port Adelaide’s Willie Rioli has returned to training after receiving racist abuse online, which prompted his coach Ken Hinkley to call for stronger laws to hold social media users accountable.
Rioli shut down his social media accounts after being the latest Indigenous AFL star to be racially abused.
“It’s a disgrace the racism that still goes on in our world,” Hinkley said on Wednesday.
“With the way we talk about lots of things in society, and yet that is still tolerated and still allowed to go on.
“There almost should be a law that makes people accountable.”
Late in Sunday night’s win over Hawthorn, Rioli theatrically held the ball out at Hawk Changkuoth Jiath before scoring from the goal line.
Jiath pushed the Power forward over, triggering a melee - and a free kick to Rioli, who promptly kicked another goal.
Rioli posted the incident in an Instagram story with the caption: “Play with fire, you’re gonna get burnt. My hatred for this club goes way pass [sic] last year[’s] antics, what they did to my dad, and my brother, is why I can’t stand them. Not the players.”
Racist comments were made on his post before the Port goalsneak deleted his account.
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On his return to training Wednesday morning, Rioli told Nine News he was doing “all right” and his comments online were not directed at Hawthorn’s players.
“It all blows over pretty quickly. I’ve got all the support around me, and it just comes with this industry,” he said.
“I’m really close with [Hawthorn coach] Sammy Mitchell, I sent him an apology.
“I’m one of those raw people that just let my emotions, just sometimes, get the best of me.”
Hinkley said Rioli would be fine for Sunday’s game against Sydney, but that the small forward was subjected to racial abuse online almost weekly.
“He’s here today, as you would have seen, took a little bit of time to deal with what he was dealing with, but he’ll be OK and he’ll be available to play,” Hinkley said.
“It’s for every game he plays like this, it doesn’t just happen against Hawthorn.
“That’s the thing we’ve got to understand, that this happens to Willie Rioli more than any other person that I’ve been involved with, that he cops that type of abuse.”
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Rioli’s father Willie snr, who died in 2022, was drafted by the Hawks in 1990 but didn’t play a senior game.
His cousin Cyril Rioli, a four-time premiership Hawk, and other former Hawthorn Indigenous players last year settled a Federal Court case with the club over racism claims.
Hinkley called for greater debate about stopping online abuse.
“We don’t know the answer, what can be done better or more?” he said.
“Most commonsense people and really good people understand that’s a no-go zone and it should be a no-go zone. But some fools of this world don’t change.”
