Yes not good news, surely they will appeal this but who knows now. If Amone is gone then we should definitely go all out for Deardon. Dont get me wrong I feel sorry for the kid but it really was his own doing and probably didnt have the best role model to follow.
Wouldn't waste any time feeling sorry for him justa, he was a grown man making his own decisions. He could quite easily have been responsible for that tradies death if he'd landed differently. I hope they punish him to the full extent of the law and that he never plays for our club again.
Him and his lawyer wasting the courts time trying to bullsh.t that it was a case of mistaken identity, what a joke. Bad call. Should've gone for some kind of mitigation (if there even was any).
Flanagan would've known this was a likely outcome (let's face it, we all did) which means the Sullivan exit was probably always on the cards, tells us that Flanagan just didn't want him. Whether it's attitude, work rate, ability, injuries, who knows, but he's not going to tell us so we just move on. Coach's call.
Also explains why he made the decision to hang on to Ben Hunt for the next year, far too much upheaval to let him go as well at the current time. Also makes more sense of the Flanagan jnr signing.
I expect the club will keep Amone on the books until he's sentenced in 6 weeks. At that point they will probably terminate his contract and that will free-up the salary cap to go after another long term half.