- Man gets huge penalty after cowardly punching ex-AFL player
- Jason Cloke was rushed to hospital after the ugly incident.
- His father, a legend of the Magpies and the Tigers, lashed out against the attack
A Queensland football player accused of punching former AFL player Jason Cloke last weekend has been handed a lengthy 26-game suspension from the Queensland Masters competition.
The man appeared in court on Wednesday night and received a 20-game suspension for hitting Cloke with his elbow and knocking him to the ground, and another six-game suspension for another punching incident.
Queensland Police are investigating the incident, which saw Cloke rushed to Pindara Private Hospital on the Gold Coast where he stayed overnight and underwent a CT scan.
Cloke posted images and videos of the crash and her hospital stay on Instagram, along with the caption: “A lot of people asking me why I was in the hospital. Check out the video below.”
The hit on the 42-year-old during an AFL Masters over-35s match on Saturday sparked a furious response from Cloke’s father, football legend David, who branded the league “weak as f**k” following the incident.
Jason Cloke was captain of the Broadbeach Cats when they had a physical altercation with the Burleigh Bombers.
As the teams separated, one of the Bombers players appeared to suddenly turn around and elbow an unsuspecting Cloke in the face, causing him to fall hard to the ground and lie sprawled on the turf.
David Cloke, whose other star AFL son Cameron was seriously injured when he was cowardly punched during a match in Victoria last year, lashed out on Sunday.
Jason Cloke (pictured playing for Collingwood in 2003) was taken to hospital and had to stay overnight after appearing to be hit with an elbow.
Video footage shows the player in the red No.22 jersey allegedly elbowing Cloke (pictured) to the head as a fight broke up.
“The last time it happened to Cameron, nothing was done. The league did nothing about it. The player returned to play this year,” he told News Corp.
“It’s very weak. The AFL is very weak.
‘These people should be banned from playing ever again, but the AFL is doing nothing about it.
‘Why do you think most AFL footballers, once they retire, don’t want to play football again?
“I have a nine-year-old granddaughter who plays football. I don’t want her to play anymore. This is absolute nonsense.”
David Cloke played a total of 333 top-flight games for Richmond and the Magpies in a distinguished career that lasted from 1974 to 1991.
Cloke, 42, played 76 games for the Collingwood Magpies between 2002 and 2006.
Last May, former Carlton, Magpies and Power star Cameron Cloke was crushed in an incident caught on camera as Templestowe’s Eastern Football League clash with Boronia was about to kick off in Melbourne.
He appeared to have been hit in the head by an opponent as he prepared for the first rebound.
Cloke did not participate in the game after the incident and went to hospital complaining of headaches and inability to sleep.
“I’ve had two serious concussions this year, so I won’t be playing again this year. I’ll focus on training and my kids,” he said afterwards.
“I can’t have my children with me – I have a two-year-old, a four-year-old and a nine-year-old stepson – and I can’t let them see me the way I was at the weekend.”
