Richmond defender David Gourdis has been suspended for five matches by the VFL tribunal on two charges arising from last Saturday’s Coburg-Geelong game at Skilled Stadium.

Gourdis, who played full-back for Coburg on experienced Geelong forward Cameron Mooney, was charged with making an obsence gesture to the field umpire and then making contact with the same umpire.

The incident occurred in the last quarter of the match after a free kick was awarded against Gourdis to Mooney. 

A frustrated Gourdis subsequently made the gesture to the umpire, who responded by awarding a 50-metre penalty against him.  As Gourdis was running back to stand the mark, he made contact with the umpire.

The VFL tribunal, which sat on Tuesday night, heard character evidence for Gourdis from Richmond’s Football Operations Manager Ross Mongahan and the Club’s psychologist Kim Stephens.

“Once David viewed the footage he realised the seriousness of the charge, and that he’d done the wrong thing, so he pleaded guilty,” Monaghan said.

“The tribunal took everything into account, but still considered the charges serious enough to suspend David for a significant amount of time.”
Richmond considered appealing the suspension, but after examining all the facts, decided against it.  
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