Suspended jail term for local footy game punch

Proud, aged 34 at the time, grabbed the guernsey of the other player, about 10 years his junior, after some "antagonism" between the pair earlier in the match.

"He shoved you in the back. However, you then attempted to headbutt him," Justice Robert Pearce said in sentencing remarks published on Tuesday.

"When he dodged your attempt and turned away, you punched him to his right eye with a closed fist."

The other player suffered a fractured right eye socket, a two-centimetre cut to his right cheekbone and bruising.

"He was taken from the ground in an ambulance and I am informed that he no longer plays football," Justice Pearce said.

The Supreme Court judge said Proud was not a person of previously good character and had longstanding alcohol and drug issues.

He was given a suspended jail term in 2005 for striking someone with a broken bottle and impairing their vision in one eye.

Proud was abusing illegal drugs, including ice, around when the assault occurred but it is not suggested he was affected by alcohol or drugs at the specific time.

Justice Pearce accepted Proud was sorry and noted his sister and a former employer said he was capable of being responsible when healthy.

The judge described football as a contact sport carrying an inevitable risk of injury during the normal course of a game.

"However, players do not consent to being unlawfully assaulted. Punches struck behind the play are criminal acts," he said.

"Even though (the opposition player) had engaged in a physical exchange with you, he had turned away before he was struck.

"There was no justification for your conduct at all and he, and others who play the game, are entitled to the protection of the law from such violence.

"Those who might be minded to act as you did must understand that such actions risk criminal sanction."

Proud's eight-month jail sentence was wholly suspended on the condition he doesn't commit an offence punishable by imprisonment for two years.