North Tamworth Bears: Committee condemns player and spectator violence during junior match

In a Facebook post on Friday, Norths' senior committee labelled as "disgusting" and "unacceptable" the behaviour during a junior match at their homeground.

Read also:

"More concerning was the behaviour of adults who both verbally encouraged this player violence and assault to occur and then actually entered the field of play and perpetrated acts of violence and assault on the field," the committee said.

"Members of the North Tamworth Bears committee and Group 4 representatives fully witnessed this shocking and sickening behaviour[,] along with the Group 4 Referees [sic] who we understand have made a full report."

It is unclear what age group was involved in the match.

Norths' committee called on Bears supporters to remove from social media videos of the "violence and assault".

"We understand that Group 4 and the referees will use as much video footage as possible to process potential charges or bans from the game," it said.

"We ask that if such video footage does exist that it be taken down from the public domain and forwarded to Group 4 as a sign of goodwill that the individual perpetrators are identified and dealt with appropriately.

"While such video footage continues to be promoted publically [sic], it has no positive value for either club or their public reputations or corporate identity."

When asked on Saturday morning if police were investigating the incident, Bears president Peter Artis said "no".

"All put to bed," he said of the matter.

Group 4 Junior Rugby League president Peter Lennox said he could not comment on the incident because "we're still investigating".

"At the end of the day, it was kids playing football - and things get a little bit out of hand," he said.

"I wasn't there, so I can't really say exactly what it was. But like I said, everything's still under investigation."

Lennox said the NSW Rugby League was investigating the shameful incident.

"It's all NSW Rugby League. No police are involved," he said.

Norths juniors president Nicholas Hodgson declined to comment. "Please don't contact anyone else from the club regarding this matter," he said.

The Leader has requested a comment from NSWRL's Greater Northern area manager, Scott Bone, and Manilla juniors.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: