Richmond defender Noah Balta "has a right to play" while he awaits his assault sentencing, says outgoing AFL Players Association (AFLPA) chief Paul Marsh.
Balta has pleaded guilty to assault and will be sentenced on April 22 for his attack on a 27-year-old man outside the Mulwala Water Ski Club.
The Tigers backman was suspended for four premiership season matches, after also sitting out two practice games, by his club in a sanction ratified by the AFL after the incident on December 30 last year.
Balta's suspension expires this weekend, with the 25-year-old eligible to return in Richmond's round-five game against Fremantle on Sunday.
Richmond coach Adem Yze last week said the club planned for Balta to return on the weekend, while AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon was "comfortable" with him playing.
"There's been a disciplinary process there. Noah has served that out. And so he has a right to play this week. I don't know whether he will," Marsh said on Tuesday.
"At the moment, our thoughts are with Noah in a sort of broader sense, I think he's got some problems, sorts of challenges ahead of him and that is the bigger issue.
"But if playing fully, and I think playing footy can be a nice distraction, being in a club where they're actually working with him day-to-day is also really positive ... I think that the club will make the right decision.
"He's gone through a process where he's been suspended, so I think it's appropriate that that's the suspension.
"He's got a criminal process that he's going through, and there'll be a determination made at the end of that. But there has been a football process, and that's the result of it."
Balta pleaded guilty in the Corowa Local Court to assault occasioning actual bodily harm, which in NSW carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail.
Prosecutors said Balta's actions, which hospitalised the victim Thomas Washbrook with head injuries, met the threshold of a high-level offence.
The court was shown CCTV footage of Balta running out of the club and shoulder-charging Washbrook, knocking him to the ground.
Court documents state Balta punched Washbrook's head two to three times and assisted his brother by holding the man down.
Balta punched Washbrook twice more in the head before he was pulled away from the victim, who was bleeding from a three-centimetre head wound.
Balta's defence team admitted to the court the incident was serious, but argued the assault was at the higher end of a mid-level offence.
His lawyer Belinda Franjic told the court the offence was "completely and utterly out of character" for the AFL star.
When asked whether Balta being able to play was a bad look for the game, Marsh said: "We're getting into some really challenging areas when we start making decisions on what a good look for the game can be.
"The game has got an ability to help players rehabilitate and become better people.
"These are young people that we're dealing with. And so I think the outcome we all want for now to come out of this is for Noah to come out of this experience as a better person."
