Richmond’s Noah Balta to miss extra games after AFL updates fixture

Ben Sutton
7NEWS Sport
Noah Balta will end up missing five games due to his 10pm curfew.
Noah Balta will end up missing five games due to his 10pm curfew. Credit: Getty Images

Richmond defender Noah Balta will miss a further four AFL matches due to sentencing for assaulting a man outside a club in the NSW Riverina late last year.

Balta was spared jail over the incident, but fined $3000 and sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order.

The court also imposed a 10pm curfew until July 22, which means the premiership defender will be unable to play any night games for the next two months.

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The AFL released the fixture for the remainder of the year on Thursday, which reveals which games Balta will be able to play.

It was already known that Balta would be unavailable for the Round 11 and 12 matches against Essendon and GWS respectively, but he will now also miss the Round 18 and 19 games against the Bombers and West Coast.

He will be free to play Adelaide and Geelong in Rounds 16 and 17 with both those games scheduled during the day.

The clash against the Cats is at GMHBA Stadium at 4:15pm AEST, which will just give him enough time to make it home.

The Game AFL 2025

It means he will miss a total of five games due to the curfew, which adds to the four-match ban at the start of the season.

His lawyer asked for the curfew, which can be broken for urgent medical treatment, to be changed for work but Magistrate Melissa Humphreys said it is a punishment.

Balta, revealed to have paid $45,000 to his victim in a settlement, is also not permitted to enter the Mulwala Ski Club where the assault took place.

But the magistrate said Balta had very positive prospects of rehabilitation and had shown genuine remorse.

Meanwhile, the Western Bulldogs will dominate primetime in the next batch of fixtures.

The high-octane Dogs will feature in five Thursday or Friday night games across the next eight rounds, while Carlton, Essendon and GWS have been given four marquee slots each.

The AFL have also added three Friday night double-headers.

Originally published on 7NEWS Sport

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