A Goldfields football player who assaulted an umpire in July has been given an eight-month suspended prison sentence.
Daniel Aaron Murray maintained his guilty plea to one charge of common assault in the Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court on Monday.
Magistrate Genevieve Cleary heard the former AFL-listed player was given a yellow card and then a red card for intimidating the umpire at the match between Kambalda and Mines Rovers on July 17.
The court was told the issuing of the red card, which could have meant the end of Murray's football career, angered the player, causing him to chase the umpire.
During the chase, the umpire tripped and fell and the 199-centimetre-tall Murray then came down on top of him.
A statement from the victim claimed the player then grabbed him and punched him in the temple with a clenched fist.
Murray told the magistrate he only grabbed the victim, but acknowledged his fists might have collided with his head as he did so.
Other players then had to pull him off the victim.
The 31-year-old from Jandabup in Perth told the magistrate he'd had a difficult week at work and had contemplated not playing that day.
He said he was "ashamed and embarrassed" about the incident.
The magistrate said it was a very serious offence.
"Behaviour like this at any level of football is not to be tolerated," Magistrate Cleary said.
The umpires discontinued the game and Murray was later issued a life ban from the sport.
The magistrate warned him that if he committed any offence for which prison was a consideration in the next nine months, the eight-month prison sentence would be enforced.
The Goldfields Football League issued a statement at the time.
"The GFL does not condone any contact with umpires nor any form of violence during a football match," it read.
