Head Coach Des Hasler gives his response to the outcome of the David Klemmer hearing and what he thinks should be done moving forward.
Bulldogs forward David Klemmer is free to take on the Parramatta Eels on Friday night after being cleared of a contrary conduct charge for making contact with a match official.
The panel of Paul Whatuira, Don McKinnon and Bob Lidnereliberated for nine minutes, before agreeing with the defence counsel that Klemmer's actions were not in fact illegal.
A guilty verdict would have seen the NSW forward miss matches against the Eels as well as the Round 4 Good Friday blockbuster with the Rabbitohs.
The decision sees Klemmer avoid his second suspension of 2016 after serving a one game ban for making dangerous contact on Melbourne's Kenny Bromwich in a pre-season trial.
The Judiciary Counsel had argued that Klemmer's actions weren't in the spirit of the game, as the onus was on players to avoid contact with match officials.
However the four man panel agreed with Klemmer's defence team that the contact on referee Ben Cummins was "momentary and innocuous", and that the Canterbury forward had been trying to quell tensions between teammate Tim Browne and Penrith's Jamie Soward, with no intention of touching referee Ben Cummins.
The Bulldogs' enforcer gave a brief statement following the Judiciary's ruling, and was clearly happy with the outcome.
"Very happy with the result. Very relieved and I have a lot of respect for the officials," he said.
Meanwhile, Head Coach Des Halser also agreed with the outcome.
"It was a good result for David personally and for the club," Hasler said.
