Rockbank Rams player Christian Innella, 29, entered a guilty plea at a tribunal hearing over the incident involving field umpire Matthew McFarlane, 16, during Rockbank's clash with Romsey on May 30.

Innella did not appear at the tribunal hearing on June 2.

He was interviewed by police last week and is expected to be charged on summons with intentionally causing injury, recklessly causing injury and unlawful assault.

Innella played most of his football for Western Region Football League club Glen Orden before signing with the Rams this year. He won the Glen Orden best and fairest award in 2007 and was a major factor in the club's division 2 grand final win that year.

Glen Orden Sports Club president David Cassano said Innella was a pacy ball-carrying wingman during his four years with the Hawks.

Innella left to play with his brother at Rockbank towards the end of last season.

"When we heard it was him we were shocked," Cassano said. "He had very good skills and was fast. It's a shame, but you can't have players striking umpires, so the league has probably made the right decision."

Rockbank president Geoff Harrison said the club's hard work in the past couple of years to lift its profile and recruit new players had "come unstuck in half a second".

"We're going to come through it [though]

it's not something we can fix in five seconds."

The match was called off after the incident that occurred 20 minutes into the second quarter.

RDFL general manager Scott McCartney said the harsh penalty was appropriate and sent a message that any sort of abuse directed at umpires would be dealt with swiftly and harshly.

"People will understand the reason we've been harsh," he said.

"Anything less than life may have been inadequate.

"At the moment, we're having trouble recruiting umpires because it [the pay] is $90 and they [umpires] are not going to stand out there and cop abuse. Spectators think it's right to abuse umpires ... it's a total lack of respect for umpires."

McCartney said Innella did not deserve a second chance.

"It's something that hasn't happened in our league before, and we've been around for 126 years. If you assault an umpire, you don't deserve to play. It's a privilege, not a right, to play football."

McCartney said the incident would tarnish the club's reputation that had worked hard on rebuilding. "One person's brain-freeze can have a massive impact on a club's reputation."

Romsey was awarded the four points for the game.