Hawks mascot lands team in trouble after sideline behaviour

Was Hawkey inciting the crowd, or just doing what mascots do? Photo / File

The nose of Hawke's Bay Hawks mascot may be slightly out of joint after his behaviour landed the bosses a $200 fine.

But the sideline miscreant seems to have copped it despite leanings either way, having once hugged an opposition player and in the ultimate blemish flopped on the floor in apparent disgust at a referee's call.

When "Hawkey" got up he walked towards a referee with outstretched arms, in what league management interpreted as further disapproval of a ruling.

But boss and Taylor Hawks chairman Keith Price, who is not squawking about it, says the club will happily pay without any hint of an employment issue, because it's technically breaching the rules, although he believes "Hawkey" was actually wanting to hug the referee, too.

"The crowd love him," he said, reckoning there also some affection from the opposition.

Hawkey, a long-standing part of the team and sponsored by Arataki Honey, had been warned after an incident in a Hawks match against the Nelson Giants earlier in the season, but still dropped his guard in Saturday's home match against the Franklin Bulls.

Rules are rules, and "as per" the League's Operational Guideline mascots are clearly banned from interfering "in any way" with the field of play or progress of the game.

The club has been fined $200, with hints of a good behaviour bond in a ruling that half the fine is suspended for 12 months.

The Hawks were proceeding in a winning direction when at 2min 13sec in the 4th quarter, according to league management, the miscreant mascot encroached on the court of play "to visibly dispute a referee's call, collapsing to the floor (on the court), before standing up and walking towards the referee with both arms outstretched in a further sign of disputing the referee's call."

"Such actions can also be deemed as inciteful to the crowd," but one fan asked: "Isn't that what the mascot's supposed to do ?"

Under Rule 18.4.5 (consistent and/or wilful breaches of the Rules and Operational Guidelines a fine of up to $2000 was possible.