Broadmeadow coach Anthony Richards is comfortable his team will be fine without him for their preliminary final and potential grand final appearance after his send off on the weekend.
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Richards was shown a red card in extra-time of the loss to Edgeworth on penalties in the Northern NSW NPL major semi-final on Saturday night at Jack McLaughlan Oval.
He remonstrated with the fourth official after Edgeworth made it 3-3 in the 106th minute with a second goal from Dylan Holz, just 20 seconds after calls for a foul against Eagles skipper Josh Evans were denied.
Evans appeared to make contact with John Majurovski's face behind him with his hand as he tried to keep possession with his back to goal.
The match finished at 3-3 before the Eagles won 4-3 on penalties to move into the November 8 grand final at No.2 Sportsground. Magic host Maitland on Sunday from 3pm for the other spot in the decider.
Under regulations on match official abuse, Richards will receive a minimum two-game suspension. The lowest ranked offences - unsporting conduct and using offensive language and/or gestures - bring the automatic one-game ban for the red card plus an extra match. The penalty will be handed down on Tuesday.
Regulations also stipulate that those banned for match official abuse cannot attend the ground on match-days.
Richards, though, believed his absence on match-days would not hurt Magic's chances of winning the championship. Assistant coach John Bennis, a multiple grand final-winning skipper at Broadmeadow, will take the reins.
"Johnny Bennis runs most of the sessions anyway and we have a good leader there in Luke Virgili, he keeps the tempo at training," said Richards, who is stepping aside as coach for personal reasons after this season.
"Then we have others like Jonny Griffiths, John Majurovski, they make sure everything is above board.
"This is not going to bother them at all, me being missing off the bench on the weekend.
"I'm more than comfortable we'll be fine, 100 per cent fine."
As well as the crucial extra-time goal, Magic believed the Eagles should not have been allowed their first equaliser. Josh Rose scored in the 45th minute but Broadmeadow believed Ayden Brice took the ball out in the lead-up.
Richards, though, said Magic had their chances after leading three times in regular play and again in the shoot-out.
"The referees don't cost you games," he said. "We got ourselves in a position where we could have won it, we should have won it.
"But what a spectacle for the spectators, 3-all and penalties. They did really well, both sides. Hopefully we can get one more go at them."
The absence of Richards means Magic will need to find another qualified coach for match-days. NPL clubs must have a coach with at least a B-licence on the sideline during games. Broadmeadow director of football Jim Cresnar is a potential replacement.
Northern NSW Football's senior officer for premier competitions, Ramsey Vane-Wood, said exceptions to the requirement could be made.
"Ideally, the head coach on a matchday should have a B-licence but with suspension I guess it can be tricky," he said.
"Ideally, every club should have two people with B-licences but sometimes it's not exclusive to two different people.
"There is some scope there to work around different circumstances."
As for match official abuse, Vane-Wood said: "We try to take a zero tolerance stance on it, because unfortunately, and this year of all years, it's been terrible across the board in all comps."