Saints gun Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera in trouble for ‘obscene’ bench gesture

St Kilda’s bid to make the “wildcard” round is precariously placed after the Bulldogs proved too strong at Marvel Stadium.

The Dogs’ 22-point win leaves St Kilda 12th on the ladder with an underwhelming 6-9 record.

To make matters worse for coach Ross Lyon, the club also had injury issues during the match.

Now Wanganeen-Milera may be in hot water with cameras filming him flip the bird near the Saint’s bench.

Saints great-turned Fox Footy commentator Nick Dal Santo said from the sideline the gesture was directed at a group of spectators.

“This is NAS coming off,” Dal Santo said as the vision was broadcast.

“There’s about six guys in front of us giving him some feedback on his performance today, which includes 44 disposals.”

You can watch the incident in the video player above.

Lyon also said after the game: “I think they (fans) were giving it to ‘Nas’ and ‘Nas’ was frustrated.

“We like a bit of theatre. Do we like the bird? We’re all about find out.”

St Kilda great Nick Riewoldt also said on Channel 7: “Greg Swann (AFL football department boss) has relaxed a little on those type of interactions, but we’ll see where that one lands”.

Seven commentator Alister Nicholson also suggested the 23-year-old was responding to things said by spectators.

“This will be a talking point ... something has clearly been said, footballers shouldn’t have to put up with that.

“It’s a fairly harmless response.”

The AFL has previously classified similar incidents as “obscene gestures”.

Jack Ginnivan last year accepted a $1000 fine with an early guilty plea when he showed his middle finger to fans at the Adelaide Oval.

Harley Reid and Bailey Smith were also handed fines last year for similar acts.

It is a sour way for Wanganeen-Milera’s big day at the office to end.

Amassing a career high 44 touches, Wanganeen-Milera was still blunted by the Bulldogs’ defence.

Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge said after the game he was not bothered by Wanganeen-Milera’s impact.

“He had a lot of the ball, a lot of metres gained, but he only had five score involvements,” Beveridge said.

“So we were content that he could have 65 (disposals) if he wanted, but we were just going to keep playing in a systematic way.”

— with NewsWire

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