Winter entered Thursday night’s tribunal hearing in Hobart pleading guilty to behaving in an abusive, insulting, threatening or obscene manner towards or in relation to an umpire.

The incident occurred late in the opening quarter of Saturday’s TSL grand final against North Launceston.

But Lauderdale’s defence in the hearing was his barbs were directed not at umpires, but at the North Launceston interchange bench.

The tribunal heard that Winter allegedly approached the emergency umpire and said: “Tell them to stop it”. 

The umpire told Winter to “cool down” and leave. 

It was further alleged that Winter again approached the umpires later in the quarter and said “you cheating f****** c****” while angrily gesturing at the field of play.

The emergency umpire said he was intimidated and scared by the exchange, and placed Winter on report at quarter-time.

The umpire’s evidence was reinforced by a TSL matchday official who witnessed the altercation.

Winter agreed with all parties of the remarks that were said.

But Lauderdale unsuccessfully argued Winter was not looking or gesturing at any umpire when making the remarks.

They said regular exchanges between both interchange benches and emotional crowd behaviour contributed to the situation.

The tribunal handed out a four-match ban, increased to six matches with 50 per cent loading used for grand finals.