Shane Harrison, 40, previously of Framlingham, pleaded guilty in the koori division of the Warrnambool Magistrates Court to a range of charges including the on-field assault.

He was originally charged with 24 offences, most relating to driving, but some were withdrawn when Harrison made admissions to his offending.

Harrison had already spent 126 days in custody and will be back in court on April 9 when his plea hearing is expected to be finalised.

Police said that on May 18, 2019, in round seven of the Warrnambool and District league, Harrison lined up for East Warrnambool reserves against South Rovers.

As the teams walked back to their huddles at a break, Harrison walked up behind an opposition player and headbutted him to the left side of the face.

The victim took no further part in the game due to the attack, which involved multiple facial factors, including a broken left cheek and eye socket.

He had plates and screws during surgery in Geelong.

When interviewed by police, Harrison said he had been told a player had tried to "take out" his 14-year-old son during the game.

He said he was trying to protect his son, but admitted he had mistakenly headbutted an innocent player who had nothing to do with his son.

In a victim impact statement, the victim said he took 12 weeks off football and for a while he couldn't even play with his children.

He said he had no contact previous with Harrison and there had been no discussion before the assault.

He said it was the most violent incident he had ever been involved in and such incidents only did damage to the sport's reputation.

In other offending, police said that on the morning of November 11 last year Harrison was intercepted by officers.

He was driving an unregistered car while unlicensed, using false number plates and tested positive to ice use.

Harrison said he used cannabis and ice four days previously but he did not think it impacted on his ability to drive.

On May 2 Harrison was seen by police heading west on Raglan Parade near Horne Road.

He turned off onto a service road and then into a motel, but stopped fleeing from police and returned to speak to officers.

A zip lock bag he had contained white powder believed to be crushed Xanax pills.

The car also had false number plates, was unregistered and an oral fluid test was positive to cannabis and ice.

On the afternoon of May 23 Harrison and a young man went to a Kiama Avenue home in Warrnambool where Harrison demanded the keys to a ute.

The resident said he had no idea what Harrison was talking about.

The victim was hit with a flurry of punches, suffering a laceration and swelling to his left eye.

He was also kicked and repeatedly punched.

Neighbours identified the offenders and called police.

Harrison also smashed a window and cut his hand before leaving.

The victim attended hospital four days later and had reconstructive surgery to repair his smashed eye socket and damaged eye function.

On July 13 police saw a purple Holden sedan near a Shell service station in Raglan Parade with no rear number plates.

The driver fled down Caramut Road, police patrolled near Woodford, and again saw the vehicle which did not stop when requested to pull over.

CCTV from the service station showed Harrison was driving.

He was disqualified at the time and later surrendered to the Warrnambool police station after negotiations.

Koori elder Janice Lovett said it was clear Harrison had severe anger issues and no regards for the law or the wellbeing of other people.

Magistrate Mark Stratmann adjourned further hearing of the case until April 9 when the plea is expected to continue and sentencing be finalised.

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