Port Adelaide utility Jackson Trengove was "doing the right thing" before being punched in the face outside a hotel, his AFL coach says.
Trengove says he went to the aid of a woman who was being hassled outside a Glenelg hotel at 12.30am Sunday - and ended up being punched in the eye.
Trengove, a member of Port's leadership group, was cleared by a club investigation of any wrongdoing, a result supported by his coach Ken Hinkley.
"From my own point of view ... Jackson appears to be, from what I can see, doing the right thing and he ends up in a little bit of strife," Hinkley told reporters on Friday.
"I say to our players all the time: do the right thing.
"There's nothing wrong with doing the right thing. If you do the right thing you'll end up in a pretty good spot.
"And clearly that is what he has done."
Trengove has detailed the incident which left him with a black eye after leaving a 21st birthday party at a bar co-owned by Port captain Travis Boak and forward Robbie Gray.
"I have got the club's support that what I did was 100 per cent correct," Trengove told Triple M radio.
"If that was my little daughter when she was grown up in the same situation, I would hope someone would have done the same thing as I did.
"You don't want to get a shiner or you don't want to get hit ... but I would definitely do it again."
Trengove said he didn't retaliate after being punched.
"It was just one of those things that happens but you don't wish anyone gets into that situation because it's not nice to be in," he said.
"I got out of there straight away and put ice on my face."
