ADELAIDE Crows star Daniel Talia has escaped losing his licence for speeding because his cat was vomiting violently when he breached the speed limit by 36km/hr.

The 2012 AFL Rising Star winner was clocked at 96km/h in a 60 km/hzone on the Southern Expressway, O’Halloran Hill, at 7.24pm on February 9 this year.

Talia, 22, pleaded guilty in Adelaide Magistrates Court yesterday to one count of speeding, but his lawyer, David Edwardson, QC, said the defender was distracted by his Bengal cat, Ciba, vomiting in the back seat of his car.

In an affadavit filed with the court, Talia said he was returning from holding a coaching clinic at Middleton with his partner, dog and kitten when he was clocked speeding.

“At the time of my offending, one of my animals had become violently ill and threw up,” Talia said.

“This distracted my attention momentarily to ensure that it was okay and remained in the back area of the car.”

Talia’s statement said he had still believed he was under the speed limit because of the distraction.

Mr Edwardson told the court that speed limits along the expressway frequently changed at that time because of works to duplicate the major road.

Talia was confronted by a “frustrating scenario that affected motorists at that time”.

“There were no roadworks being performed at the relevant time and there was no embarrassment to other road users,” he said.

Mr Edwardson asked Magistrate Bob Harrap to reduce the number of demerit points attached to the speeding offence to allow Talia to keep his licence.

He told the court Talia would suffer “undue hardship” if he was not able to drive to his numerous Crows training sessions each week.

Mr Harrap replied: “You are not submitting that he is going to lose his employment or anything? It’s more of an inconvenience than hardship isn’t it?”

The magistrate did agree to reduce Talia’s demerit points from seven to four because of the unusual circumstances surrounding his sick cat, which prosecutors accepted had led to him overlooking a change in speed limit.

“Perhaps the one remarkable aspect of the offending is that one of (Talia’s) animals that was travelling in the car was violently ill at the time,” Mr Harrap said.

Talia was convicted and fined $824 plus $503 in court costs and levies but did not lose his licence.

Outside court, the star defender said he was keen to put the incident behind him.

“Speeding should not be condoned on our roads,” Talia said.

“I am glad this experience is past me and I’m looking forward to moving on.”

Talia made his AFL debut for the Crows in 2011 and quickly made his mark as a tall defender and was awarded the prestigious 2012 AFL Rising Star award as the league’s best young player.