Adelaide Footy League club St Peter’s OC fields ineligible player, is stripped of premiership points

An Adelaide Footy League club has been stripped of its win over the weekend after a major rule breach and now sits bottom of the ladder after five rounds.

An Adelaide Footy League club has been stripped of two premiership points after fielding an ineligible player on Saturday and now sits bottom of the ladder as a result.

Division one club St Peter’s Old Collegians self-reported that it had fielded an ineligible player during its 88-37 home win over fellow relegation battler Old Ignatians and has had its score wiped by the league.

The club breached a longstanding rule in the competition which stipulates that an amateur club cannot field a SANFL player who played SANFL football the week before unless that player has competed in 25 senior and/or junior men’s matches or 20 women’s matches for that amateur club or has attended the school the club is affiliated with.

The outcome means SPOC has been stripped of its first win of the 2023 div one season and slides below opponent Old Ignatians – also previously winless – to the bottom of the ladder.

Adelaide Footy League chief John Kernahan said the league had no choice but to strip SPOC of its win and award it to Old ignatians.

Adelaide Footy League division one club St Peter's Old Collegians has been stripped of its win over Old Ignatians on Saturday. Picture: Brenton Edwards

“The fact the match was against Old Ignatians, a club SPOC is competing with to avoid a lower placed position on the premiership ladder is immaterial,” he said.

“Precedence has determined the league had little choice than to remove the score and adjust the match result accordingly just as it would for any other player ineligible to play or breach of APPS regulations or Player Points.

“Most clubs would have some empathy for a club who wilts under the weight of regulations. However, we will always place the integrity of our competition above all else where applicable.

“It would be easy to throw rocks at the SPOC management from the cheap seats but there was no deliberate breach. However, it is inherent of a club with healthy playing stock not adequately supported off field.

Adelaide Footy League chief John Kernahan said the league had no choice but to strip SPOC of premiership points. Picture: Emma Brasier

“We very much hope the SPOC community understand that like other clubs, theirs is being facilitated by too few and needing to do too much. When that happens, some fundamentals fall through the cracks.”

St Peter’s OC chairman Guy Roberts said the club was not up to speed on the rule and had let its playing group down as a result.

“Our vetting processes didn’t work perfectly. We published our team on the Thursday night and regrettably we didn’t know the rule and no one picked up on it until the opposition club put us on notice in the third quarter.

“We took the player off and then self-reported to the league.

“The players are the ones we feel for, it was their first win and a comfortable one. It’s a harsh lesson learned for us and a collective failure on the admin side of things.

“We let our playing group down and we have apologised to them. They are now focused on getting a win against Goodwood on Saturday.”