Southern Football League: Jarrad Liebelt injury forces Noarlunga and Flagstaff Hill match to be abandoned

A southern suburbs football game has been called off – and a player taken to hospital – after a suspected neck injury delayed play for almost an hour.

Noarlunga player Jarrad Liebelt (right) suffered a suspected neck injury in the Shoes’ Southern Football League match against Flagstaff Hill on Saturday. Picture: AAP/ Keryn Stevens

A crucial Southern Football League match between Noarlunga and Flagstaff Hill has been abandoned after a suspected neck injury halted play for almost an hour.

Shoes player Jarrad Liebelt was hurt when he collided with a Falcons opponent about 10 minutes into the third quarter of the grand final rematch at Noarlunga on Saturday.

Liebelt complained of a sore neck and loss of feeling in one arm following the incident and was stabilised on the field by trainers.

Jarred Liebelt, pictured against Port Noarlunga in 2018, has been cleared of any serious injury. Picture: AAP/Keryn Stevens

An ambulance was called and took Liebelt to hospital, where scans cleared him of serious injury.

But, as play was interrupted until about 4.30pm, the game was abandoned.

Under SFL rules, if a match is stopped for more than 30 minutes after half-time the umpire will deem the match to be complete and the scores will stand as they were at the time.

Flagstaff Hill, which is unbeaten this season, led 6.5 (41) to 4.3 (27) at the time and was awarded the premiership points.

Noarlunga coach Josh Thewlis was thankful Liebelt – a long-time servant in the Shoes’ senior side – was on track to recover.

Noarlunga coach Josh Thewlis said the Shoes have been hit hard by injuries this season. Picture: AAP/Morgan Sette

“He still doesn’t have a lot of movement but the scans were all clear in terms of anything spinal or anything too serious,” Thewlis said.

“Jarrad picked the footy up and had his head down and ran into the guy’s chest or abdomen and hurt his neck a bit.

“It wasn’t anything wrong or dirty, just an innocuous footy incident I think.”

While Liebelt was a chance to return this season, the incident was yet another in a horror run for Noarlunga this season.

“We’ve been absolutely crippled by injuries,” said Thewlis, who has suffered two hamstring injuries himself this season.

“We lost three or four in our first trial match.

“One of our better players, Sam Miller, did his ACL and our ruckman and captain (Nathan Schulz) had a little fracture under his knee.

“Since then we’ve had another patella tendon reconstruction, a fully ruptured PCL.

“On the weekend we had Tommy Mott get knocked out and pretty badly hurt his ankle in the same contest and Jarrad of course.

“It’s just been one of those years. I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life.”

Thewlis said the silver lining has been the club’s depth responding well to being tested.

Noarlunga, fourth, trails third-placed Happy Valley on the ladder by percentage and travels to face the Vikings on Saturday, July 17.

The SFL will not play this weekend due to the SA Country Football Championships, which are being exclusively live streamed by The Advertiser and The Messenger.