SANFL field umpire Robin Bennett recalls the last time 19 men on the field created a storm in SA football
LAST time the SANFL had a 19-man controversy - at Thebarton Oval in 1975 - the rules were rewritten to ensure there was not to be a repeat like what happened in the SANFL preliminary final on Sunday.
- Settle saga on the field: Blight
- Rucci: SANFL stuck in crisis with no clear solution
- SA commission steps in as extra Rooster revealed
- Controversy mars incredible Roosters victory
- League confirms 19th man, Eagles eye legal options
FORMER SANFL field umpire Robin Bennett - the man at the centre of the SANFL’s previous 19th man saga in 1975 - notes the rules written after the Fred Bills farce should have prevented a repeat in Sunday’s preliminary final at Adelaide Oval.
“They brought in the interchange steward after that fiasco to stop this ever happening again,” Bennett told The Advertiser on Monday as the SANFL dealt with the fall out of North Adelaide fielding 19 men for the first five minutes of the weekend’s preliminary final.
“The interchange steward should have noted the extra player on the field - and one missing from the bench - and instructed the reserve umpire to call for a free kick and 50-metre penalty against North Adelaide.”
Bennett was the lone umpire in the famous West Torrens-West Adelaide match in Round 15 of the 1975 SANFL season that was to have been remembered solely for Eagles great Bills playing his 313th and last league game. Instead, Bills became embroiled in the last attempt to call for the count in an SANFL league game when he came onto the field as the 19th man while injured team-mate John Cassin was still being placed on a stretcher at Thebarton Oval.
“To this day, (West Adelaide captain) Bob Loveday still cops the flak for calling for a count, but he didn’t,” Bennett told The Advertiser.
“We all know how the game was Fred Bills’ last. And when he did run onto the ground, right to the middle, I did say to Fred, ‘Do you realise Johnny Cassin is not off yet and you should not be on the ground?’
“Fred fired back at me, ‘I don’t give a stuff Robin. I’m completely stuffed just running out there - I’m not going back now’.”
Bennett recalls West Adelaide coach Fos Williams immediately instructing his runner to demand Loveday call for the count that would have wiped out West Torrens’ score as the Eagles led 12.10 (82) to 10.7 (67) in the last term.
“Bob refused to call for the count saying it would be a prick of way to win a game,” Bennett said. “But the West Adelaide vice-captain, John Hayes, said if Bob wouldn’t call for the count, he was.
“And then it all went silly.
“(West Torrens coach) Noel Teasdale called his players off the ground. Norm Dare jumped the fence and was covered by the crowd. David Raggatt went to one end of the ground and hid under the floggers. Milan Faletic ran off the ground and was stopped by West Adelaide players, leading to a melee that had one of the policemen on the boundary taking a hit.
“The goal umpire from the Ashley Street end, Lance Holden, rushed from his end of the ground to tell me that when the call was counted Cassin was off the field so West Torrens had just 18 on the field.
“It was such a mess that I felt the only thing to do was recommence the game.
“But the matter did not stop there. There were three meetings, from the SANFL umpires’ board to the SANFL, to resolve the issue. It could have been easily settled with the use of the television evidence, but in that era video was inadmissable to tribunals - let alone extraordinary hearings such as this one.
“So the match result stood (with West Torrens winning) - and West Adelaide denied a place in the finals by not getting the two premiership points had there been a count.
“And the rules were changed and the interchange steward introduced to stop it ever happening again.”
Bennett, a member of the Woodville-West Torrens Football Club, argues the 1.2 scored by North Adelaide while it played with 19 men in the last term of the preliminary final should be stripped, leaving Woodville-West Torrens as the winner of the match by three points - and the qualifier for Sunday’s SANFL grand final against Norwood at Adelaide Oval.
michelangelo.rucci@news.com.au