Waikerie’s record country football winning streak ends with sensational headcount blunder against Loxton North

A COUNTRY football team has blown a 44-point lead — and an almost certain 31-match winning streak in bizarre circumstances.

Umpires conduct the headcount during the Waikerie and Loxton North clash — which resulted in Waikerie losing a 44-point lead and ultimately a 31-match winning streak for having too many players on the field.

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A MISTAKE on a coach’s whiteboard has wiped out a country football team’s 44-point lead — and ended its 30-game winning streak.

A new “yellow card” penalty left powerhouse Riverland Football League club Waikerie with only 17 players after three quarter time, but its coach mistakenly put 18 names on the match-up board during the break.

After realising Waikerie had an extra player on the ground in the last quarter, Loxton North called for a headcount.

The umpires stopped the game, at Loxton North, and brought all players into the centre square and the Magpies’ score was wiped, leaving them trailing by 38 points, two minutes into the final quarter.

The Magpies had led the Panthers by 44 points at three-quarter time, 12.10 (82) to 6.2 (38), and were steaming towards their 31st consecutive victory when the headcount was called and Waikerie — the inaugural club of Crows great and 2003 Brownlow Medallist Mark Ricciuto — lost its score.

Magpies player Craig Miller had been yellow-carded just before the final break, meaning the team had to play one short for 10 minutes under a rule instituted by the league this year.

But they sent 18 men on to the field — instead of 17 — to start the last quarter.

“It was a very unfortunate way for our run of wins to end but there’s no complaints from us,’’ Waikerie president Brendan Sidhu said.

“It was the first time we’d had a player yellow-carded all year ... and our coach (Shayne Stevens) unwittingly showed the (match-up) board to the players at three-quarter time with 18 names on it.

“He’s worn that (mistake) on the chin and unfortunately it’s the luck of the draw for us.

“We broke the rules and hopefully we’ll learn from it.’’

Waikerie, which has won consecutive premierships and had not lost since 2016, made a strong but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to haul back the deficit, kicking 3.5 to 0.2 and losing by 17 points, 6.4 (40) to 3.5 (23).

The Magpies’ loss came four weeks after West Whyalla had its then-current country record 35-game winning streak ended by North Whyalla.