Rule change and clear guidelines needed so drama won’t happen again

THE SANFL must move quickly to update its rules and guidelines after the preliminary final fiasco looks set to leave an asterisk on the 2018 season.

NORTH Adelaide’s actions on Sunday might have cost the Eagles premiership glory.

That’s gotta hurt.

The decision to allow North Adelaide to keep its spot in tomorrow’s grand final after fielding 19 players in the final term of the preliminary final has robbed the Eagles of an opportunity to find out if they are the best team in season 2018. Eagles players, officials and spectators will be seething about this one for a long time.

If North wins the premiership tomorrow unfortunately an asterisk will be forever marked against their win.

Their players and officials will head into tomorrow’s game not knowing if they truly deserve to be there. Success is so much sweeter when you have earned it fair and square.

The decision handed down on Monday night by the independent SANFL tribunal was not severe enough. But the current rule and the enormity of the fallout if North was stripped of its grand final berth meant it was always going to be the likely decision.

It’s time for a rule change and clear guidelines made as to the penalty so this doesn’t happen again.

North Adelaide coach Josh Carr at Adelaide Oval, after the tribunal ruled in favour of North Adelaide Football Club proceeding to the Grand Final. Picture: Matt Loxton

There has been a lot of talk of removing the eight points scored in the time the extra man was on the field but in fact this is looking at it too simply. With an extra man in defence how many goals or points were stopped? What was the impact of extra fatigue? The Eagles had to cover more ground and chase harder in this time affecting them for much longer than the five minutes. Perhaps the most telling but immeasurable factor was the momentum swing it created.

Watching the game it appeared the Eagles were dead on their legs and North was flying. In reality it wasn’t far from the truth. Once momentum is yours it’s a very powerful tool and its effect was greater than eight points.

The preliminary final was so hotly contested that without the extra man North Adelaide would not have won and the Eagles would be lacing up in tomorrow’s grand final.

So what is the right penalty? Deducting the points scored during the time an extra player is fielded at a minimum is a must.

Replaying the game has been touted as an option, however this action is not harsh enough. What’s to say teams won’t exploit this rule if the result isn’t going their way and why should a team doing the right thing pay for an error the opposition has made?

Perhaps the only answer is the offending team be disqualified as the effect of having an extra man on the field is much greater than the score added during that period of time.

It is hard to believe at this level an error like this can be made.

With bench officials and the coach on the sidelines how was this not picked up for so long? We will never know what the North players and officials did or did not know, so their statement of innocence must be taken at face value.

And in fact this is not an argument about whether they deliberately had an extra man or not, it’s an argument over an appropriate consequence for the digression.