Brawling players force early end

NORTHS coach Richard Irelandes has come to the defence of his club after an "all-in-brawl" brought a premature end to a match his side lost 34-22 to Moranbah at Darryl Burke Oval on Saturday night

NORTHS coach Richard Irelandes has come to the defence of his club after an "all-in-brawl" brought a premature end to a match his side lost 34-22 to Moranbah at Darryl Burke Oval on Saturday night.

The Devils had one man sent off and two dismissed to the sin bin but Irelandes said his club did not have a discipline problem any worse than other Mercury Cup clubs.

Norths' indiscretions have been well-documented in the past. During this season the club has had five men sent from the field and seven to the bin.

A player who signed with the Devils at the start of the season has also been barred from the club after throwing a drink onto Jack O'Brien Park.

But the loyal Norths coach said there was a distorted image of the club and believed his side was being victimised in the media for "minor" discipline breaches.

"I don't want to see this (Saturday"s incident) being blown up into a big thing because it seems that every time Norths is involved people jump up and down about a negative culture at Norths," he said.

"There's a history of negativity associated with the team's culture and every time there is a minor incident it sets us back three steps."

"If you come down to training or meet the people at the club you'll see there is actually a real element of professionalism at Norths."

Irelandes, whose side slumped to its first loss since the start of the season, said his club was being unfairly treated when compared to other clubs.

"There was little said in the media about the Souths-Brothers brawl a couple of weeks ago," he said referring to an incident in which one player was sent off and another sin-binned when an ugly brawl spilled over the side-line at Shark Park.

"It was a dead-set bloodbath in that game but we heard very little about it," he said.

Irelandes believes the negative publicity his team recieves has the potential to rub off at the judiciary and he was hopeful the comittee would be understadning after reviewing footage of Saturday night's game when Norths'Richard Boah ran on to the field during the scuffle.

"I'm just asking for some consistency at the judiciary," he said.

"From what I've heard he (Boah) didn't throw a punch, yet at Souths a couple of weeks ago a bloke ran on to the field to king-hit someone and only got one week.

"I just want to see some consistency with the judiciary. He believed the incident on Saturday night was made to look a lot worse than it was.

"I spoke to both the coach (Ben Anderson) and the captain (Ross Sammutt) of Moranbah after the game and they didn't see much in it and both clubs didn't see any need to make an issue of it after the game."

Irelandes, who also played in the game, said referee Daniel Doran and the touch judges were to blame for letting the game deteriorate. into a brawl.

"There were a lot of inconsistent decisions made out there," he said.

"I think the officials lost control of the game."

"He (Doran) hasn't got the capacity to referee two sides. He can only seem to concentrate on one side at a time," Irelandes said of Doran, who a week earlier had been the subject of an official complaint from Wests after three of their players were sin-binned during a match under his jurisdiction.

On that occasion a Norths player was also sin-binned. Co-ordinator of MDRL Referees Lou Bartley said he had full confidence in Doran's abilities as a referee.

"I believe that the referee made the right decision in calling the game off on Saturday night," he said referring to the affair as "an all-in-brawl."

"Daniel's got my full support." "It's now up to the judiciary to sit down and have a look at the DVD."

The 12-point victory to Moranbah signalled the Miners' first premiership points of the season.

For the first time this year, the side was able to field a near full-strength side and as a result the backline took advantage of a napping Norths defence.

"They went down the right three times to score and we took a while to adjust to that," Irelandes said.

Originally published as Brawling players force early end