Highett Football Club president Lex Marshall barred from grand final
PICTURES have emerged of fans holding up face masks in a show of support for a football club president banned from watching his own team’s grand final.
Inner South
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WHEN Highett Football Club lifted the premiership cup on Saturday, its president was nowhere to be seen.
Lex Marshall was banned from watching the Division 2 grand final against Doveton Eagles over an incident earlier in the Southern league finals series.
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Marshall admits he called Murrumbeena spearhead Luke James a “dog’’ at quarter time in the qualifying final between Highett and the Beena at Heatherton.
He said he was reacting to an injury to a Highett player in the opening term.
But he strenuously denied delivering a sustained verbal attack on the star full forward or entering the Murrumbeena huddle.
Acting on a complaint from the Beena that Marshall was out of line, the Southern league investigated and ordered him to a disciplinary hearing.
He was cited for “engaging in conduct prejudicial to the league’’.
Believing his standards fell short of those expected of a club president, the league banned Marshall from attending the rest of Highett’s finals matches.
He sat in the pub and followed the scores on his phone as the Bulldogs defeated Keysborough in the preliminary final.
And he played a round of golf and had two beers in the clubhouse as they upset Doveton Eagles in the grand final at Jack Barker Oval in Cheltenham.
He was back at the Highett clubrooms at 4.50pm setting up for the after-match function when the Bulldogs completed their victory.
As jubilant supporters surged on the ground, some held up masks of their president and made a point of facing Southern CEO Mike Palmer and vice-president Garry Cranny.
Cranny had overseen the hearing and could see the funny side of it.
Marshall said it hurt to miss out on watching his club win the premiership.
“Of course it did. Whether it was right or wrong, that was the penalty they applied and I wasn’t going to cause any more angst for the club,’’ he said.
“But it was disappointing. I was shattered when I left the hearing. But I don’t want to say too much and give people more ammunition.’’
The incident against Murrumbeena came a few days after the league called in all club presidents to discuss bad player behaviour. Marshall spoke passionately in support of the SFNL stance.
Marshall’s association with the club goes back to 1978, when he started playing for what was then known as Highett West.
He coached the club to its first premiership in 1986 and was president from 1994-2005. In his second stint he has been president for four years.
Marshall said he was proud of the Bulldogs’ season and believed the side could hold its own in Division 1 next year.
“We’ll need to a recruit a ruckman and a couple of solid bodies, but we’re certainly not going to rest on our laurels,’’ he said.
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