NFL grand final: Lower Plenty last-second goal given all clear by league

NORTHERN Football League boss Peter McDougall says the dramatic Division 2 grand final was decided by “a thousandth of a second”. What did you think?

NORTHERN Football League boss Peter McDougall says the dramatic Division 2 grand final was decided by “a thousandth of a second”.

Lower Plenty came from 19 points down at three-quarter-time to shock Eltham by six points, 3.10 (28) to 2.10 (22), with Ben Paterson’s last-second snap the difference between the teams on Saturday.

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Whether Paterson’s kick left the boot before the final siren has been the source of fierce debate, but McDougall backed the split-second call made by the umpire.

“The umpire makes a decision on the day and like every other freekick he pays, he’ll make a judgment call at the time,” McDougall said.

“At the end of the day, the laws of the game clearly state it is when the umpire hears the siren and when he ends it.

“We just go by the laws of the game and that is how we apply it.”

Ben Paterson gets his kick away just before the siren.

Ben Paterson celebrates the goal which won Lower Plenty the Division 2 flag.

McDougall said no official review had taken place, but the league had watched footage of the grand final climax out of interest.

“When I was at the ground there, I thought he kicked it before the siren,” he said.

“When you look at the video, there could be a thousandth of a second in it where you could not categorically say that the siren went before he kicked it.”

Lower Plenty teammates mob Ben Paterson after the final siren sounded.

He said any doubts were likely to have been raised by “people on the receiving end of the outcome” adding he hadn’t “heard anyone from Lower Plenty say it was after the siren”.

“I thought the umpires did a great job with how they managed it. Really clear, concise, confident and made a decision,” he said.

“They weren’t uncertain. It was bang, he kicked it in time. That was it.”

While club timekeepers are used during the home-and-away season, McDougall explained independent officials were employed during finals.

“From that point of view, we don’t have a need to be checking on anything like that,” he said.

“They are not recording any information where you could go back (and say), ‘there’s a mistake here or there’.

“We don’t have a reason to be concerned about that.”

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