Southern Football Netball League clubs told to rein in unruly players

A ROUGHHOUSE round in which two matches were called off and umpires made 13 reports has prompted the head of a Melbourne football league to ring clubs pleading for a trouble-free end to the season.

A ROUGHHOUSE round in which two matches were called off and umpires made 13 reports has prompted the Southern Football Netball League’s top administrator to ring clubs pleading for a trouble-free end to the season.

League chief executive officer Mike Palmer is contacting presidents today with the message “we don’t want any more incidents’’.

“I’m in the process of calling them individually and saying we need to finish the season on a positive note,’’ Palmer said this morning.

THOMASTOWN FOOTBALLER GIVEN LIFE BAN FOR STRIKING

FOOTY CLUB’S RADICAL MOVE TO STOP OWN PLAYERS’ VIOLENCE

“The majority of clubs we don’t have any issues with. But even so I’m still going to talk to each of the 36 presidents.’’

Last Saturday the Lyndale and Sandown Division 4 senior match was called off before halftime after a fight broke out among players, and a Thirds game was also abandoned.

The previous week a women’s fixture also finished before halftime after fighting among players.

And in July young field umpire Ryan Mann was punched in the face in an under-19s match. The offending player was given a life ban.

After Saturday’s events Lyndale has decided to forfeit its last two matches of the season in what president Ed McLean called a stand against bad behaviour.

In a Leader online poll more than 90 per cent of 1200 respondents agreed with Lyndale’s stance.

Palmer confirmed 13 reports were made last weekend.

“Some of them were multiple. It might be four of five players (being reported). I think one guy was reported by four or five umpires,’’ he said. “There weren’t 13 different incidents with reports.’’

A club secretary told Leader the Southern league was running investigations into three other incidents but Palmer said it was only one.

He said he was unable to comment on the abandoned Thirds match because he had yet to receive reports from the clubs. The league did not supply umpires for the game.

Meanwhile Southern umpires chief Peter Marshall said he would be instructing his umpires to crack down on bad player behaviour this weekend.

He said the league could not continue to have its reputation tarnished by fighting and matches being called off.

“If players are not willing to play in the spirit of the game, we will deal with it,’’ Marshall said.

“We will remove them from the game, because we can’t keep having these things occur in local football. Our umpires will be on the front foot from here on in, for the remainder of the season and the finals, and if we are seen to be overumpiring the game, so be it. We’ve got to stop people playing outside the rules of the game.’’

Marshall added: “The send-off rule is alive and well in community football. If we have to use the card as a tool of control, we will.’’

Palmer and SFNL chairman Marc Gauci met a number of clubs last night but Palmer said the meeting had been scheduled before Lyndale’s withdrawal for the rest of the season.

Asked if Division 4, introduced this year, would be retained in 2019, Palmer said: “We haven’t decided that. I think the answer right now is yes. But that’s one of the things we’re broadly discussing, the structure of the competition. It has only just come in, so it would seem like a kneejerk reaction to suddenly drop it. We’re not looking to reduce the number of teams. We plan to have 36 clubs next year. We’ve got to find the best format.’’

MORE SPORT

BETTS: PUNCHING IS PART OF THE GAME

BIG AUSSIE FLAVOUR FOR NBA SEASON OPENER