St John’s removed from VAFA grand final after fielding ineligible player

A local footy team has been withdrawn from its grand final having fielded an ineligible player in a preliminary final victory. Here’s what we know.

A Victorian Amateur Football Association team has been booted from the grand final after they were found to have fielded an ineligible player during its preliminary final.

Division 4 club St Johns Old Collegians, who are based in Keysborough, confirmed on Wednesday afternoon it would not take to the field in the reserves decider against North Brunswick on Sunday.

It comes after a player took to the field in the preliminary final win against Box Hill North, who will now take St John’s place in the grand final.

The player in question was deemed to not be eligible after not playing the required four reserves games.

This was because he played in both the seniors and reserves games during the final round of the home-and-away season.

Under VAFA rules, only the senior game counts towards a player’s eligibility requirements.

Due to this, the player was stuck on three reserves games.

He then played in the seniors’ first semi-final loss earlier this month and returned to the reserves after the first team was eliminated.

“The situation arose when a player who played 2 games on the one day (reserves and seniors) in Round 18 to help out, we call doubling up, this is allowed under the VAFA rules and we have done it on many occasions this year as have other clubs,” St John’s said in a statement.

“Therefore our finals win in the prelim was not recognised because we had an ineligible player have been removed and we are out of the finals race this year which is terrible news for the club and especially the reserves.

“We accept the VAFA decision; no one at the club knew of the senior game negating the reserve game in the total game tally as a part of the finals eligibility rule.

“The player’s intention was to help out his teammates and was honourable and we ask that everyone gets behind our reserves who have had a great finish to the year.”