CDRL Finals: Innisfail, Yarrabah players escape suspensions

Two players have escaped bans for separate incidents in Sunday’s abandoned CDRL final, as the league investigates the call to end the match with 23 minutes to go.

Yarrabah’s Steven Singleton and Innisfail’s George Toby are free to play this weekend after escaping suspensions for separate incidents in Sunday’s controversially abandoned CDRL final as a key senior Seahawks official pleaded for his side to be given the chance to “just play football”.

Singleton copped a grade one dangerous contact charge while Toby was handed a grade one striking charge, but both players will be able to line up for their respective clubs this week after taking early guilty pleas.

Innisfail Leprechauns’ George Toby. Picture: Chris Holmes

The two were the only players charged from the fiery Barlow Park encounter, which was called off after 57 minutes due to poor crowd and player behaviour.

CDRL Referees’ Association president Glenn Schwartz defended the referee’s decision, describing the scenes on Sunday night as “crazy”.

“From the referee’s point of view, it was stopped because of player safety,” he said. “To see that much ill-discipline in a semi-final, I couldn’t understand it.

“It’s our top priority to maintain the safety of everyone — the players and the officials — on the field, and if that can’t be maintained, then we have to stop the match.

“If it happens again, I’ll be instructing my blokes to do the same thing.”

Innisfail Leprechauns won the qualifying final 28-14.

Yarrabah president Sam Bann Sr expressed his disappointment with the way the match ended, saying the referee “overreacted”.

“They had other senior referees on the sideline and they should’ve intervened,” he said.

“You could see the referee was losing the game. You can’t call a semi-final game off — a regular season game, sure — but not a semi-final.”

Three Yarrabah players and two Innisfail players were sin-binned on the night, with one Seahawk also sent off for an alleged elbow in the 39th minute.

But the drama wasn’t limited to the field.

Yarrabah Seahawks player Steven Singleton. Picture: Stewart McLean

In the first half, the game was stopped momentarily for an issue involving crowd members on the Spence St side of the ground.

Schwartz said it was an incident of racial abuse towards the touch judge.

Play stopped for about four minutes while the situation was brought under control.

CDRL secretary and operations manager Pat Bailey said both clubs would be reminded of the Code of Conduct ahead of Sunday’s fixtures.

While they’ve been cleared, Bailey said the decision making of the match official and the decision to call the game off will be investigated further.

“We’re looking into everything now that we’ve got the player sanctions out of the way,” Bailey said.

Bann Sr said Singleton’s availability would be a huge boost for the Seahawks.

“He brings experience and a lot of confidence to our players.”

Originally published as CDRL Finals: Innisfail, Yarrabah players escape suspensions