Football game halted as koala carrying baby joey cross field

A Brisbane football game was halted after a koala carrying a tiny joey on her back decided to cross the pitch.

A mother koala invaded a soccer pitch in Brisbane, baby on board. Picture: Supplied.

A football game in Brisbane has been halted mid-match to make way for a curious koala that ambled across the pitch carrying a tiny joey on her back.

The men’s football match, which took place on Saturday in Carindale, Brisbane, was momentarily paused so the adorable pitch invaders could pass through.

Spectator Billy Diehm caught the incredible moment on camera as he watched his son play in the senior men’s division five game between Raceview and the Mansfield Eagles.

Posting the footage online, Mr Diehm explained that, halfway through the game’s second half, a “female koala with joey on her back appeared from behind us spectators, walking through us and then across the field.”

Mr Diehm said the referee quickly stopped the match to allow the pair to “safely cross the field” to Bulimba Creek, a stream off the Brisbane River that runs alongside the football field.

In hilarious footage of the incident, people can be heard cheering on the mother koala as she ambled leisurely along the pitch with her baby on board.

“Hey, buddy. Sorry, buddy,” one man can be heard cooing, as others tell excited kids to stay back.

“Come on. Come on. That’s it. Keep going, keep going, keep going,” the man encourages.

The koala stopped her stroll momentarily before moving along when a player approached. Picture: Storyful.

At one point during the clip, the mum stops her strolls and takes a curious look at her enthralled audience, before picking up the pace when a player began to approach.

The incident was not the first time an iconic Aussie marsupial had held up a local football match.

In 2018, images of a kangaroo went viral after it invaded a soccer pitch in Canberra during a women’s game between Capital Football Club and Belconnen United.

The kangaroo lay down on the field, stretched out directly in front of one of the goals, and halted the match for more than half an hour as officials tried in vain to coax it away.