The Round 7 walk off by the St Mary’s Division 2 side has shocked legendary Saints coach John Taylor

Legendary St Mary’s coach John Taylor has described the St Mary’s Division 2 side as ‘sooky la-las’ after their decision to abandon a game at three quarter-time

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SATURDAY’S walk off by the St Mary’s Division 2 is a classic case of footballers acting like sooky la-las.

That is 11-time St Mary’s Premier League coach John Taylor’s view on the incident.

“If you do that sort of thing the majority of people are going to say you are a sooky la-la and to get over it and get on with it,’’ he said.

Saints coach Allan May will face the league tribunal after being charged with serious misconduct during the three quarter-time break.

Only Premier League side Wanderers have done a similar thing in the last 90 years of Top End football.

The Eagles decided they could not continue a semi-final against St Mary’s because of a lack of players and abandoned the game.

Taylor said Saturday’s walk off, when coach Allan May took his side off the ground in an apparent protest against the umpires, was not in the spirit of the game.

“Everyone gets disappointed from time to time, but a walk off is fairly drastic and it’s something I’ve never seen or been involved in,’’ he added.

“I don’t think I’d ever do it. If you are unhappy at the end of the game you put in a protest through the proper channels and the fact they don’t seem to have done that is disappointing.’

“I don’t care if it’s St Mary’s, Wanderers, Waratah or anybody, the rules apply to everybody and you’re obligated to operate within the rules.

“We all get upset with umpires from time to time and people get upset with players, it’s part and parcel of sport.’’

A big part of St Mary’s folklore since he won 11 flags in 13 seasons as coach, Taylor is annoyed at the bad look his former club has been handed.

“I don’t want St Mary’s to get a bad look out of this, they’ve always been a club that plays by the rules,’’ he said.

“So if someone has taken this decision, they’ve obviously taken it for a reason.

“But I would have hoped they would have appreciated the much bigger picture than what they obviously have.’’

Taylor said the sooky la-la tag would stick because the impression from the outside was you were getting your arse kicked, you didn’t like it and you wanted to blame umpires.

“What do people expect to achieve from this sort of thing, it was always going to be more of a blot on the people who have done it,’’ he said.