THE Stony Creek versus Toora game at the Racecourse Oval erupted into controversy on Saturday. May 20 when one of the field umpires stopped the contest late in the third quarter, allegedly as a result of unsavory abuse from the boundary line.
And, in the company of the boundary umpire who allegedly heard the untoward comment from the sidelines, marched across the field to the boundary line and demanded to speak to the host club’s president Mark Le Page.
Never mind that the offending remark was allegedly made by a Toora official.
So, what could be so bad that an umpire would threaten to call the match off, at three quarter time unless the Toora official was made to leave, not just the confines of the footy oval, but the whole property.
“He’s up in his car, I can see him there. Unless he leaves the ground, I am calling this game off,” said the umpire while the players were at their three-quarter time huddles.
So, what was said.
Stony Creek’s Cody Loughridge was awarded a 50 metre penalty in the midfield, and his pass to Chris Verboon resulted in a point, at which stage, the boundary umpire on the coaches’ box side of the Stony Creek ground ran out to report what he understood to be abuse from the sidelines.
But actually what was said, after the umpire awarded the 50 metre penalty, was: “You should be a copper, mate”.
In other words, the Toora official, unhappy with the 50 metre decision, said the central umpire should get a job as a police officer… hardly an offensive comment.
There was no bad language and none of the traditional invective towards umpires, “white rabbit” and the like. None of that.
The field umpire promptly awarded a free kick in the goal square to Stony Creek's Jacob Byrnes who happily popped it through, although, like everyone else, oblivious in the confusion about what had actually happened.
It stretched Stony Creek’s lead to five goals at the last change, significant in a hard-fought affair played at one stage in torrential rain.
After the goal was signaled and following the three-quarter time siren soon after, the field umpire, with boundary umpire in tow, marched across the ground to where the offending remarks allegedly came from and called out to speak to Stony Creek President Mark Le Page, who was seen chatting with the umpires on the boundary, and under their direction, asked the Toora official, who professed his innocence, to leave.
Mr Le Page acknowledged afterwards that it was quite an awkward moment, having to ask a high-ranking Toora Football Netball Club official to leave when there was no indication of any wrongdoing.
If the matter does have its sequel at a meeting of the league, it should be thrown out, notwithstanding the fact that all clubs and almost all supporters these days are mindful of the need to be supportive of the limited numbers of umpires available.
And by and large they are.
This may just have been a complete misunderstanding – it happens.
Stony Creek went on to win the good contest by 31 points and the truth of it is, the incident didn’t really detract from the game.
The only injured parties were the umpires who incorrectly thought they heard something offensive, and the Toora official who was simply engaging in the sort of good-natured banter you’d expect to hear at any game of football.
If there's any lesson in it al all, it's that football club officials, in particular, are no longer allowed to take barracking beyond the point of encouraging their own players.
