That bump! And how the umpires got it right

WAS this the moment that cost Wonthaggi the 2023 Gippsland League premiership?

Well, no, it wasn’t. But the bump and the ‘red card’ send-off of playmaker and Power forward Tom Davey, was a controversial moment in an eagerly anticipated grand final between rivals Leongatha and Wonthaggi all the same.

By that stage in the second quarter, reigning premiers Leongatha were already out to a nine goal to three lead, and everything had to go right from there if the Power was to reel them in, but it didn’t.

Some in the crowd booed. Others were shocked at the response from the umpires, and seeing Davey trudge off alongside the reserve umpire, but few actually saw the incident.

Some said Davey came in with the knees, but clearly, he didn’t. The photo proves that.

He dipped, came in low to stop Leongatha onballer, Jake van der Pligt, who was flying for the Parrots at that stage, and tried to affect the perfect bump.

But in these days of concussion fears and protecting the head at all costs, commonplace bumps such as the one attempted by Davey are on the way out.

Having already ‘yellow carded’ him late in the first quarter, rightly or wrongly, for an unsighted incident in the play, at the end of the first quarter, the umpires were duty bound to send Davey off permanently in the second.

The picture shows the umpires got that right and everyone agrees about protecting the head but it’s a tough penalty for the team on the end of it, especially in a grand final and when it’s been part of the game for so long.

Wonthaggi was cut down to 17 men at the start of the second quarter, for 15 minutes, after the first quarter yellow card, but hardly had Davey returned to the fray than he was off again, and Power was down to 17 players for 15 minutes once more.

They fought on gallantly, matching it with Leongatha in the second half, despite the fact that their coach Jarryd Blair was severely hampered by a calf injury and star forward Cooper McInnes troubled by a hand injury, at the end of a stellar season from him.

It just wasn’t Wonthaggi’s day. Leongatha had played themselves into form across three competitive finals matches, after a lacklustre end of the home and away season. They had key players back including Cam Olden and van der Pligt, they got the fast track they wanted at Morwell and played like the benchmark team of the competition for the past seven years.

Is it the start of a football dynasty for the Parrots to rival that of Maffra’s in the 2000s and Traralgon before that? Only time will tell but the Parrots’ reserves premiership team featured 10 or a dozen young players who would walk straight into any other senior team in the league.

Jake van der Pligt was uninjured in the incident and continued on to be one of Leongatha’s very best players on a great day for the Parrots.