YARRAVILLE-Seddon will accept any penalty handed down by the Western Region Football League for fielding an extra player for four minutes in Saturday’s 86-point loss to Hoppers Crossing in division 1.
The Eagles fielded 18 players at the start of the last quarter, which is accepted under normal circumstances.
But on this occasion, Eagles veteran Clint Foreman had been sent off with a yellow card and no replacement was allowed.
Eagles coach David Connell said he took full responsibility for the blunder, which in the worst case could see the WRFL re-set their score to zero up to that point in the game.
“I take full responsibility for it –we’re not disputing it,” he said. “We did it, it was a human error, it wasn’t done on purpose.
“It was for four minutes – I think they might have scored a goal during that period and we didn’t score at all, so we didn’t benefit from it.
“If they take the score for that period of time, it doesn’t affect us and we won’t appeal the decision the WRFL makes.”
The Foreman sending off occurred late in the third quarter. The Eagles adjusted, finishing the quarter with 17 men playing 18.
But the bench went from five to four after the team broke out of the three-quarter time huddle, a fact picked up by observant Hoppers Crossing player Jake Mutton and assistant coach Matt Walsh, who alerted Warriors captain Brad Murphy to the situation.
Murphy called for a head count.
“When we set the [match-up] board at three-quarter time, we were already three men down and we just completely forgot about Foreman being yellow carded,” Connell said.
The WRFL decision will be of more interest to St Albans, which is jostling with Hoppers Crossing for the fifth finals spot.
The Saints held a healthy percentage lead over the Warriors, but that could be substantially wiped out, depending the WRFL decision on how to penalise the Eagles.
“We obviously lost the game, we might lose 4 or 5 per cent out of it, but it doesn’t really affect us,” Connell said.
“It probably affects Hoppers and St Albans more than anything.
“There’s a little bit of confusion over whether you lose all of your score up until that point in the game, or if you lose whatever score you had during that time somebody was on the ground.”
