A women’s football match between Sunbury Lions and South Morang was abandoned on Sunday after fights broke out across the ground.
As umpires struggled to keep control and tempers reached breaking point, South Morang coach Maurice Baldasso made the decision to end the division 2 Victorian Women’s Football League match at Lakes Reserve in the third quarter.
Sunbury was leading South Morang, also nicknamed the Lions, 5.4 (34)-0.1 (1) at the time and the result is likely to stand.
South Morang president and women’s assistant coach Jim Chetcuti said he would speak to league officials this week about the umpiring and about the way Sunbury played.
PICTURE GALLERY: SOUTH MORANG V SUNBURY LIONS
“Our coach called it off because of the loss of control by the umpires and the physicality and the unfair way [Sunbury] played,” he said.
“We’ve got nine girls with serious injuries . . . concussions, broken collar bones and a potential back fracture, all from rough play.
“At the end of the day we did our best and tried to play football but it got out of control and our coach said enough was enough.
“We’re not in it for the fights and the rough stuff and we’ll certainly let [the league] know what took place.”
The two Lions sides were playing each other for the first time after promotion from their respective divisions last year.
Sunbury controlled the game from the start but scored only one goal in the first quarter.
Play was halted in the second quarter after an ambulance was called to treat South Morang’s Jacinta Campbell for severe concussion caused by a tackle.
Sunbury Lions came out the better after the break and started to hit the scoreboard before the match was abandoned.
Sunbury coach Kerry Saunders said she would not have called it off.
“We played in a lower grade than [South Morang] last year, so I thought they’d understand what was coming,” she said.
“We promote, fair, hard, fast football and if my girls did something wrong I’d be the first to drag them off. I thought all our tackles were clean and good and so did the umpires.
“I suggested to the umpire to send one off, I didn’t care who it was or from which side.
“All you have to do is send one off for swearing or a bad tackle or punch on and it’s the best way to cut it out.”
Saunders said she was happy with how the new girls had settled into the side.
“I said it would be horrible in the first 10 minutes and by quarter time, I said ‘see it was horrible’,” she said.
“To have them in our team and carry them for the first 10 minutes and to be still in front was good. By the last 20 minutes we were starting to run and have space and it didn’t matter if it was a new girl or not.”
