Everyone now a winner

By Kath Gannaway
HEALESVILLE under-14s will share the glory of the 2011 premiership with their Upwey-Tecoma counterparts after the league announced dual premierships on Sunday.
Healesville had played three quarters of grand-final-winning football but were two-points down when the final siren was sounded before a capacity crowd at Woori Yallock on Sunday 4 September.
Confusion reigned with the umpire calling play-on as Healesville’s Nelson Aldridge took a critical mark and kicked to Charlie Warren who bagged the goal giving Healesville the points and the flag with a four-point victory.
At an executive meeting on Thursday night, however, the Dandenong Ranges Junior Football League (DRJFL) awarded dual premierships after considering the sequence of events that saw the winning goal kicked after the siren.
Those events were confirmed in a statement issued by the league on Monday.
The final siren at the Woori Yallock ground sounded with Upwey Tecoma two points ahead but the umpires failed to hear the siren as the timekeepers failed to keep the siren going.
At that moment of the first siren a Healesville player marked the ball, he then kicked the ball to a teammate who marked it as the siren sounded a second time some six seconds later with the controlling umpire indicating full time.
The Healesville player had a shot on goal and Healesville won the match by four points.
DRJFL president John Myers said that it was human error and an unfortunate situation which, he said, the league believed needed a fair result for both teams.
“What transpired was not the fault of the umpires but human error with both clubs’ timekeepers in the time box,” he said.
“The executives gathered all the facts after speaking to those involved and viewing the video, which clearly includes the two final sirens.
“We came to a decision to award dual premiers to Healesville and Upwey Tecoma under-14 teams for season 2011,” Myers said.
Both clubs acknowledged the decision with Upwey-Tecoma president Jamie Dowling saying that both teams had played good, clean, hard football.
“It was played in the spirit of the game and common sense has prevailed,” he said.
Healesville president Grant Tacey said the club was happy with the decision.
“To finish in a grand final showed both teams’ commitment throughout the year. When we played each other in the home and away season it was also a great match.”
At the Upwey Tecoma clubrooms on Sunday the club officials recaptured some of the elation for their boys and supporters. announcing the news and presenting the dual premiership cup and medallions at the club’s AGM.
Player Lachlan Hughes echoed the sentiment of his teammates saying they were excited and happy with the outcome.
“It was totally unexpected,” Lachlan said. “We knew we had won on the day, but we wouldn’t have wanted to take it off Healesville now because they had a really good season.”
The league will make changes to the by-laws for future finals.
“As a league we now look at how to best address the issue of time-keepers and look at making changes for next year’s finals by either adding a league executive in the time box as a third party or possibly employing official time keepers,” Myers said.
The matter will be dealt with at the league’s AGM in November with all clubs having input to any changes to the new by-laws.