Preliminary final ends in confusion

 THE Port Moresby AFL preliminary final between the Taurama Suns and the Gordon Kokofas ended in a technical misunderstanding at the Murray Barracks Oval on Saturday.

The Suns beat the Kokofas 10.10.70 to 7.11.53 in windy conditions but the win has been referred to the Port Moresby AFL board after the Suns were found to have fielded 19 players in the third quarter.

The scores were level at 5.5.35 apiece at halftime but when play resumed in the third quarter the Suns scored a quick goal and a behind.

But a call for a head count by the Kokofas captain Samuel Ila revealed the Suns had 19 players on the field. 

The incident was reported to the AFLPNG management who applied rule 5.5.3 (c) from the laws of the game which states that: “Where a team has more than the permitted number of players on the playing surface the team shall lose all points which it has scored in the match up to the time of the count”. The Suns were accordingly stripped of the 42 points they had scored up to that time but the adjustment was not done on the scoreboard and the game was allowed to continue to the end with the Suns booting an additional four goals and four behinds to bring that final tally to 10.10.70. 

But on technical grounds the AFL management decided to award the game to Kokofas with a final score of 7.11.53 to 4.4.28.

The management decision did not go down well with the Suns players, supporters and officials and resulted in an after-match melee.

The AFL board met last night to deliberate on the final verdict but the decision was not available at press time.

In the Under-18 preliminary final, Gulf Giants withstood a big scare and narrowly defeated the Dockers 8-8-56 to 7-4-46. The Giants meet Defence in this weekend’s grand final.