THE Central Murray Football Netball League (CMFNL) continues to wait for a formal response regarding a junior interleague bungle which saw five Mallee Football League (MFL) players take to the field up to two years older than their CMFNL counterparts.
The MFL dominated the game from start to finish as the CMFNL side struggled.
AFL Victoria’s Bruce Petering chaired a meeting between the two leagues back in February, with the aim of creating a level playing field for the match.
Petering said the outcome of the meeting was an agreement to stage a match between a CMFNL under 15s side and a MFL under 16s side.
“It’s our tournament if you like, so we set ground rules and get leagues together and form agreements where needed,” Petering said.
“This one was about helping the Mallee, which had been uncompetitive in junior interleague last year. We were trying to even it up.”
The MFL’s under 16s squad last year played a Wimmera under 15s side with four over-age players.
The Guardian understands three MFL board members attended the February meeting, with apparent confusion arising about what decisions were reached.
The MFL then on May 25 played an under 16s side with five players aged between 16 and 17, while the CMFNL played an under 15s side that was hopelessly outmatched.
CMFNL manager Scott Wishart said the Central Murray board was very disappointed with what happened.
“We felt the agreement to play our younger squad was made in good faith,” Wishart said.
While the CMFNL would not seek to overturn the result of the match, it did want a factual account of the events leading up to the game made public, Wishart said.
“We have a duty of care to our players and had we been aware of the circumstances prior to the match the game would not have gone ahead.
“We hope these mistakes do not occur in the future and the CMFNL will continue to work with AFL Victoria to ensure our interleague fixtures are successful in the future.”
MFL chairman Alan Malcolm had contacted his CMFNL counterpart Peter Doig to apologise for the error, Wishart said.
Wishart said the CMFNL was still awaiting a response from AFL Victoria and the MFL on the issue yesterday afternoon.
McFarlane said MFL representatives had been of the belief that the agreement reached had been similar to last season.
“It was understood to be the same as last year — an under 16s side with some overage players,” he said.
“The board members at the meeting must have got it wrong.”
