TOPIC:

Well it looked like a great weekend of wet weather footy which led to a few upsets and close games.

around the grounds
Willo defeated Creek 60-30: about what was expected in the battle of Karel Ave.

Basso 9.5. 59 defeated ballajura 8.10. 58
huge upset here! bad kicking is bad footy and that proved costly to Balla. Judging by the photos it looked like more of a lake than a footy oval up at Kingfisher with Basso taking there chances to get a much needed win to keep a grip on the top 3.

Kenwick 7.10 52 defeated Gosnells 6.10 46
Tight tussle up at Mills park with another upset. Kenwick would have been happy all last weeks reports were downgraded to yellows as they got the choccies in this one.

Quinns defeated stirling 146 to 44:
Stirling really struggling while Quinns are fighting hard to stay in the 8 come seasons end. what we expected in this one, even on such a wet day.

Melville 7.14 56 defeated carslisle 7.12 54
An eventful day down at Rams stadium, With Melville taking all 3 games. Colts and ressies got it done fairly easily but the league was a game full of ups, downs and some controversy.
Carlisle appeared to have a pre-planned agenda of coming down to try and make Melville a home away from home with plenty of support on the famous balcony and for the second week running trying to assert themselves by warming up in the 50 in front of Melvilles rooms ( 2 weeks running it hasn't worked). The first quarter was wasteful for Melville while Carslisle took there chances. The second quarter was a tight tussle until one of Carlisle players decided to for no reason belt one of Melvilles, this caused a bit of biff as Melville remonstrated to the thuggery. The central umpires did not see the incident but the goal umpire did and after a brief passage of play the player was correctly shown off the ground with a red and a nice 2 week holiday (what followed this was disgusting, over the top abuse from the Carlisle supporters and even one of their ressies players walking over to the goal umpire to give him a mouthful. This caused a stop in play as the umpires had to ask the player to leave and is rumoured to be on report. I know we all get heated but we have to respect the umpires, it is unacceptable that people do this. We wonder why they are hard to find.) Melville used this shift in momentum to enter the half time break up by 11.
The 3rd quarter started off all Melville, as it looked at one point like they would run away with it, getting out to a 4 goal lead. Carlisle then made a real run to enter the 4th 1 point up.
The 4th was a tight tussle, Carslisle carried over the momentum to the 4th quarter getting the first goal. Melville with their classic grit pegged it back to a draw with about 10 minutes to go, from here it was spent mostly in Carlisles forward half as they peppered the goals but unable to capitalise with the match sealing major. With a few minutes left it was sent in to Melvilles goal square, plenty of Carlisle hands on the footy at ground level but were unable to rush the behind, it spilled out as the Melville captain came through and soccered a Goal that would make Timmy Cahill proud. Carlisle made it into the 50 once more and had a rushed shot from the boundary as the siren went but was not able to make it through the big sticks. Huge win for the club to stay in touch with the top 3.


The Run home:
The season is still up alive in some shape or form from 2-9 with a lot of movement possible!!

1Ballajura, will have the bye come rd1 of finals
2Willetton, win this week against Melville and top 3 is there's to lose with games to come against Carlisle and Kenwick
3 Bassendean, 2 games against bottom 3 teams. As with Willo, a second chance is there's to lose.
4 Melville, finals start now for Melville, with the opportunity to make their own destiny. Games against Willetton and Bassendean are huge while Quinns always put up a fight against them. Win all of them and finish top 3, win 2 and rely on other results, Win 1 and risk not making finals at all.
5 Carlisle, with Gosnells versing 2 bottom 3 sides, percentage is on their side so They must manufacture 2 wins. One has to be this week against Kenwick, then at least split the final 2 games against Balla and Quinns.
6 Gosnells, Ballajura this week is tough but they finish off against Stirling and Creek. They will have to win these 2 and rely on other results.
7 Kenwick, the toughest run home with games against Carlisle, Balla and Willetton. Would have to win all 3 and rely on other results, curtains on Kenwick finals chances all but mathematically
8 Bull Creek, win this week against Quinns and they all but locked themselves in C1. lose and it will be a battle of percentages.
9 Quinns, must win this week and there season is alive. It will be tough for both Creek and Quinns to get a win in the final 2 games as they are all against finals contenders, so they may just be battling to not lose by too much.
10 Stirling, it's all about damage control and next year from here. You never like seeing a club in this state so I'm hoping they can get back on track in C2.

We are in for a bumpy few weeks that's for sure!

Wow another week in C1 and Melville again did nothing to antagonise an opposition player and the opposition player just belted a Melville player for “NO REASON”
I would hate to play for Melville they have just been a target of every other club in C1 this year, Melville players are definitely not safe in this comp.

Great write up ATKH.

At kingfisher, yep she was a mud pit. With basso kicking first 3 goals of the day, balla was made to work hard in the terrible conditions to peg it back. That wasnt the case in the end falling jusr short but I wouldnt br too worried if I was ballajura.

FFTF. Bit defensive mate. Being targeted by every other club give me a spell

Wow Kings Horses........you could not be more one eyed in that assessment! To put it straight it was a marking contest in wet weather footy both players going the ball. Unfortunately in a pack situation the Melville player has come off second best (note there was 4-5 people in this pack contest). The goal umpire said nothing in the 5 mins that was going by while trainer attended to the player. Then a Melville official in a blue beanie walks around to the goal umpire and persuades him to do something.

Unfortunate as for most it was a great game and Im sure 2 sides that will likely cross paths again in a few weeks time.

It was a great game Barney, but it was definitely not a hit involved in the contest. Why has the player who got the red accepted the red and 2 match suspension if he thought It was just in a contest. Generally with these things common sense prevails and some cases will get downgraded. I.e. (Melville vs Kenwick). If the player was adamant he hadn't done anything unreasonable he should have appealed it. I think that's says enough about the incident and what happened.

Kings Horses the player wanted to appeal it but due to a lack of proper process with the WAAFL and poor umpiring standards it was deemed not worth it. As from past experiences with the WAAFL tribunal the truth doesn’t count.

As for the “ressies player” attacking the goal umpire and being reported this is incorrect the ressies player was the league manager and he enquired as to why the goal umpire only reacted after the Melville offical had spoken to him 5 minutes after the incident and why the correct procedure was not followed. As the situation was handled incorrectly as confirmed on Monday morning which resulted in Melville being incorrectly awarded a shot in goal from the goal line in a 2 point game.

It was the goal umpire who was abusive and aggressive and despite trying to have a free kick paid against the manager (again incorrectly) he did not report him however the goal umpires abusive language was heard by spectators and has been reported to the WAAFL

Alnan, I can't say I heard exactly what was said by either the team manager or goal umpire. But I was in The vicinity and judging by the actions of the team manager it must have been a two way street. His body language was aggressive and he was pointing and shouting at the goal umpire. He was close enough to the umpire that I think it was appropriate to stop play to tell him to move on. It may have started as an enquiry but it ended fairly inappropriately regardless of what the goal umpire said.
It's unfortunate that this incident happened as it was an otherwise great game of footy played in good spirits.