AUSTRALIAN RULES
THE Cowra Blues could face a fight to keep at least four competition points after a controversial decision to play suspended forward Brendan Reid.
The Cowra player was meant to be sitting out with a three-match suspension but played in the Blues’ wins over Bathurst and Orange.
In a letter to CWAFL president Graeme Grundy, the Orange Tigers have sought an explanation as to why Cowra should not be stripped of the competition points accrued during wins over the Bathurst Bushrangers and the Tigers with Reid in the side.
Prior to the clashes with Bathurst and Orange, Reid was handed a three match ban for fighting in the dying stages of a reserve grade match against the Mudgee Black Swans.
Earlier in the season, Reid had given approval for his own name to be thrown up for consideration for the CWAFL representative side which competed in the NSW Regional State Championships on the June long weekend.
When it came time for the team trials to be held Reid did not attend and so was not considered for selection.
Following the ban issued after the Mudgee game, Reid sat out Cowra’s next game - held the weekend before the regional titles.
Two weeks later, Reid lined up against Bathurst under the claim that the matches played by the CWAFL side in the championships should be included as part of his suspension.
This was despite him not being part of the CWAFL team or playing in the representative games.
Cowra won the game against Bathurst convincingly with Reid in the line-up and the Bushrangers subsequently informed the CWAFL board of their belief he should not have played.
However, Reid then played again the following Saturday and kicked six goals in the Blues’ win over Orange.
Since then the CWAFL board has deemed that the suspension was served inappropriately and that Reid should have missed the Bathurst and Orange games and ordered him to sit out Cowra’s next two games.
But this does nothing to alter the fact that both Bathurst and Orange have lost matches and missed valuable competition points after playing against an opponent who should not have been on the field.
As such, Orange president Bill Marshall has asked the CWAFL board what it intends to do in regard to possibly docking Cowra some of their competition points.
CWAFL vice-president and Dubbo Demons representative to the board Joe Knagge said when the issue first came to the board’s attention, he moved that the matter be referred to the CWAFL judiciary.
He also suggested a ruling be sought on the matter from the NSW/ACT AFL regarding what action, if any, to take regarding the possible stripping of points from Cowra.
“I moved to take that action but at the time, I couldn’t get a seconder for the motion,” Knagge explained.
“As far as I was concerned the matter fell to one side after that. We [Dubbo] weren’t saying which games we thought he should miss or whether they should have points deducted, we were just suggesting that the matter be referred further for a ruling.”
In light of what appears to be an about-face from the Orange club, who reputedly did not want to appear as being ‘whingers’ when the matter originally appeared, the matter is now likely to be voted on at the nest board meeting.
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