Bloody brawl ends game

PLAYERS are demanding action after an indoor soccer game deteriorated into a bloody brawl at a Cranbourne sports centre last week.
One player, Pakenham’s Matt Dobson, was left battered and bruised after the Thursday night match at Casey Indoor Sports Centre was abandoned in a flurry of punches.
Mr Dobson and teammates have now called on authorities to ban the players who started the fight, saying they had never had a problem in three years of competition when their most recent game broke out into a brawl with just a few minutes to go.
Mr Dobson, 21, said his team, the Ballbusters, were winning comfortably but some of their opponents seemed more interested in playing the man than the ball.
“It was pretty clear from the first kick-off that they were pretty rough, they just seemed to be itching for a fight,” Mr Dobson said.
“The score was about six goals to two and there were only a couple of minutes to go when one of our guys tackled and stole the ball and cleared it upfield.
“A scuffle broke out with the other guy pushing my teammate and swearing at him. Then the other guy’s teammates ran in and started punching our guy in the head.”
Mr Dobson said he could hear the referee calling for calm, but was struck from behind when he tried to intervene.
“I ran to try to pull the guys off him but got hit myself, quite a few times.”
The match was called off as the referee broke up the scuffle but Mr Dobson’s teammates said they wanted to see the players who started the fight banned from playing again.
“It’s the first time something like this has happened, but I wouldn’t like to see it happen again,” Mr Dobson said.
“It’s disappointing, you want to go and enjoy a game with some mates, something like this is the last thing you want.”
The Ballbusters lodged an incident report with stadium officials.
Casey Indoor Sports Centre director Mike Allday said the complaint would be investigated and the appropriate action would be taken. It appeared the couple of players responsible for the trouble were not regular team members but had only filled in last week, he said.
He said they would not be allowed to play again, although the team itself had a clean record and would likely be given another chance.