An all-in brawl between the Beaconsfield and Cranbourne under 16 sides breaks out with only minutes to play in the final game of the season, forcing umpires to abandon the game. By Brad Kingsbury
CRANBOURNE Junior Football Club took swift action against three of its members after they were accused of inciting an ugly brawl between Cranbourne and Beaconsfield under 16 players during a weekend Dandenong District Junior Football League (DDJFL) game.
Club president Dieter Leinmueller, who was at the game, said the club had identified one parent and two registered under 16 players who were members of Cranbourne’s Division Two team that played earlier in the day as the culprits, and all three would be asked to leave the club.
“I haven’t seen anything like it at our games before and it was appalling behaviour,” he said.
“We will be writing to Beaconsfield and also the umpires and apologising on behalf of the club.
“That sort of behaviour reflects badly on the club and we will not put up with it.”
The match between home side Cranbourne and Beaconsfield at Cam Reserve was played hard and fairly by both teams until the final term, when a small number of Cranbourne supporters let loose with a tirade of abusive, vulgar and offensive language towards other spectators, umpires and players.
The umpires stopped the game briefly at the start of the last quarter to ask marshalls to control the abuse, but it continued, and with about eight minutes to play a brawl between the two sides broke out.
Umpires acted quickly and abandoned the game, after which, to both clubs’ credit, the respective coaches quickly gathered their teams together and left the field with Beaconsfield leading by three goals.
“It is not something that you want to have to deal with at any time and spectators have to realise that they are there to support the kids playing football,” Mr Leinmueller said.
“It was very disappointing, and Cranbourne as a club will not tolerate that sort of abuse.”
Beaconsfield Junior Football Club secretary Jenny Hughes said it was an unfortunate incident but no players were hurt and the club would not be pursuing it any further.
DDJFL manager Glen Finkelde said the incident was regretable, but the umpires made a judgement call that diffused the situation quickly.
He said there were no reports made and as of yesterday (Wednesday) no party had asked that the league investigate the circumstances surrounding the game or any incident from it.
Beaconsfield was awarded the points from the game, the final round of home and away competition for the season, lifting it from the bottom of the ladder.
