Anakie shines light on problem, but will take it no further

ANAKIE will move on from its pursuit of two points from the lights out game against Werribee Centrals, deciding against taking its appeal to AFL Victoria Country.

The Roos’ appeal to the AFL Barwon tribunal was thrown out on Tuesday night, denting the club’s GDFL finals chances.

Anakie sits sixth on the table, more than 30 per cent off fifth-placed Thomson, but would have jumped into the top five with a share of the points.

Anakie president Heath Menhennet said the club considered taking its appeal further, but the financial burden outweighed the reward.

“Premiership points are certainly very valuable to any club, so we didn’t take it lightly, but we had to weigh up the fact it was going to be a distraction and there would have had to be some money put towards it as well, to go to that higher hearing,” he said.

“We’ve fallen on the sword for everyone to find out about this rule, but we’re happy to move on.”

It was floated by tribunal member Ron Drew that AFL Barwon should consider a change to the rules for next season.

In Anakie’s defence, Menhennet argued the lighting was within the home side’s control, and believed not every effort was made in continuing the game.

He said the lights at Drew Reserve were managed by the City of Wyndham, which had an electrical technician on standby for such outages.

But Menhennet told the tribunal that the council received no calls for help on the Saturday night.

It was also argued that Werribee Centrals had no back-up plan, such as a generator.

Currently, there are no rules stating a club hosting a twilight match should have alternative lighting in case of a black out.

The rule surrounding inmatch interruptions after halftime states that a winner is determined based on the scores at the time.

But Menhennet believes the rules could also be changed to only hand four points to matches that have been played over four quarters, removing any grey area.

“We would love to have our crack at four-quarter footy,” he said.

“There’s a lot of ifs, buts and maybes; we were down by 12 points.

“All we ask for is four quarters of footy to determine the rightful winner and the rightful bearer of the points; that’s all any club would ask for, I imagine.

“We hope something comes out of this, that it’s not just a complete waste of exercise; we’d hope that panel would submit something in regards to Tuesday night’s evidence, so there’s no grey area in the future.

“It’s been a crazy season with two games delayed by more than 30 minutes with one at Belmont due to lightning and this one. It’s certainly been an unusual season for us with games delayed, but we’ll be focusing on the things we can control in the next five rounds.”