In short, nothing to worry about

GDFL president Neville Whitley says he’ll question time keepers as to why Geelong West’s semi-final win over Bannockburn went for just 94 minutes, despite having no problems with the shorterthan-usual game.

Quarters in GDFL senior football run 20 minutes plus time on, which means just 14 minutes of Sunday’s 8.8 (56) to 4.7 (31) Giants win was accounted for stoppage time.

Both the Giants and Tigers provided time keepers for the semi-final and Whitley said it was their call to determine when the clock should be stopped.

“It seemed a bit abnormal, but it’s their call, there were no instructions to shorten the quarters at all,” Whitley said.

“This weekend was really good weather so the ball was in play more, rather than being blown out by severe wind like it has the last few weeks.

“By rights it should be 80 minutes plus time on. If it’s gone for 94 minutes, that’s 14 minutes of time on, so 3½ a quarter.”

Some quarters this year — at Werribee Centrals and Winchelsea in particular, according to Whitley — have gone well beyond 35 minutes, and the league president believes it’s in those games time keepers have stopped the clock too often.

“I think on Sunday what’s happened is it was low scoring and it wasn’t out of bounds or through the goals much,” he said. “It was a little bit different to normal, so I wonder if the two time keepers were right and whether throughout the year some have been wrong.”

Whitley said the league had discussed employing an independent time keeper to officiate in finals but thought that was going too far.

“We will talk to the time keepers about what actually happened on Sunday, but we don’t have a problem with it because it’s their call.”