GFL NETTY VOTE SHOCK
92-goal win for Eagles, but not one single vote
AFL Barwon general manager Lee Hartman says he will not demand to know why umpires gave three North Shore players votes in a 92-goal Round 17 loss to powerhouse Newtown & Chilwell.
Wednesday night’s GFL league vote count was sent into shock when all six votes — the three, two and one — went the Seagulls’ way in the 107-15 loss.
Star Eagles shooter Julia Woolley shot 49 goals from 56 attempts in the lopsided result, but umpires decided that the top three best-andfairest players on the court were in the losing team.
Woolley went on to win the league award in a tie with Leopold’s Zanna Woods.
While there was obvious surprise in the room on Wednesday night, Hartman said there was no reason to look further into the votes.
“It was very surprising but I suppose that’s the beauty of league best-andfairest vote counts, that it’s independently awarded by the umpires and the umpires saw fit to give those three, two and one on the day,” Hartman said.
“Umpires for league awards have been doing that for 100 years, so that’s just the way it falls sometimes.
“It was surprising, but it is best-and-fairest, so the umpires obviously saw it that way and we don’t really question the umpires on how or why they give votes.”
Eagles coach Jason Woolley, husband of Julia, said there was clear disbelief on Wednesday night.
“We all have those games when you go to those kinds of nights and votes don’t always go the way you think for a game — that was probably an extreme version,” he said. “It’s one of those things out of your control. We just play the game and the umpires make the decisions who they thought were the best-and-fairest on the court.
“It’s just how they saw it.”
Woolley said there was nothing untoward during the game that would have seen the Eagles overstep the “fairest” criteria.
“We were talking about it last night; there wasn’t anything we felt was untoward or certainly wouldn’t have expected the fairness component wasn’t lived up to,” he said.
“Clearly someone felt something but we felt it was definitely an incident-free game.
“At the end of the day, both Julia and Zanna are both deserved winners.
“The whole thing might have been different if Julia and Zanna didn’t tie, but I don’t think it detracts. It’s still a wonderful achievement from a club perspective for Jules, so all is well that ends well.”
The Eagles, unbeaten since 2012, have already qualified for next week’s GFL grand final, aiming for their sixth straight premiership.
They will play the winner of Saturday’s preliminary final between St Albans and South Barwon.