Clash under review

Officials look into ‘crazy’ aborted match

fate of players involved in Sunday’s fiery CDRL clash between Innisfail and Yarrabah will be known today.

QRL Northern Division manager Scott Nosworthy will join CDRL officials in Cairns for the match review process.

While individual players could be looking at time on the sidelines, both clubs are likely to avoid any punishment.

The spiteful Barlow Park contest, which Innisfail won 28-14, had to be stopped 23 minutes early after players’ tempers threatened to boil over and match officials feared for on-field safety.

CDRL Referees’ Association president Glenn Schwartz defended the referee’s decision, describing the scenes on Sunday night as “crazy”.

“From the referee’s point of view, it was stopped because of player safety,” he said. “To see that much ill-discipline in a semi-final, I couldn’t understand it.

“It’s our top priority to maintain the safety of everyone – the players and the officials – on the field, and if that can’t be maintained, then we have to stop the match.

“If it happens again, I’ll be instructing my blokes to do the same thing.”

Yarrabah president Sam Bann Sr expressed his disappointment with the way the match ended, saying the referee “overreacted”.

“They had other senior referees on the sideline and they should’ve intervened,” he said.

“You could see the referee was losing the game. You can’t call a semi-final game off – a regular season game, sure – but not a semi-final.”

Three Yarrabah players and two Innisfail players were sinbinned on the night, with one Seahawk also sent off for an alleged elbow in the 39th minute.

But the drama wasn’t limited to the field.

In the first half, the game was stopped momentarily for an issue involving crowd members on the Spence St side of the ground.

Schwartz said it was an incident of racial abuse towards the touch judge.

Play stopped for about four minutes while the situation was brought under control.

Bann Sr said he did not condone the behaviour of supporters.

“I went over there with (the CDRL’s) Pat (Bailey), our water boy and our first-aid officer and we dealt with it,” he said. “You can’t control what the supporters say and do, but we can talk to them.”