‘Contradictory’: SCA boss questions AFL call to play on

SUNRAYSIA Cricket Association (SCA) president Andrew Farlie has labelled the AFL’s decision to go ahead with the start of its season as “contradictory” after his organisation was forced to cancel its weekend’s grand finals because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Farlie and the SCA board have been criticised on social media for the decision after they followed a direction from Cricket Victoria strongly recommending all community cricket competitions be cancelled in an effort to reduce the community transmission risk of the virus.

“It is an empty sort of a feeling, especially when you have got sporting bodies saying you have got to cancel all this, and then round 1 of footy is going to start tonight (last night),” Farlie said yesterday.

“It’s contradictory and it’s heartbreaking for everyone and we have been copping a fair bit on social media and that sort of thing as well. 

“At the end of the day the safety and the welfare of everyone is the most important thing.

“If something happened then the insurance companies wouldn’t touch us because we were advised not to play.

“We have elderly umpires and all that sort of stuff, so a tough decision, but the right one – unfortunately.”

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As a result of the grand finals being cancelled, the premiership in each grade was awarded to the team who finished on top of the ladder at the end of the home-and-away season.

The SCA was also forced to postpone the Innes Medal, which had been scheduled for the Mildura Workingman’s Club on Wednesday evening.

Farlie said it would now go ahead next Wednesday at 6.30pm, but to adhere to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s announcement on Tuesday that all non-essential gatherings of 100 people or more had been banned to curb the spread of the virus, it would now be live streamed with local identity Bill Sauer to host the count.

“With everything that has been thrown at us, all of a sudden it has been a bit difficult,” Farlie said.

“This is a way we can bring a good feel to the closure to the season.”

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Farlie said the board had been happy with the success of the season despite the obvious disappointment of having to cancel grand finals.

“Overall the season has been really good,” Farlie said. 

“We will go into a review process, but we were pretty happy with how everything went, it was just unfortunate the way it had to end.

“We are bringing forward the AGM and are already in the process of planning for next season.

“It certainly has been a good six months – the first couple of months were pretty full on, but moving forward we can get a bit more stability, I suppose, and get a bit more planning into next season now, which will be good.”