The NFNL wishes to clarify the decision to change the final score of the Division 1 seniors match between North Heidelberg and Macleod on June 8.
The NFNL is taking this opportunity to educate the public on how we manage these processes and to clear any confusion surrounding the decision to adjust the final score of Saturday’s game.
The final score from Saturday’s match at Shelley Reserve finished 11.6 (72) to 10.11 (71) in North Heidelberg’s favour.
Following the match, it was brought to the attention of the NFNL that there was a discrepancy in the score during the second quarter.
Below is a breakdown of how the discrepancy occurred:
• A North Heidelberg player had a set shot for goal at 24:40 of the second quarter. The shot was correctly adjudged out of bounds on the full by the boundary and goal umpires.
• The ball was brought back in to play as per the normal process from an out of bounds on the full decision.
• Unfortunately, the scoreboard attendant incorrectly added a behind to the scoreboard.
• When the two goal umpires conferred at half time, the scoreboard and scorecard of one goal umpire had the same incorrect score of 2.4 (16) and an incorrect decision was made to uphold the score.
• Following the match, the NFNL was notified of a potential scoring error and a review of the match vision was conducted on the incident in question. The match vision clearly showed the boundary umpire adjudge the kick out of bounds on the full and the ball being brought back into the play as per the normal process from an out of bounds on the full decision.
• The NFNL then reviewed vision of the entire match, which confirmed the score was in fact North Heidelberg 11.5 (71) to Macleod 10.11 (71) and the decision was made to adjust the final score accordingly.
The NFNL wishes to clarify the decision to adjust the final score is not a matter of changing or overriding an umpiring decision. It is a matter of correcting a scoreboard error.
The NFNL does not watch video footage of every game searching for incidents or umpiring errors. Video footage is only reviewed upon request from the two competing clubs, umpires or league officials. In this case, neither club submitted a request to review the footage.
The NFNL is supportive of its umpires and club volunteers and recognises human error can occur. On this occasion the assistance of video footage has enabled the league to correct a scoring error made on match day.
