The Age from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia • Page 34

38 THl AO! WEDNESDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 1994 Spoit Age Plctum: RAY KENNEDY Eagles Meet Brawl oosds Stoetlkera another Perth final in $1 to Perth since. The Demons have! played at the WACA Ground once in the 1990s with their two othel Perth assignments, in 1990 and 1991, played at Subiaco. Footscray last played at tha WACA Ground in round 13, 1991! AFL football operations genera manager Ian Collins said that West Coast deserved a second final in Perth as reward for its effort to finish on top of the lad-! der at the completion of the regu-j lar season. "By their performances this year, we believe the Eagles have well and truly earned this right, he said. Collins also mounted an argument on behalf of the Eagles' fans.

"This decision means that in the first three weeks of the finals, supporters of Melbourne and Footscray will be able to see their team play in two finals and supporters of the Eagles will get exactly the same opportunity," he said. "We believe it is important for the national competition that all supporters have an equal opportunity to attend a final in which their team participates." Collins said that the other preliminary final, between North Melbourne and the winner of Saturday's semi-final between Gee-long and Carlton, would be played at the MCG and not Waverley Park, in accordance with the league's contract for use of the cricket ground. By STEPHEN RIELLY The AFL confirmed yesterday that one of its two preliminary finals would be played in Perth at the WACA Ground, a venue neither Melbourne nor Footscray has set foot on in at least two years. Quite apart from the belief of both Footscray and Melbourne that the last two weeks of finals ought to be played in Melbourne at the biggest stadiums the code has the MCG and Waverley Park a complete lack of recent experience at the WACA Ground was concerning the clubs yesterday. The winner of Sunday's semifinal between the two is drawn to meet West Coast at the WACA Ground on Saturday week.

Melbourne chairman Ian Ridley offered an ambivalent response to the news yesterday. "We hope we've got the problem," he said, before suggesting that Melbourne could looby the AFL administration in the off-season for changes to the finals guidelines under which West Coast was given its second home final yesterday. "Rules are rules. I'm sorry for our supporters and I repeat that the preliminary final and grand final should be played at the biggest and the best stadiums. "The MCG and Waverley offer more than any other grounds in the country." Melbourne last played at the WACA Ground In round 16 of the 1992 season and has not travelled Southern said he had no idea at the time that Sumich had suffered injuries during the melee, described earlier by league Investigations officer Max Croxford as Croxford told the tribunal that Sumich had indicated in an interview that although he had no lasting injuries, "It took him five minutes to get his full breathing Asked by a tribunal member how tight his grip had been, he replied: "I wouldn't say it was tight at all." Croxford was called by Footscray to confirm that he had recommended to the league that no charges be laid against players involved in the fracas.

Footscray coach Alan Joyce, called to present the club's attitude to brawls, told the tribunal he had commended his players after the match for showing restraint during the melee. He also paid tribute to West Coast in this regard. Southern, 19, had not been reported before In a career that includes every senior game this year at Footscray, a year with Claremont in the WAFL, and an outstanding junior career. He was a Teal Cup representative and toured Ireland with an Australian schoolboys' team. Fremantle coach Gerard Nee-sham, who coached Southern at Claremont, told the tribunal he held Southern "in the highest Continued: PAGE 31 By MARTIN BLAKE and LEN JOHNSON Footscray defender Danny Southern was last night fined $10,000, but cleared to play in Sunday's first semi-final, for his part in the controversial Subiaco brawl.

And Carlton ruckman Justin Madden was cleared of a video charge of unduly rough play, nabling him to play in Saturday's second semi-final. Southern became the first and only player to be punished in the debacle that followed the brawl, in which the AFL at first attempted to fine Footscray and West Coast, and later charged eight players on video evidence. Footscray's Steve Macpherson was cleared and a charge against Chris Grant was thrown out, the tribunal accepting a no-case submission from Footscray, which meant that seven of the eight misconduct charges laid by the AFL were rejected by the tribunal. All five West Coast players charged were cleared last Friday. Southern was found guilty of a charge of misconduct in that he assaulted West Coast's Peter Sumich at half-time of the final-round matchat Subiaco Oval.

"I'm pleased to have had the opportunity to have faced the charge in the tribunal," Southern said after the hearing. "Now I'm looking forward to putting this behind me and getting on with playing football." Asked if the club would pay the fine, which must be lodged with Danny Southern: clear to play after being fined $10,000. the AFL by Friday, Footscray business manager Dennis Galimberti said: "We will consider that tomorrow night. We're happy with the decision and will abide by the tribunal's decision. We're glad it's all over and we can get on with playing footy." Despite videotape evidence that appeared to show Southern holding Sumich in a headlock and throwing him to the ground, Southern told the tribunal that his intention was to protect a teammate, Ilija Grgic, who was receiving "attention" from two West Coast players, Sumich and Jason Ball, at the height of the melee.

Southern said he grabbed Sumich around the shoulders, and that his arms slipped up around the Eagle full-forward's neck as he lost balance and fell to the ground. AFEA rising star award goes to Brisbane rookie A happy Justin Madden leaves the AFL Tribunal hearing last night after being cleared. Crisis will bring best out of the Blues: Parkin By ASHLEY BROWNE Brisbane is home to the brightest young football talent in Australia for the second straight year after' Chris Scott yesterday won the AFL's Norwich Rising Star Award. His win follows that of Nathan Buckley last year, but, unlike Buckley, Scott said upon receipt of the $10,000 award that he had no intention of ditching the Bears for a Melbourne-based club. Scott played 19 games for the Bears this year after being the 12th pick at last year's national draft His win Is a big fillip for the Victorian State Football League under-18 competition.

He played for the Eastern Ranges last year. Conspicuous by their absence at yesterday's award luncheon were North Melbourne officials, angered that the one-week suspension handed out to Corey McKernan for tripping robbed him of his eligibility to win the award. Although McKernan was there, Age football writer Greg Denham yesterday won the Australian Football Media Award for the best feature on a young player in the AFL. Denham was honored for his story on brothers Troy and Shane Bond, which appeared in Football Extra on 6 May. North officials clamied they were too busy to attend.

"We didn't make a policy decision not to attend, but we do have other matters to address at this time of the year," said general manager Ken Montgomery. Another North official described the event as a farce. "It is great that Norwich is prepared to give money to the game and this is not a knock on them, but the kid (McKernan) was robbed. It was just terrible that he was not; allowed to win," he said. and tell me how pleased they are with the performance.

But they don't tend to do that," he said. "I've got a great deal of faith in the players we've got. We've had a couple of pretty ordinary weeks in comparison to what we'd like, but we're in the big smoke, and it's testing us out to the absolute But I'm pretty confident that we'll come up with a performance which our supporters will be proud of." The main question facing Carlton is whether Craig Bradley will be part of that effort. Bradley trained last night for the first time withdrawing late from the to play Melbourne with a quadriceps muscle Injury. The champion on-baller hardly Inspired confidence.

He jogged a few laps with Anthony Koutou-fldes, at the same time performing what Parkin described as "a bit of footing around" with a football. That consisted of a couple of little kicks to himself, and a bit of soccer-style dribbling. Parkin suggested that the real test would come later In the week, past even the Thursday night selection table. "We're doing a progressive rehabilitation with htm," Parkin explained. Besides Bradley and Koutou-fides, other players to miss training were full-back Stephen Sil- Cats.

Parkin admitted at training last night that the Blues were now under extreme pressure. He said the club had received "over 500 letters to condemn us from our very loyal, and thoughtful, and kind But Parkin believes the crisis will bring out the best in the club. "We're under the pump, but if we've got quality people here, and I think we have, that just might produce a good performance," he said. Parkin said he would be "surprised, very surprised" if there was not a vastly improved effort on Saturday at Waverley Park. "And then I hope they write to me By LEN JOHNSON Forget consistency.

It counts for nothing. Forget last weekend against Melbourne. Don't dwell on that. Carlton coach David Parkin will put his faith in his players to recover from their shock qualifying final loss in time for Satrr-day clash with Geelong at Waverley Park. The Blues have gone from top of the ladder after their round-23 demolition of Richmond, to second after the loss to Essendon in the last round, to a sudden-death final.

Parkin is counting on the fact that they will now be playing for survival to provide the spur for an improved effort against the vagni and rover Adrian Gleeson. Silvagni, who was kicked in the ankle on Sunday, swam in the pool, while Gleeson has been restricted for some time by back and hamstring problems. Parkin added that Gleeson also had been suffering from flu, as had centreman Greg Williams and rover Barry Mitchell. But Bradley is the only major concern. FOOTSCRAY captain Scott Wynd, who has not played a senior match in almost two months, believes the Bulldogs should play him in the clash with Melbourne on Sunday, AAP reports.

"I thought I was pretty close to playing in the seniors last week end, but both the match committee and I agreed that perhaps I needed another week," Wynd said. CHARLES HAPPELL reports that North Melbourne captain Wayne Carey will be nursed through the next 10 days by club medicos after receiving a knock to his already sore calf during Saturday's qualifying final against Hawthorn. Carey will swim, cycle and box this week but do almost no running. Last night, he did a brisk 15-minute skills session with Darren Crocker (ankle), Peter Mann (back) and Corey McKernan (thigh) before leaving the track. (33 Australians on brink after crashing to Sri Lankans czaaan' faf 4 0 AUSTRALIA TAYLOR a Da Siva Kabiaga slateh run out WAUGH at Dujaniyiki Jayaaurtya 24 LANQER Ynckramtalnjha Kaloaga WAUGH Oaaamryaka Jayaaurtya 30 BEVAN not out 47 I HEALY run out 2a ROBERTSON not out .17 Sundrlaa (11k, tar, Inb) TOTAL (for ah ariekata) Scow rising (fa Mm Up ooj FALL: 61, ML 100, lit, 144, 204.

BOWLING: WkbarnMlnoha 7-0-20 (1 InbL Vku -2 24-0 (IwL A Ranatunga 2-0-144 (2w, Karpaga 9442-2, Dharmaaana 10-1-40-0, Jayaauriya 10O42-2, A Da SaVa M-10-0 (lar). BATTMQ THE: 217 mbwlaa. OVERS: SO. SRI LANKA MAHANAMA Wama JAVASURIYA Taylor Angal A DE SrLVA at Haary Wama A RANATUNGA fear 8 Waugh nLuneruiiNcnoioui KALPAGE not out Sundrlaa (10t, Oar, 1nb) TOTAL ((or four ariekata) FALL' 4, 40, 102, 141. BOWUNO: Angal 7-1-20-1 Mar InbL 0 By GREG BAUM, Colombo, Tuesday Australia's destiny in the Singer World Series is out of its own hands after its six-wicket defeat to a resurgent Sri Lanka at the Saravanamuttu Stadium today.

Batting first, Australia made 6225 from its 50 overs, but after two tropical rainstorms in the lunch break, Sri Lanka's target was reset under the average run-rate rule long ago discredited in Australia to 163 from 36 overs. It won with eight bails remaining. Sri Lanka is certain of a place in the final, which at least will make the host nation feel better about itself after recent Test capitulations to India and Pakistan, its villian-turned-hero is captain Arjuna Ranatunga, who thumped 59 today, has 182 runs in the tournament for once out, and in every sense is its biggest figure. Australia can reach the final now only if Pakistan defeats India on Thursday, and then only if India makes fewer than 150. Neither defeat, nor failure to reach the final, will especially depress Australia, for this was a definitively experimental XI and the average run-rate rule has always disadvantaged the team batting first.

Besides, Colombo is only the start of a long road to and through Pakistan. The most irksome aspect if Australia fails to win a place in the final is that it will not play again for 10 days. In an eventful match today, Australian captain Mark Taylor was cautioned by his counterpart Ranatunga for backing up too eagerly at the bowler's end, and then was spared a run-out when local television was unable to supply footage of the crucial moment to the third umpire. Later, Ian Healy was run out on video evidence, but there was confusion when the lights signalling the third umpire's verdict to the centre failed to work. An official ad-libbed by pointing to the red light, indicating out.

In Sri Lanka's abbreviated innings, Warne added Roshan Mahanama to the list of top-order batsmen he has bowled behind their legs. But Gavin Robertson suffered the indignity of having his first ball in international cricket, a full-toss, swept over the square-leg boundary by Ranatunga. Defeat notwithstanding, there were further encouraging signs of an emerging new grace in Australian cricket. Early in Australia's innings, Taylor made no gesture when a series of deliveries from Chaminda Vass passed wide enough of off-stump to have been penalised in one-day cricket. He also accepted Rana-tunga's "Mankad" warning with an understanding nod.

Warne was again the agent of change in this match, arresting Sri Lanka's early momentum by bowling Mahanama, then kindling hopes of an Australian victory by having Aravinda de Silva comprehensively stumped. But the artful Ranatunga delivered his team to the threshold of victory, and when he was Ibw to a low-bouncing delivery from Steve Waugh, Hashan Tilleker-atne did the rest. In Australia's innings, nearly every batsman from Taylor at the beginning to Michael Bevan at the finish made a contribution, but. none advanced to 50. Bevan was again cool under pressure.

1.4-0-42-0, Wama S-0-27-2 (lar), Waugh aa-i (ran, wopanaon t-v-i-J. BATTMQ TTMC: 1B0 mbHJtaa. OVERS: 244. Sri Lanka won by abt wtckata on a raduoad at. Man of ft match: A Ranatunga.

of 1994. Brisbane's Chris Scott is the brilliant winner There's no easier way to find a park at the MCG than with a Met ticket. No traffic snarls, no cars, no worries. And, to make getting there even easier, we're putting on extra trains, trams and buses all weekend. Because we're moving the Met from a system to a service.

By Tram From City Route 48, 75 Flinders St. or Route 70 Batman Ave. Route 75 from East Burwood, Route 48 from North Balwyn and Route 70 from Wattle Park. By Bus BrightonDeer Park West Route 216219, GardenvaleSunshine Route 220 and Altona North Victoria Market Route 232, via Flinders St trams. By Train Epping and Hurstbridge lines to Jolimont.

THE AGE PRICES Recommended end Maximum cwfV. MONDAY TO FRIDAY VletorlaStrin. NSWSUt-Eaitam SA by road 80c NSW ax-SydnayStli. AuatV Ttimir.ilK- Ing Flindara la 01.20 Brokan HIIIACTCoomaNSW Sth. CoatV Ouaanttand 1.30 Alka $1.80 Par il.70 DtrvrinKltriarina 01 lOlhar pfacaa: Prica on application to nawaagtnt! Norwich Rising Stars of 1995.

Norwich is proud to be the official sponsor of the Award, which has been created to reward the best young; players, and help build their financial futures. In fact, that's a policy we have for all of oat customers. To help build your financial future with our range of financial services. of the 1994 Norwich Rising Star Award for the best young player in the AFL, having been chosen from the other 24 talented young players who were selected for the Norwich 'Class of 94'. Chris caught the eye of many AFL clubs when he starred in the 1993 Teal Cup carnival as a 17 year old schoolboy, including best on ground in the Grand Final.

The skillful and courageous young ruck rover played in every game in 0 superb debut season with the Bean, and has also oetan extremely high standard for the Belgrave, Lilydale, Glen Waverley, Alamein, Dandenong, Frankston and Sandringham lines to Richmond Station. Prmtad and ptibHahatl by STUART MM-SON, of 2S0 Spancar straat, Watoouma, 2000, tor David Syma a Co. LknHad, A.C.N. 004 2(2 702, at 210 Spanoar llai 0 i Hi i i (JjWl MMaana mtm BuwUI MWOgfjntv. rTWn rQWt AffM UWUI PP Mt QM oooio nd fttfttftd NMFtpaptr tt ttw (Mttth Post OfHoo 1 For more information, call 131 638.

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