General News
5 September, 2025
Presidents speak out after Elimination Final mistake
Ararat Football Netball Club president David Hosking said he is disgusted following the Wimmera Football Netball League's decision not to overturn the result of last week's Elimination Final.
The Southern Mallee Thunder were named as winners of the game against Ararat following overtime, despite Ararat club officials announcing their concerns during the game that a scoring mistake was made.
The club claims that those concerns were silenced at the time.
On Thursday, September 4, after the league announced its decision not to overturn the game result, Hosking shared a copy of the letter he had received from the league earlier in the week on the club's social media.
The letter, dated September 2, clearly states that, after analysing the match tape, Ararat did indeed win the game in regular time, 48 to 47.
However, it further stated that, following the board's consultation with Netball Victoria, along with a review of similar cases, the result stands when the official scorecards have been signed by both competing teams, regardless of any subsequent discoveries of errors or scoring discrepancies.
The WFNL also released a public statement on Thursday: "Following an investigation conducted by an Independent Accredited Investigator into the A Grade Netball Elimination Final held on Sunday 31 August at Davis Park, Nhill, the WFNL Board has confirmed the original match result stands as officially recorded," it read.
"While video evidence showed a scoring discrepancy before overtime, both teams signed the official scoresheet at the match's conclusion, as required under WFNL bylaws (12.2(D)).
"This decision is final.
"No further comment will be made."
In response to Hosking's post, one commenter noted that the bylaw requires both captains and scorers to sign the scorebook to indicate their satisfaction with the final score.
They said the Ararat's scorer did not sign the sheet, and the captain's signature was illegible, and, in her opinion, that meant the bylaw actually supported the game result being overturned and rectified.
The league's standing by the result comes as an end score in a game of footy in the Geelong and District Football League was overturned in late July after a match recording was discovered to contain an error in the scores.
The Belmont Lions' one-point win was overturned by the league, resulting in the Bell Post Hill Panthers being awarded the win.
Hosking said the decision was even more disappointing, considering that last year the club's A Grade netball side didn't win a game and had done well to earn their finals position this season.
"To have done what they have done and then have it ripped out from under them like this, it's just gutwrenching," he said.
"It's massively unfair.
"And, adhering to the rule they have used to disqualify us from the fine is bylaw 12.2(D), and it states on the rule that they are relying on, and they keep saying: 'your captain has signed the scoresheet'.
"Well, the rule requires that the scoresheet is signed by both captains and all the scorers.
"Our scorer didn't sign the scoresheet."
Hosking said that if the league wants to use that bylaw as the basis for its decision, then it needs to be applied correctly.
"We didn't sign the scoresheet," he reiterated.
"Our scorer didn't sign it, she wouldn't have signed it, and here is the interesting part.
"When I got the email from the investigator, he said, 'I want to talk to the scorer whose signature appears below'.
"And we said: 'Well, that's none of us', so I don't know if the league had purported that was our scorer, but the plot just gets thicker and thicker.
"But we have not been afforded due process or anything remotely approaching fairness."
While Hosking declined to comment on the fact that the Thunder didn't relinquish the game, despite calls for them to do so, he did point to a former mistake made involving Ararat, which he said was fairly rectified.
"The result wasn't so much overturned, but more upheld and that was in football, about two years ago," Hosking said, adding a basic error made by a Dimboola volunteer meant the side was going to lose their points from the win, despite claiming victory according to the score.
"We wrote a pretty lengthy dissertation to the league, whereby we said it's a community-level sport, we do not want to be awarded the game on the back of a clerical error from an administrator who is a volunteer.
"It's not what we are about as a club, Dimboola won the game fair and square, they should get their four points."
Hosking had one last message for anyone who might find the entire ordeal amusing.
"I want everyone to know, I want the other eight clubs to know," he said.
"There may be some grins that are smug, or sniggering, but understand this: This can happen to you."
Wimmera Mallee News reached out to Southern Mallee Thunder president Lucas Puckle, who said the matter was “unfortunate”.
"Well, it's a game and it's got humans involved," he said.
"And we make mistakes sometimes, and there obviously has been a mistake that's been found through video, that happened on the day.
"As far as we are concerned, it is unfortunate that it happened, but sometimes it does."
Puckle was not in attendance at the game, so he said he couldn't comment on the game itself, but said he understood that on the day, there was no issue with it.
"The scoresheets all got signed and everything got sorted," Puckle said.
On calls from Ararat's supporters for the Thunder's netball side to relinquish their position in the first semi-final on Saturday, Puckle alluded to it not being that simple.
"There are just so many variables in the game and if it was sorted when it happened, like they are saying in the third quarter it happened, but if the scores were fixed as that time ... it changes the dynamics of the game so much, like the coaches can make different changes, mentally it can change the way players play," he explained.
"I don't know how you change a decision after it's been sorted.
"And that's why the Thunder wouldn't consider the option (to concede) because of that (the variables).
"But we gave all the information we could and cooperated to make sure their job was easy so they could obtain the result they think is fair, and there is nothing else we could do about that."