There was a precursor to the brawl in the reserve grade grand final, which was appallingly controlled by the umpires. At one point in the final quarter, there was a problem off the ball where the emergency umpire had to see it, and ditto the goal umpire at that end! The game was between Melton and Sunbury, and it was won by Sunbury. And the bad behaviour didn't stop there, as three Sunbury players gave their Melton opponents the one arm salute when collecting their premiership medallions!

I thought that was the end of it - but boy was I wrong!

I'll try and avoid the match itself as the report on that can be read on Phil's Weekend, but all it took was 22 seconds. Redan had scored a quick goal, and the goal scorer was celebrating and ran straight into a Sunbury shoulder. The shoulder was put up deliberately, and the Redan players in the vicinity came in to remonstrate and it was on! Just like that. I was happy to see the umpires appointed do a much better job than their reserve grade counterparts, and they had their hands full! I was particularly disgusted when the Sunbury captain, Mark Power, was sent off with a red card, and instead of just heading for the bench as he should have, he went after a Redan player who was bad mouthing him. TV cameras caught the action and it was sports headline news that night just 24 hours after the AFL grand final.

One of the other problems on the day was a player that I knew well as a troublemaker - Dean Lupson. I knew he was trouble back in 1990 when I saw him playing for Euroa against Rochester both during the home and away season and the grand final. I called him an idiot then, and his antics with the fans at the Eastern Oval this day in 2003 proved he hadn't learnt a thing. He was suspended at the tribunal and then he made a disparaging comment, and when he wouldn't return to face the tribunal for it he was suspended indefinitely.

Sunbury faced a 12 month suspension, but they escaped that when they guaranteed they would fix up their problems.