On the day, Bathurst Giants and Bathurst Bushrangers Rebels played out a game that was separated by less than two goals at George Park 1.
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However, Central West AFL will officially record the game as an 84-point victory to the Rebels.
Giants fielded an extra man for 10 seconds at the beginning of the fourth quarter, meaning all previous points, up until that point, were annulled for the home team and resulted in a 15-19-109 to 4-1-2-25 win to Rebels.
Regardless of the controversy, Giants coach Mark Kennedy said he is ecstatic with the result.
“There’s still room for improvement. I want to be a benchmark against the competition’s best,” he said.
“No matter what the official scoreline is, there was 44 players involved in that game that know the real result.
“We played a bloody good game of football, where we competed against the benchmark team.”
The extra man incident occurred in the opening moments of the fourth quarter according to Kennedy.
“At the beginning of the fourth quarter I sent the team out. Only five came off, when we had six on the bench. I went to call one of my players off.
“The Bushrangers heard what happened and we lost all our points from then back up to the beginning.
“My understanding was we’d only lose the points from that quarter and we were only 10 seconds in.
“There was a semi-final last year when the Bushrangers fielded an extra player against Cowra and they only lost their points for that quarter.”
Kennedy said the club will appeal the decision but was gutted by decision, taking it as his responsibility.
Even though the Giants will lose the game, regardless if the club wins the appeal or not, Kennedy believes his players deserve to get the recognition.
“Our goal kickers deserve to be recognised. We’ve got players challenging for the Coleman Medal,” he said.
On the day, Kennedy praised the efforts of forward Paul Jenkins, the team’s players’ player Dave Manning, Reilly Mitchell and James Kennedy.
“Tim Barber and Lochie Weal were great in the backline. It was just an all-round, hard working performance.
“I can’t over emphasise the sheer determination of my boys.
“We used the ball well down the flank and our young guys have improved. We’re a club in our second year and with the results we put up last year, it’s a mammoth effort.”
The score on the day was 15-19-109 to 15-9-99, before points were removed.