Herald Sun<\/a> that the league\u2019s hands were tied.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s not a league law, this one, it\u2019s an AFL ruling,\u201d Simmonds said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t alter it, we can\u2019t suspend it, we can\u2019t do anything. It\u2019s a law that\u2019s done by the AFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rule is black and white there, and the rule is above us.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd as a league, we don\u2019t have any jurisdiction over making any alterations to an AFL rule, because they\u2019re the bosses at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rule 13 of AFL Victoria\u2019s laws states that \u201call coaches and assistant coaches of AFL Victoria Country Clubs are required to obtain Registered Accreditation Level Accreditation, to a minimum of 90 points prior to their first match as coach or assistant coach in the relevant system\u201d.<\/p>\n
Armfield, who retired from the AFL in 2017 after 145 games and 75 goals for the Blues, told SEN\u2019s The Captain\u2019s Run that the decision is an \u201coverreach of power\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also described the mistake as a \u201csimple admin error\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn community sport, it\u2019s all about people, volunteers in football, and we\u2019re just trying to do our best with limited funds and limited resources,\u201d the 39-year old said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe make a mistake on a single game, and now this is the outcome, which I just think is an overreach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe penalty doesn\u2019t match the crime, I don\u2019t believe.<\/p>\n
Dennis Armfield previously played for Park Orchards in the Eastern Football League before switching to Bacchus Marsh. Picture: Stuart MilliganSource: News Corp Australia<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put in things at the start of the year digitally, and unfortunately it\u2019s just been missed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that has no impact on a game of football. It\u2019s a name on a piece of paper. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo wipe a reserves team \u2013 heart and soul, they do it for nothing, they love the club, they\u2019ve usually got their families involved \u2013 it doesn\u2019t just affect the 22 blokes that are going to run out, it affects their families, it affects our community. I just don\u2019t think they\u2019ve thought of all this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ban comes a year after North Ballarat were themselves kicked out of league finals after being found to have fielded ineligible players.<\/p>\n
Armfield told SEN he hopes the harsh sanctions don\u2019t set a \u201cprecedent\u201d to make local football clubs\u2019 jobs even harder.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo they want everyone looking at team sheets, and analysing whether an assistant coach or a runner or a trainer is fully accredited?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that what they want in local football now, when let\u2019s be honest, many clubs are going bankrupt or breaking down or having to merge because they don\u2019t have the volunteers to support them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not shying away from the mistake, we\u2019re remorseful. We said to them (the BFNL) we\u2019re willing to compromise, make any changes, do some education, do some training to make sure that it doesn\u2019t happen again. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut they\u2019ve just come back and said \u2018this is your punishment\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armfield played 145 games for the Blues before retiring in 2017. (Photo by Adam Trafford\/AFL Media\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Armfield said the club would fight to the bitter end to attempt to overturn the sanction.<\/p>\n
Legal action could potentially force an injunction to either block the game or even allow the Cobras permission to play until the matter is resolved.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuckily, we\u2019ve got a Sunday game with our competition, so we\u2019re going to try,\u201d the former Blue said, urging other local football teams and organisations to show their support.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to try and turn every stone. We\u2019d love for community sport to get behind us and go we\u2019re all in it together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s had no impact on a game, it\u2019s not cheating, it\u2019s a name on a piece of paper. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to see this being a precedent that AFL Vic want to create \u2026 I wouldn\u2019t want to see anyone punished for this with this punishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe acted on good faith, we changed it, we thought we were going to get a slap on the wrist of some sort.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a local community sporting club that is run off the smell of an oily rag, volunteers doing many jobs, under-resourced as it is. One small admin change has now ultimately impacted the lives of 30 young men and their families and the community, which I think is an overreach of power.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Carlton player Dennis Armfield has urged AFL Victoria to act after a \u201csimple admin error\u201d saw his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-879274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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