{"id":880882,"date":"2026-09-05T11:58:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/880882\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T11:58:29","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T11:58:29","slug":"flares-reportedly-set-off-and-items-thrown-at-players-during-junior-afl-grand-final-in-canberra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/880882\/","title":{"rendered":"Flares reportedly set off and items thrown at players during junior AFL grand final in Canberra"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two people were briefly taken into custody at a junior AFL grand final in Canberra last night after reports of flares being set off and items thrown at players.<\/p>\n

Officers were called to Phillip Oval around 8:30pm after receiving reports of a disturbance during the Under 18s AFL Canberra Grand Final between Marist College and the Belconnen Magpies.<\/p>\n

“Reports received by police were that from a group of between 50 and 75 teens, items had been thrown at players, flares had been discharged, and multiple patrons were intoxicated,” ACT Policing said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“Two people were briefly taken into custody and released at the venue.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Chaotic scenes’ at conclusion of the match\"The<\/p>\n

Marist College deputy principal Liam Stakelum says the spectators briefly taken into custody were part of a group that displayed poor behaviour throughout the match. (Facebook: Marist College Canberra)<\/p>\n

In a message to parents of Marist AFL players, the college’s deputy principal Liam Stakelum said the end of the game was “chaotic”, with spectators taken into custody for “anti-social behaviour”.<\/p>\n

“They were part of a group that exhibited considerably poor behaviour throughout the match,” Mr Stakelum said.<\/p>\n

“After [quarter] time, we made the decision to keep our students down one end to ensure they were safe and away from the potential risk.<\/p>\n

“I will state that it does not look like these [spectators] were affiliated with Belconnen.”<\/p>\n

ACT Policing said after the match concluded, event management staff advised all spectators to clear the venue.<\/p>\n

“All patrons left the scene without further incident,” the ACT Policing statement said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

ACT Policing confirmed two people were taken into custody before being released at the venue a short time later. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)<\/p>\n

Mr Stakelum said in his message to parents that officers believed the group posed a risk to students, and wanted to limit their engagement with the group as much as possible.<\/p>\n

“I know the chaotic scenes at the conclusion of the match are hard to reconcile, but I do want everyone to know that the police were the ones who were in control,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The decision to remove everyone from the ground again was [made by] the police.<\/p>\n

“This was done because they couldn’t differentiate between the true Belconnen supporters, and the spectators who were causing the trouble.<\/p>\n

“We may not agree with the decision, but coming from a safety perspective, I can understand the intent. Scenarios like this are not easy to manage.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

An AFL spokesperson said the league worked closely with police to contain the situation and ensure the safe conduct of the game. (ABC News: Daniel Miles)<\/p>\n

An AFL spokesperson said the safety of players, officials and spectators was “of paramount importance” to the AFL.<\/p>\n

“[Safety] guided all decision-making during last night’s U18s boys’ grand final,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“The AFL worked closely with ACT Policing throughout the event and took appropriate steps to contain the situation and ensure the safe conduct of the match.”<\/p>\n

The Belconnen Magpies Football Club has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two people were briefly taken into custody at a junior AFL grand final in Canberra last night after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2666,450176,64,63,450175,2667,48347,11048,11288,450174,44,1158,195690],"class_list":["post-880882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-act","tag-afl-canberra","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-belconnen-magpies","tag-canberra","tag-custody","tag-flare","tag-grand-final","tag-marist-college","tag-news","tag-police","tag-under-18s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880882","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=880882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}