ORANGE Emus assistant coach Andrew Logan slammed the “disgraceful performance” of a number of Parkes Boars after Saturday’s Blowes Clothing Cup fixture at Endeavour Oval was called off about 70 minutes in, with the greens leading 89-0 and their opposition down to 11 men.
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There was no yellow or red cards though and with no obvious injuries, a number of Boars appeared to simply walk off the field during the game.
Despite fielding full second and third grade sides and having the benefit of being able to call on colts to fill gaps as well – the greens have no colts side – Parkes was unable to field a competitive top grade side to begin with, before finishing the round 15 game with little over two thirds of a team.
That came after the Boars’ reserve grade side trumped Emus’ – 2014 second grade title winners and 2015 runners-up – thanks to a late penalty goal.
Logan wasn’t impressed, nor was the remainder of his coaching staff.
“I had a little bit of prior knowledge that their first grade probably wouldn't be as strong as their second grade side. But I didn’t expect to see first grade standard players playing reserve grade for Parkes and then simply walking off the ground during the first grade game,” Logan fired.
“There was guys who have played for Central West in the last couple of years lining up in reserves then simply walking off the field during first grade because they’d had enough, leaving their team [short].
“It’s inexcusable, it’s against the spirit of rugby and I think it was a disgraceful performance from certain players. I distinguish those guys from the blokes who actually had a dig and finished the game for Parkes, who we have nothing but respect and admiration for.
“Some of them aren’t guys who would normally start in first grade and they shouldn’t have been put in that position by their clubmates.
“I’m just disappointed with the whole thing. It’s very sad for Parkes that that sort of thing is going on, it’s sad for rugby in general.
“It’s unfair for them to bring a team over, beat our reserve grade side who are also trying to make the finals and then simply say we can’t field a full first grade side for 80 minutes now.”
It’s inexcusable, it’s against the spirit of rugby and I think it was a disgraceful performance from certain players.
- Emus assistant coach Andrew Logan
Logan said there was no thoughts from his camp to enforce what essentially became a mercy rule prior to the early finish for one reason – principle.
“It was the principle of it, we wanted to make a point, but we also needed match fitness and the for and against,” Logan said.
“As I said to the boys, there’s a fine line between making our point and bullying people so once we’d made our point we stopped”
Parkes secretary Greg Peterson acknowledged the situation was “tough” and less than ideal, putting his top grade side’s player shortage down to unavailability and injuries.
“We’ve had a terrible run of injuries … we’re struggling with the quality as well, there [wasn’t] many first graders available. We had a lot of guys back up from seconds and thirds,” he said.
“Hopefully we can regroup next week in Parkes. We had four or five out today working at the mine, that doesn’t help.
“It’s been a tough season.”
The result came on the same weekend Narromine was forced to forfeit all grades to Bathurst Bulldogs because of a lack of player numbers, an issue the Gorillas have been battling all season.