The Fremantle Reaction

The Age

Thursday May 4, 2006

STEPHEN RIELLY

FREMANTLE chief executive Cameron Schwab described the Siren-gate controversy that began in Launceston on Sunday and concluded at AFL House last night as an event that may help to define the club.

After the Dockers received all four premiership points from the match against St Kilda, Schwab said the AFL Commission decision spoke well not only of the competition's regard for fairness, but for the evolution of Fremantle, the second-youngest club in the AFL.

"How do you ever really know, but I don't discount the possibility that it could be a galvanising event. I'm sure that how we perform from hereon in will be judged against what's occurred," Schwab said.

"I'd certainly like to think that it's been good for our club. In lots of ways we're a football club that's still finding its way. We're a big club, we've got 36,000 members and lots of corporate support, and we have room to get bigger but we're still to prove to everyone, even ourselves, that we're a strong club. It might be one the many minor things which need to occur to create a strong sense of identity."

Schwab said that Fremantle's legal argument was fundamentally simple: "Essentially our argument was that a game of football lasts for 80 minutes plus time-on, not 80 minutes plus time-on plus 26 seconds."

But the four points could, in time, he said, be less important than the declaration the commission made by choosing to reverse the drawn result.

"I believe that the decision strengthens the competition, not diminishes it, because what it tells everyone is that the competition values fairness and what is just," Schwab said.

"The commission voted for what was just. Setting our interests aside, that is healthy and encouraging for the sport."

The Saints quickly suggested last night that an unhealthy precedent had been set by the decision, but this was dismissed by the head of Fremantle's legal team, David Grace, QC, who also sits on the Court of Arbitration of Sport.

Grace said that because the result of the match was altered from a Fremantle win to a draw because of an error by the match timekeeper, the alteration was caused by an off-field mistake and not a controversial judgement made on-field.

"This was an issue that did not arise in the field of play," Grace said. "This was an issue outside the control or knowledge of anyone on the field of play. This was outside interference in the outcome of the game. So it doesn't set a precedent for any on-field dispute. It doesn't set a precedent for anything, really.

"It's merely an application or an interpretation of the laws of Australian football which determine that the game finishes immediately after the first siren."

Fremantle president Rick Hart also talked down the likelihood of the game being taken back down the same road as it has over the past four days, with the league also deciding to upgrade its timekeeping procedures and technology.

"In view of the steps which have been taken to prevent it from occurring again, I don't think a precedent is an issue," Hart said.

© 2006 The Age

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