Weekly Times | SOUTH West District Football League reigning premier Dartmoor is out of finals contention after its match against Westerns was called off due to a horrific head clash between two players.
Westerns captain Michael Keem and Dartmoor’s Jay Ropitini were taken to hospital in Mt Gambier on Saturday after they clashed heads midway through the third quarter of the Round 13 match.
There was an ambulance at the ground due to a Dartmoor netballer suffering an ankle injury, but more ambulances had to be called to take all three injured players to hospital.
Ropitini was discharged from hospital on Saturday night. Keem suffered a broken jaw in two places and saw a surgeon in Adelaide on Monday. He was expected to undergo surgery either Monday or yesterday.
Under the rules of football a match is abandoned if play cannot resume within 30 minutes, and Saturday’s match did not resume after the incident. Representatives from both clubs confirmed they were happy to have the game called off.
Since the incident occurred after half-time, the final scores were taken at the time play was halted, with Westerns winning 9.10 (64) to 5.4 (34).
The result puts Dartmoor three wins and more than 50 per cent behind Westerns and Cavendish, who each have seven wins for the season, with three rounds to play. In those rounds the Giants must face the current top three sides of Coleraine, Heywood, and Tyrendarra.
Westerns president Clarkston Ray said there was no malice in Saturday’s incident, and he did not think each player knew the other was coming.
“The thud, the noise, I heard it from probably 200m away,” he said.
“When we went out there we feared the worst, but I must congratulate everybody involved from both sides, the trainers, the first aiders who were out there to help, they were both cared for really well.”
Ray said he was also “overwhelmed” by the messages coming from rival club presidents checking the players’ welfare.
South West District league president Selwyn Jones, who had umpired the earlier reserves match, said there was never a question the game could have resumed, and it was a “blessing” an ambulance was already at the ground.
“For a really critical incident like that to have an ambulance already at the venue with paramedics there was a real stroke of luck,” he said.
It has not been an easy year for the Giants, who lost a host of players after the premiership win.
Dartmoor secretary Liz McKinnon said attention had turned to next season, in which it was confident of returning to success.
Ropitini has only recently returned to senior football after suffering serious internal injuries in a car accident.
“It’s a credit to him that he’s even got back to play, because I know a lot of people were telling him to take the season off, but he’s such a good club person,” McKinnon said.
The Giants’ Round 5 match against Heathmere was also called off early after Heathmere playing coach Brodie Carter broke his leg.
An Avoca player has also been cleared of serious injury after an incident during the under-17.5 match at Avoca Public Park on Saturday.
An ambulance was called just before 12.30pm on Saturday after a player fell to the ground, hit his head and was unconscious.
He was flown to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a serious, but stable condition.
Through a club statement the player’s family thanked those who assisted on Saturday.