COUNTRYFOOTYSCORES.COM

Freeman had his hands full trying to combat Stanhope's boom recruit Aaron James, the former AFL player, who would not weigh one gram less than 120 kilograms. James kicked eight goals.

Just before the final siren, a Stanhope player was forced off the ground after being caught in a high tackle. The sight of the blood streaming from the player's face brought a muted response from Stanhope supporters; nobody was quite sure whether it was the result of bad luck or malice. But they had their suspicions.

An older supporter turned towards the Ardmona supporters and said "You're a pack of bloody mongrels" before being told by Stanhope officials to sit down. A weird tension continued to hang over the ground before the siren rang to signal victory to Stanhope by four points. The win wrapped up the minor premiership for the Lions.

Ardmona players and supporters accept that they're unloved by rival clubs. Some seem to thrive on it. As I found during a spirited discussion outside the Ardmona rooms after Saturday's game, they can even handle being called two-bit thugs. But nobody at the club likes being called an outsider.

The intention of the reference to outsiders in the Final Word piece was to describe the fact that Ardmona attracts players and supporters from beyond country football's mainstream. Given that country football is a conservative institution, it's not hard to be outside that mainstream.

I gave two examples of those on country footy's fringe: Aborigines and Muslims of Albanian descent. The latter reference was to Perry Meka, Ardmona's 42-year-old full-forward who played in the recent Legends game.

This article could be taken up with stories about Meka, who is not popular outside his footy club. Following an investigation into the events after a recent game at Avenel, Meka was found to have slapped a teenage supporter and struck another one. He was suspended for six games. When his suspension was reduced to two games on appeal, rival clubs were angry.

Meka kicked five goals on Saturday to bring his season tally to 98. After the match he admitted he's not an angel, but he took umbrage to the description of outsider. "I'm not even Muslim," he said.

As a player, Meka is barely mobile enough to move out of the goal square. But on Saturday he was smart enough in one instance to receive the ball five metres in the clear because he'd lost his opponent.

Meka acknowledged that it might not have been my intention to pin the club's reputation on Muslims and Aborigines, but that was the interpretation. Darren Turner, an Aboriginal player who kicked four sublime goals in the second quarter on Saturday, agreed with that interpretation.

I explained to Turner that Paul Briggs, a prominent Aboriginal spokesman and the president of Shepparton's Rumbalara Football Club, had explained to me in an interview that he and many fellow Yorta Yorta men had shifted from club to club in the Goulburn Valley area, moving on after one or two years because they never felt accepted. The Rumbalara footy club was formed to give Aboriginal players a home, but some, like Turner, had found their way to Ardmona.

Turner later shook my hand, while Meka offered a drink. We talked about Shepparton and Shepparton United, which were the establishment clubs in that city, while the third major club, Lemnos, was once for outsiders. Now, as Shepparton Swans, the old Lemnos footy club is for outsiders only in that it attracts players from beyond the state.

After heated beginnings, it was an interesting discussion.

After my departure, a couple of Stanhope officials stayed for another hour and the field umpires stayed longer. Perhaps a step has been taken in bridging the gap between Ardmona and the rest of the competition.