Today was supposed to be the grand final day for the Port Moresby Moni Plus 2022 Australian Football League (AFL) women’s competition as per the scheduled date, but unfortunately, that won’t happen because the competition had to be canceled.
The Port Moresby AFL Association President Mr. Douglas Lai said the cancellation was due to two clubs breaching the rules covering the eligibility of the players in a team playing in the finals round. Apparently, the Lamana Dockers and Gordons Kokofas women’s teams fielded players that were not qualified to play in the finals. The president said some of the players from these two teams were called in from the Rugby and Rugby League codes to play in the teams as they move into the finals round of matches.
This also resulted in some of the girls that have been players right throughout the season in these two teams, being dropped from the sides. “Players will be eligible to play if they play three or more games in a team during the season to be qualified to play in the finals,” explained the president. As such the association cautioned these teams, this then led to the teams protesting by forfeiting the finals matches last weekend, which should have been the matches to determine the two teams from the total four teams, to meet in the grand final match.
The association reacted by canceling the competition following a meeting with club executives and management this week. This is unfortunate for the other two women’s teams, but the cancellation serves as a penalty for the two teams that breached the rules and as a warning to all the clubs that such breaches in the future will be seriously dealt with by the association. Nevertheless, the women’s competition should return next year in the 2023 season. Mr. Lai said they plan to start early the women’s competition in the month of April.