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Speaker 1: As we spoke about just a couple of moments ago,

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Speaker 1: a player was injured during the afl NT's Means Premier

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Speaker 1: League reserves match between Southern Districts and Palmerston Magpies over

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Speaker 1: the course of the weekend out at Fred's Pass. Now

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Speaker 1: we're told that the player had fallen awkwardly after making

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Speaker 1: a contest, sparking concern about spinal injuries, and what that

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Speaker 1: meant was that they had to stay put until the

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Speaker 1: ambos arrived. But from what we can gather, it took

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Speaker 1: a while for those paramedics to get there. Craig Garaway

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Speaker 1: just telling us thirty two minutes from the records that

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Speaker 1: he's gone back through. But what it means is that

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Speaker 1: it impacted the subsequent women's game as well. Now joining

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Speaker 1: us on the line to tell us a little bit

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Speaker 1: more about the situation is afl NT's Football Competition's manager

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Speaker 1: Stuart Davis.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Stu.

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Speaker 3: Hi, Katie, how are you going?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Really good? Thank you so much for your time this morning. Stuart. Firstly,

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Speaker 2: how is that injured player going?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? The latest update we've got is that he spent

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Speaker 3: a night in hospital Saturday night or being released, but

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Speaker 3: he's going back for the CT scans today, so that's

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Speaker 3: as much as we know.

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Speaker 1: Hopefully, hopefully he's okay. What sort of unfolded on the

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Speaker 1: field from what you.

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Speaker 3: Can gather, Yeah, I wasn't there, obviously, but I'm told

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Speaker 3: that it was a marking attempt. The player got up

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Speaker 3: quite high and then sort of flipped I think in

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Speaker 3: the air and you can probably picture landing sort of

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Speaker 3: head first or head and shoulder, and stayed down, obviously

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Speaker 3: in some sort of discomfort. So, as you said in

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Speaker 3: the intro, all the correct protocols were enacted, and including

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Speaker 3: not moving the player and making sure that the professionals

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Speaker 3: were called to treat him appropriately.

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Speaker 1: Now, we spoke to cry Garaway from Saint John a

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Speaker 1: little while ago. He said that from his records, it

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Speaker 1: looks as though the paramedics got out there in around

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Speaker 1: thirty two minutes.

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Speaker 2: Stewart, is that the case.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I certainly wouldn't dispute that we were told forty

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Speaker 3: or forty five minutes from the time of the incident.

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Speaker 3: Obviously there's going to be a bit of a lag

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Speaker 3: in reporting and that sort of thing and making the

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Speaker 3: decision to call the AMBLOS. So, yeah, that sounds pretty consistent.

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Speaker 1: And so then what's it mean in terms of the

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Speaker 1: following game. By the sounds of it, there is a

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Speaker 1: bit of an issue there in terms of the timing

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Speaker 1: and the following game being delayed for an extended period.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. So obviously our scheduling is reasonably tight.

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Speaker 3: We have to take account of the heat of the

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Speaker 3: day and lights availability and those sort of things, and

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Speaker 3: of course there's no lights out there at the French Pass,

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Speaker 3: so that restricts us a fair bit. And the actual

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Speaker 3: laws of the game AFL laws of the game so

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Speaker 3: that if the game's unable to start on time, then

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Speaker 3: it's a matter for the controlling body. And we AFL

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Speaker 3: MT have our rules and regulations which cover all of

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Speaker 3: our competitions, not just the NTFL, and in our rules

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Speaker 3: and regulations we say that if a match can't be

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Speaker 3: commenced within thirty minutes of the scheduled start time, then

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Speaker 3: that match will be deemed what we call a washout.

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Speaker 3: We also have we have the ability to reschedule to

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Speaker 3: a new time at the same venue on the same day,

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Speaker 3: but of course that option wasn't available to us because

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Speaker 3: we just would have run out of light.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right, so it was a women's it was a

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Speaker 1: women's Premier League game that was meant to get underway afterwards.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, that's right. So there was there two

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Speaker 3: more games to be played on the day, the Women's

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Speaker 3: Premier League and the men's Premier League game, and whichever

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Speaker 3: one of those was the next one to follow was

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Speaker 3: obviously going to be the one that was affected. So yeah,

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Speaker 3: unfortunately the women were all ready to play but because

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Speaker 3: of the circumstances, couldn't get it going.

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Speaker 2: So was this something that happens from time to time.

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Speaker 3: It's certainly not infrequent in our competition. As you can imagine,

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Speaker 3: we're affected by weather and lightning. And I remember men's

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Speaker 3: Premier League game at t Io Stadium two seasons ago,

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Speaker 3: Warta and Saint Mary's. They were all set to go

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Speaker 3: and there's a huge storm and lightning, and that game

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Speaker 3: was delayed by over half an hour and similarly was

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Speaker 3: washed out. But you know, there was another game scheduled

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Speaker 3: for after that and they got to play. So it's

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Speaker 3: not something It's not a rare event up here, that's

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Speaker 3: for sure.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And I suppose usually it is something that we

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Speaker 1: see more so with the weather. As you said, those

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Speaker 1: big lightning storms and stuff, they're not unusual at all.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I've been at the footy myself, but with

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Speaker 1: the kids when they've been canceled because of the lightning,

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Speaker 1: and you know, it's a sensible and safe thing to do.

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Speaker 1: But I suppose in terms of the delay due to injury,

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Speaker 1: is there anything that the AFL will sort of look

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Speaker 1: at now to review in terms of, you know, if

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Speaker 1: there's anything that can be done differently to avoid it

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Speaker 1: from happening.

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Speaker 3: Look, I don't think so. I mean, we've got, as

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Speaker 3: I said, our scheduling is pretty tight. We've got a

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Speaker 3: lot of teams over a lot of grades. We've got

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Speaker 3: our participation rates are fantastic, and so that means we

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Speaker 3: obviously try to avoid the heat of the day as

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Speaker 3: much as we can. But you know, we'd love to

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Speaker 3: have lighting on all of our grounds and be able

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Speaker 3: to play in more comfortable condition I suppose, But we

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Speaker 3: already have competition matches over five days of the week regularly,

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Speaker 3: so trying to trying to fit a washed out game

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Speaker 3: in somewhere else is just too hard really, and we're

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Speaker 3: pretty comfortable with where we sit.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it is just one of the I suppose one

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Speaker 1: of the downsides to the participation of AFL here in

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely blowing out.

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Speaker 3: Ah yeah, exactly right, exactly right. And so you know,

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Speaker 3: we we do what we can to program and get

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Speaker 3: everyone the games that we can and make everyone happy.

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Speaker 3: But you know, sometimes these things happen and players miss out, and.

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Speaker 1: I suppose, you know, one of the one of the

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Speaker 1: things that does get asked from time to time, and

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Speaker 1: when something like this happens, or when there is an

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Speaker 1: injury like this, sometimes people sort of question, well, should

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Speaker 1: there be an ambulance there at the oval, you know,

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Speaker 1: when there are those games happening. But as you've just

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Speaker 1: touched on, when you juggling games across five days, it'd

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Speaker 1: be very difficult to find the resources to be able

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Speaker 1: to do something like that.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, you know, we understand that the ambulance services have

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Speaker 3: limited resources and have competing priorities, so you know, they're

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Speaker 3: obviously supportive of us when they can be, but totally impractical,

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Speaker 3: impracticable to think that they might be able to have

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Speaker 3: an ambulance at every ground that we're playing on. As

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Speaker 3: I said, five days of the week.

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Speaker 1: Well, Stuart Davis, it is always great to catch up

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Speaker 1: with you. I really appreciate your time this morning. Thank

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Speaker 1: you very much for having a chat with us.

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Speaker 3: You're welcome Katie anytime.

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Speaker 2: Thanks mate,