Darley’s grand final defence came to an end in the first week of Ballarat Football League finals.
The Devils snuck into the finals in sixth spot, but faced the Sunbury Lions, which had easily defeated them the week before.
And the Lions looked well on track for a big win … until the start of the third quarter.
After Tim Hill received a yellow card, the Lions should have started the second half with 17 players on the field, For the first 34 seconds, there were 18 Lions on the field.
With the expected penalty to be the loss of any points scored in the third quarter, both teams played as though the margin was less than the scoreboard showed.
Then the Devils scored the first three goals of the last quarter, and were just seven points behind the Lions with their third quarter points deducted. The Lions responded though, kicking away to win 15.13 (103)-7.11 (53).
The final margin is likely to be cut once an investigation into the Lions’ extra player is completed.
Jake Ancrum kicked three goals in the loss, while Leigh Spiteri and Mitch Banner kicked two each. In his last game as coach, Jarrod Edwards was best in the loss.
