‘No offence to Tassie’: The infamous Sirengate mess 20 years on

Source : ABC NEWS

How many football fans over the years have sat in the outer watching a game, praying for an extra few precious seconds before the siren goes, to give their team one last shot at a glorious comeback win?

Plenty, no doubt. Twenty years ago today, in Launceston, St Kilda fans got what they were hoping for, including two unlikely chances to seal the deal.

It caused chaos and disbelief, on-field arguments — and legal arguments — before all was decided in the Saints game against Fremantle.

Thanks to the universal shorthand of scandal, that day, the four quarters (and a bit) of footy and all that followed became known as “Sirengate”.

This is the story of what transpired, 20 years ago today.

Not-so-lucky Launceston

York Park in Launceston began life as an AFL ground in 2001 with Hawthorn taking on Adelaide. It started out as a Hawks alternative home ground, but in 2003 St Kilda began playing occasional home games there as well.

By the time we got to April 30, 2006, the Saints had played six, won three, and lost three.

Fremantle had played five times — the most recent being a 22-point loss to Hawthorn 28 days earlier — and lost all five.

Ask Matthew Pavlich or Steven Baker for their thoughts on playing at York Park, and the responses are blunt.

“How many times do you travel from Perth to Launceston would be my first statement,” the former Dockers spearhead and skipper, and now the Sydney Swans CEO, says when asked about then Dockers’s struggles at the ground.

“Look, it’s a significant trip and it was never an easy road trip. Probably like teams heading to the west, it can be a challenging place to play. And probably in the early phase of my career, our team was still developing.

“[By 2006], we’d played a finals series and we were on the cusp of heading to a preliminary final that year. So we’re a more mature group and ready to deal with all the challenges that relate to a long road trip. And by that stage, we’re finally used to the ground and the conditions down there.”

Baker is even more straightforward.

“Well I think the media team told us whenever we were asked that question we said ‘we love playing in Tassie’ but deep down, we all hated it,” he says.

“No offence to Tassie, but every time you’re travelling, you’re out of your own bed, and you’re out of your routine, it was cold and wet which I don’t think was bad for our style of game … but to say we enjoyed it would be a bit of an overstep.”

The game itself

It was a grey old day in Launceston for the game, overcast and windy with the temperature reaching 14.4C.

The Dockers got the opener, with Pavlich booming a kick from 50 after three minutes. But the Saints answered quickly, with Fraser Gehrig running onto a ball out the back to grab his team’s first.

It was a scrappy beginning, with skill errors aplenty. Jeff Farmer pounced on one mistake to give Freo the lead back.

There were several missed kicks for goal, as the Saints ran with a solid breeze in the first quarter.

Gehrig and Antoni Grover had been having their own battle, with Freo’s Josh Carr sledging the big Saint after a miss. Gehrig went to the umpire and lifted his shirt to point out something that Carr had allegedly done. The fuse had been lit, and Gehrig was on a watch from all cameras.

Aside from this incident, it was a physical start, with shoulders, hips and God knows what else being thrown all round the park.

When Pavlich had a give-and-go with Luke McPharlin, the Freo spearhead nailed his kick from 50. The Dockers led by 12.

The Saints continued to waste the wind. In the quarter’s final seconds, Freo had a forward 50 stoppage. Pavlich won the ball in the ruck and it went to skipper Peter Bell, and then Daniel Gilmore, who steadied and kicked the goal to the fury of Saints fans. The Dockers led 5.2 (32) to 2.5 (17) at quarter time.

The Saints then attacked early, with Nick Dal Santo kicking to a marking Gehrig. But the free was taken back to the midfield, adding to Gehrig’s growing anger.

St Kilda had multiple chances, with Gehrig missing one and setting up another, as the “home” side closed the gap.

Pavlich answered for Freo, then Farmer sharked one and hooked it over his shoulder for another.

Soon afterwards Pavlich swooped on a spilled ball and snapped a beauty from 35m out. He had four majors and his 179th goal for Freo, breaking the club record previously held by cult forward Clive Waterhouse.

Baker, a fierce tagger from Colac in Victoria’s south-west, had been doing the hard work for the Saints in defence.

For Freo, aside from Pavlich, Byron Schammer’s moves off half-back and Bell’s in-and-under work were key.

In time on, Farmer booted a long goal, Gehrig answered, but then Pavlich received a free in the square and kicked his fifth in a half. Jason Blake managed a late one for the Saints but as the half-time siren went, the Dockers led 10.5 (65) to 6.7 (43).

“I don’t remember much of the game other than I’d personally come off three lots of surgery that year, and I’d actually started the season quite poorly and slowly and was building my fitness,” Pavlich says.

“I think we’d won a couple, lost a couple, so we were wanting to start the game well, particularly given the fact that we hadn’t played that well down there. So to hit the scoreboard and to start well as the team was important.”

The third term turned into a bit of circle work early, as both teams tried to shift the ball forward but couldn’t make the right kick stick.

A St Kilda miss preceded a pivotal minute of play.

The Dockers went forward and Farmer snapped a kick that hit the behind post. St Kilda defender Max Hudghton came off second-best in a contest, and got up holding his hand, while Des Headland snapped a goal from 35 at the eight-minute mark to leave Freo up by 27.

Hudghton trudged from the ground, the back of his hand blowing up like a balloon. It looked nasty, and it was the end of his day.

The ‘G Train’ loses the plot

The Saints were hanging in and nearly went coast-to-coast. Luke Ball kicked to the square, where Michael Johnson took a mark over the back before being dragged down by Gehrig near the post.

Unfortunately for Gehrig, Johnson was given 50, and the game which had been simmering for so long, came to an abrupt boil.

Grover bumped shoulders with Gehrig, and the latter had well enough – he grabbed the Freo defender by the throat, then David Mundy came in and shoved the Saint in the chest, before Gehrig put him in a headlock as the whistle sounded repeatedly.

Gehrig then grabbed hold of Mundy’s hair, as the crowd hooted. Johnson received a second 50, as Grover got in Gehrig’s face again and tapped the side of his own head to signal the forward’s poor choices.

Meanwhile, Johnson kicked the goal from 30 out after the double gift.

All bets were off for Gehrig at this point, as Grover continued to get into him, and the Saint grabbed him by the throat again, prompting another kick instead of the bounce.

The damage had been done. Freo led by 33 points, and St Kilda’s full-forward had lost the plot. The runner finally took Gehrig off, with Brett Voss on. Gehrig sat on the sidelines looking at the ground.

Saints coach Grant Thomas doubled down, bringing superstar Nick Riewoldt off and putting Stephen Milne on.

Within a minute or so it paid off, with Milne dribbling the ball through for a goal at the 16-minute mark.

A centre clearance led to Lenny Hayes kicking one from 60m but Milne was pinged for holding. No matter, as Voss and Milne added quick goals to make it three on the spin.

At three quarter-time, Fremantle led 12.7 (79) to St Kilda 9.9 (63). During the break, Saints coach Thomas had a quiet word with Gehrig.

In the final quarter, Freo won the opening clearance and sent it forward, chaos-style. It bounced around, before ending up in the palm of Pavlich, who took a couple of steps and flushed it from 40m. It went through for the Dockers, who led again by 22 after 24 seconds.

The tension was high as Saints fans urged their team to fight back, and the Dockers tried to hang on.

It was a quarter of misses. With just under 14 minutes on the clock, Gehrig emerged back on the ground to cheers from the Saints fans.

Pavlich missed a shot, and the margin was 21. The Saints went forward, Gehrig grabbed the ball near a pack and burst free before kicking a goal. Dal Santo then kicked another to make it 10 points.

More behinds followed, before Pavlich set up McPharlin, who marked and goaled. Back to 14 points with 5:54 on the clock.

The Saints had to start throwing caution to the wind, and they got one back through Allan Murray. A rushed behind followed, but with 1:20 left, Grant Thomas was looking frustrated in the St Kilda box. His team needed two scores.

Troy Schwarze kicked downfield, but Bell marked in the back pocket, then kicked to Josh Carr, who found Gilmore in defensive 50 with a minute to go.

The final minute (and a bit more)

The Dockers were in charge. All they had to do was chip it around.

Called to play on, Gilmore kicked to a waiting Paul Duffield, but Lenny Hayes intercepted and hit the ground running.

Hayes ran, then stepped Gilmore, leaving him flailing before finding Leigh Montagna, who slotted it as the vast majority of the crowd surged to their feet in wild celebration.

The clock said 37 seconds left.

The Saints sent Ball, Hayes and Dal Santo to the bounce. Not one Docker was in their forward 50.

Ball got it from the tap, dodged a tackle and gave it to Jason Gram to run onto with 28 seconds left.

Gram fed to Blake, who kicked inboard to a contest. Montagna couldn’t mark, the Dockers grabbed it and Duffield handballed to Josh Carr, who was tackled with 15 seconds left. The ball spilled free.

Brendon Goddard handballed to Montagna, the ball bobbled and disappeared under players. A ball-up with eight seconds remaining.

Grant Thomas was sitting with his hand on the side of his face, looking … not optimistic.

The ball came down 40m out, and Riewoldt fisted it forward. It bounced forward and back as players surrounded it with two seconds left.

The ball was locked in as the countdown clock disappeared from the screen. Time was up. The Saints called unsuccessfully for a free.

Byron Schammer was the first Docker to raise his arms, claiming the siren had gone.

In the Dockers box, Chris Connolly was up and making his way to the back as if the game was over.

Out on the field, the umpire still held the ball, and nine Fremantle players were gesticulating and saying the game was over.

No dice. The ball was bounced once more and it was funnelled away from goal, but the Saints moved it to Aaron Fiora who found Baker and the Saints player kicked it just wide for a point.

In the box, Connolly was incredulous, spreading his arms wide in disbelief. The Dockers were still claiming the siren had gone, and the umpires were questioning what had happened.

One umpire had now heard the siren, prompting a discussion on the ground. Dockers players thought this was it and started jumping up and down in celebration.

The crowd roar could then be heard as the goal umpire signalled the point, making the scores 94-94.

The Dockers were arguing with the umpires, and it still wasn’t over.

“A supporter was tapping on the window with a beer can [to alert the timekeeper the game was still going before the siren went again],” football historian Francis Doherty says.

“Back in the day, each club would have had an honorary timekeeper, so [St Kilda and Fremantle] would each have had someone in there.

“If that had been the case, the Fremantle and St Kilda person would have been there … they would have kept each other honest.”

Connolly’s pitch invasion and Baker part II

The Fremantle coach charged onto the ground, seeking answers.

The players were standing around. Connolly was still walking, gesturing and making comments that lip-readers might have quickly divined. The more repeatable part included “the siren’s gone!”.

Lenny Hayes came away from the pack of players surrounding the umpires and made some gestures of his own, telling Connolly to get off the ground. Connolly did walk off, stopping to talk to Nine’s boundary rider, Michael Roberts.

“I vaguely remember it [Connolly on the ground], it kind of half did [get out of hand],” Pavlich says. 

“I think Heath Black was involved, maybe shepherding Chris.

“I played 353 games and it was the most chaotic scenes post-game that I can remember, clearly.”

As Connolly stopped for a chat, the umpires signalled a free kick — another to Baker — as everyone lost their minds.

The free was for Baker being dumped after kicking the ball. A goal would win it. But would a point make it a draw, or a win? What did it mean? It was utter chaos at York Park.

Baker ran in and kicked another point. The goal umpire signalled the new point, the first one being cancelled, and both goal umpires jogged to the middle of the ground to do their tally of the score.

Finally, the umpires agreed with the electronic scoreboard which showed St Kilda 94, Fremantle 94.

Pavlich says he didn’t hear the siren.

“Obviously because your teammates react, you start to react, and then all of a sudden the ball was back up in the air and it was game on again … the ball goes to Steven Baker, he’s pushed, there’s a free kick,” Pavlich says.

“Soon enough, our coach and officials are out in the ground saying the siren has gone and then Baker’s having another shot and he misses and it’s a draw. It was just absolutely chaotic and hard to even just contemplate what was happening.”

Twenty years on, Baker shakes his head at the drama of it all.

“There was so much shit going on,” he says.

“Like Lenny was roughing up the opposition coach, which was pretty funny looking back, I don’t know if that’s ever happened. There was a lot of emotions and a lot of excitement, straight after the game it just felt like a big dream.”

Baker says everyone sends him the footage of that finish. 

“Everyone was cracking in, the crowd and the commentators were going off their heads,” he says.

“I don’t even know what the hell I was doing in the forward line, I think I was probably chasing Jeff Farmer who might have been down there.”

Baker plays up the interaction that led to the second kick, before bursting out laughing.

“Then all of a sudden I’ve got the ball in my hand, and thinking ‘shit, I’m free here, and the goals are just there’. I ran forward and got pushed in the back ‘brutally’, which made the first kick miss.”

He was given the choice to take the second kick and accepted.

“But I remember my arse just puckering and thinking the wind was really brutal forcing to the right. I remember thinking if I kick this out on the full, I’ll lose the game,” he says.

“Looking back I should have just gone [and] aimed it at the left goal post, but instead I kicked the absolute cover off the ball trying to make sure I didn’t kick it out on the full.

“I didn’t aim it enough, it was going through and then just drifted … the wind got it and it missed by a couple of feet to the right.

“It was so loud [at York Park], and I was so shattered.”

Baker was a tough tagger on the field, and certainly didn’t consider himself a huge goalkicker. Before that day, he had kicked 24 goals in seven and a bit seasons.

“It was nearly worse than losing the grand final, missing a shot after the siren to win the game. I could have got carried off by the boys and it would have been exciting,” he says.

“I wasn’t the best shot for goal – even though Milney gave me a lot of lessons through my career I was never that confident in front of the big sticks. I would rather chase arse [all game] and be carried round like a trailer than be in front of the goalposts.

“I remember being absolutely shattered in the rooms after, but the boys giving me pats on the back saying not to worry.”

And for Freo?

“I remember being in the rooms after the game and it was officials talking and we were just mulling over what the hell’s happened and disappointed that we’d let the game get to that point after having such a good lead,” Pavlich says.

“And then our … strengths and conditioning coach yelled out at some point, ‘alright boys, we’ve got a six-day break and we’re flying back to Perth. We’ve got the Derby next week. Let’s start recovering’.

“And pardon my language, but I think Belly [Peter Bell] said, ‘just give us a f***ing moment will you?’. Just so we could digest what had happened.”

The 1980 night premiership — or when Collingwood was robbed

Football historian and author Francis Doherty says at the time of Sirengate there had not been a game’s result changed under protest in more than a century.

The only other time was in 1900, during a St Kilda and Melbourne clash, which ended up as the Saints’s first win in the VFL.

“Clearly a match that should have been changed, could have been changed, was the 1980 night premiership grand final,” Doherty says.

North Melbourne were playing Collingwood in the mid-week finale, and North won by three points with a mark after the siren to Kerry Good, who then kicked the winning goal.

There were 50,478 in attendance at Waverley Park, all making a ton of noise.

With North trailing by three points in the dying seconds, Malcolm Blight took a mark in the middle, wheeled and kicked inside 50 where a leading Good leapt to take the mark.

In the Seven commentary box, Bob Skilton spoke up: “The siren’s gone, Lou, the umpires haven’t been able to hear it.”

Lou Richards told the audience there were fans running on. 

“If Good kicks this goal, they’ve won the match,” he said.

As the cameras pulled back, it was chaos. Kids and adults running towards Good, who was coming in to take his kick. It turned out that one of them was none other than Glenn Archer, later one of the greatest-ever Shinboners, but he wasn’t going for North back then.

“I was six years old at the time, and I was a mad Collingwood supporter. I had my older brother with me, who would have been 11 or so. My Dad was in the stands,” he later told Mike Sheahan on Fox Footy’s Open Mike:

“We rushed down as we always used to do, and jumped the fence and my brother used to cart me out there as I was so young. I was one of the little blokes in a dufflecoat, running at Kerry Good, hoping he’d miss it.”

Fans got close to Good, and some seemed to be trying to block him, but the kick was away.

“He’s kicked it — North Melbourne are premiers! North Melbourne has won the match! What a game!” Richards called.

Good disappeared from view as he was surrounded by celebrating fans.

“Lou, there’s no doubt in my mind that the siren had gone well before the ball had been kicked [to Good],” Skilton said.

“But the game doesn’t finish before the umpire hears it [the siren], and the siren tonight was nowhere near as loud as it usually is.”

The VFL announced a trial of putting electronic beepers in umpire’s pockets, linked to the siren. We’re not sure how long it lasted, but an ABC news story on the announcement featured an expert claim of a 1 in 20 million chance of failure of the new system.

Collingwood did issue a challenge to North Melbourne to replay the game — not surprisingly it was not taken up. 

For better or worse, the result stood.

The aftermath

What then, after the events at York Park?

“We flew back to Perth. We were unsure what had happened,” Pavlich says.

“Our officials and coaches were adamant the siren had gone. We got back to Perth and there was meetings with QCs and all manner of lawyers to take statements and affidavits and everything else in between so we could go and pitch our case to the AFL to say, no, no, we’d won the game. The siren had gone and we deserved the four points.”

Pavlich recalls players in the CEO’s office on the Monday or Tuesday night giving the statements and affidavits.

Then on the Wednesday, the AFL Commission met in Melbourne. It took four hours.

At issue was section 10.4 in the AFL rules of the game:

10.4.1 End of quarter

“The Timekeepers shall sound the siren to signal the end of the quarter until a field umpire acknowledges that the siren has been heard and brings play to an end.”

10.4.2 Siren heard by field umpire

“Play in each quarter shall come to an end when one of the field umpires hears the siren.”

The general principle of 10.4.2, that play doesn’t end when the siren goes, only when the umpire hears it, seemed to favour the Saints.

But in the end, it revolved around 10.4.1.

The decision, announced by commission chair Ron Evans, flanked by AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou, was that an error had taken place.

The AFL Commission found the timekeeper had not blown the siren for long enough for the umpires to notice and that the game should have ended before Baker’s initial behind.

They declared the Dockers had won the game and they were awarded four competition points.

After the verdict, St Kilda president Rod Butterss expressed his surprise at the decision, saying it would create uncertainty in the game.

“We fear that today’s decision may have far-reaching consequences and lead to uncertainty and ambiguity in decision-making in all levels of football,” he said.

“It is quite possible, for the first time in over 120 years of playing our great game, that the sole decision maker will no longer be just the umpire.”

Despite reservations, the Saints would not appeal. For the Dockers it was a different story.

“[The reaction was] we’re vindicated. I think we all knew that we’d won the game, but it wasn’t yet proven officially,” Pavlich sayd.

The siren used in the game that day at York Park ended up a couple of decent torps away, at the Queen Victoria Museum at Inveresk.

The AFL quickly intervened after Sirengate, investing in a new siren system. The offending old noisemaker was retired, and sent to the museum, where it still remains.

Why Sirengate stands alone

Francis Doherty is conflicted because of prior history, but he sides with the AFL. Just.

“Look taking everything into account it was probably the right call in the end,” he says.

“[But] as a Saints supporter, I’d say the AFL policy change decision resulted in …. bad news for St Kilda.

“Had that draw stood, St Kilda would have finished third and would have had the double chance.

“As it was they finished sixth, and lost in the first week in an elimination final.”

In the end, Sydney was left with the double chance and the Swans reached the grand final.

“If the boot was on the other foot, Saints fans would have been screaming blue murder,” Doherty says.

“But I’m not sure if that would ever happen again, they’ve made sure the siren was loud enough.”

Was the win a bad thing for the Dockers?

That crazy day, and the final result, made a difference for Freo, who finished third because of the win, rather than the draw.

With the draw, they might have faced the Eagles in a Western Derby qualifying final. Instead they faced the Crows in Adelaide.

“[2006 was the] first time we made top four. And eventually it meant that it was the first time that we’d won a final,” Pavlich says.

“I think we went over to Adelaide in a final and narrowly lost to them and then came back and won our first ever final at Subiaco against Melbourne. 

“And then narrowly, well, I think it was a three or four goal loss to Sydney, maybe a four goal loss in the prelim. So it was crucial to our season and our year that year.”

And for Steven Baker, the man who missed twice? He adds the game to the other painful moments from his generation of Saints, including a drawn and two losing grand finals.

“The [2010 grand final] draw, and even the year before 2009 against Geelong, it was a draw with only a couple of minutes to go, they got a little toe-poke at the end, and that was unbelievable,” Baker says.

“Tom Hawkins hit the goal post, it nearly went at right angles and it was called a goal, in that grand final.

“So there’s a lot of controversy over our tenure but you wouldn’t change it. Obviously you’d love the win, but it is what it is and we’re a very tight-knit group and I think it’s because we went through so much adversity, we’re all still really tight. 

“Looking back obviously a bit of churn in the belly [over it all] but I wouldn’t change it.”