At the two-minute-mark of the last quarter, a fight broke out between two youths in front of the timekeepers box on the western side of the oval.

The fight then escalated into possibly the biggest brawl in country football league history, according to someone who has followed country football for decades.

Young men came from everywhere to have a piece of the action, causing some of the ugliest scenes ever seen.

The witness said women, young girls and even mothers with babies in prams feared for their safety as they scrambled out of the way to avoid the fighting youths, who had blood running down their faces.

The Murray Football Netball League did not comment yesterday other than it was “disappointing”.

General manager Dale Norman said the club would be having a meeting later this week to discuss the incident.

The witness said security was “hopelessly outnumbered” so the police and fire brigade were called to the scene.

Barooga Sen-Constable Wayde Foster said police received calls informing them 100 people were enmeshed in the brawl.

“A lot of people became involved, pushing and shoving, trying to pull each other off,” he said.

A 25-year-old man went to hospital with cuts on his face after he was assaulted for trying to break up the fight.

“He was the uncle of one of the initial fighters,” Sen-Constable Foster said.

“He didn’t know who hit him so wouldn’t take further action.”

Sen-Constable Foster said he would not be surprised if alcohol was a contributing factor.

“I think a lot of young people get a bit of grog in them and say something to somebody who takes offence,” he said.

“Then they just lose the plot.”

The witness said just as the fight was dying down, an older man in a red T-shirt wound the same youths up and it was “on again”.

“Some tried to become peacemakers while others just wanted the action to continue as more fighting erupted.”

The witness said it took security guards and police 10 minutes for order to be restored at the football ground.