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THE days of footy fans flooding the oval at finals games may soon be a thing of the past in the Ovens and Murray league.
Tensions between Yarrawonga and Lavington players and spectators at the Albury Sportsground on Sunday went close to boiling over, prompting the league to consider banning fans from being on the ground in future.
It is very fortunate that the verbal exchanges did not escalate to something more serious on Sunday, but it wasn’t a good look with 1500 supporters on the ground at the time, many of them children.
The potential for things to get quickly out of control is something the league must now consider.
General manager Aaron McGlynn said a discussion would take place after the finals series as to whether fans should be kept off the ground at preliminary finals, as they are on grand final day.
It’s not a move he is particularly keen on, acknowledging that having people on the ground supporting their clubs is a big part of country football.
But we know that it takes only a handful of people to say or do the wrong thing and everyone gets punished.
We can only hope for a commonsense solution that works for the vast majority of fans who always do the right thing.