Former Parkmore player Jayde Handfield is at the centre of the latest SFL transfer controversy.
By Paul Pickering
IN YET another strange chapter in the Parkmore Pirates saga, the embattled club has been accused of poaching a player from the Yarra Valley Mountain District Football League (YVMDFL) without a valid transfer.
The Southern Football League (SFL) Division Two club’s financial troubles saw it spiral into recess in June, when an AFL Victoria investigation deemed that Parkmore did not have enough players to sustain itself.
Amid the Pirates’ struggle for numbers, 2006 premiership player Jayde Handfield returned to the club after playing two games for Belgrave in YVMDFL in April.
It now seems that Handfield – who was Parkmore’s best player in its last match before folding – had not been released by Belgrave.
After the Pirates went under, Handfield was cleared by Parkmore to move to SFL Division Three club Black Rock – despite still being registered with Belgrave.
Belgrave president Rob Morris last week said the club had no idea where its gun recruit had gone until hearing that he had been playing for the Pirates.
“It’s an absolute joke,” Morris said, explaining that he had never seen – let alone signed – a clearance form.
Having informed the SFL of the situation in May, YVMDFL chief executive Ben O’Brien said the issue was out of his league’s hands.
For Morris, the SFL’s delay in addressing the issue has been an indictment on the league.
“The SFL is quite farcical at the moment, and it shows the character of the SFL and how bad the management must be to let this happen,” he said.
While SFL general manager Wayne Holdsworth said the situation had not been handled well, he said Parkmore’s claims that a clearance form had been signed by Belgrave complicated the issue.
Despite Belgrave’s assurances that no transfer had been authorised, the SFL took no action to prohibit Handfield from playing for Black Rock until last week – when a directive was finally given to sideline the player until further notice.
Holdsworth said the league was reluctant to punish Black Rock because the club was an innocent party.
With the SFL enduring a tumultuous last 12 months – in which two chief executives have resigned from the post – Holdsworth was keen to respond to the attack on league management.
“Our image may have been tarnished because of the turnover,” he said. “But it’s not about image for us, it’s about the process.
“And with the current structure, this sort of thing wouldn’t happen.”
The SFL and YVMDFL agreed the situation could have been avoided if the leagues’ player databases were linked.
“Until everyone is on the (online registration system) Sporting Pulse there will always be loopholes in the system,” Holdsworth said.
Black Rock president Nick MacMillan said the club had agreed not to play Handfield for now, but was hoping discussions with the SFL would convince the league to endorse the player’s return before the finals started in a fortnight.
Holdsworth, however, said: “We are of opinion that he won’t be playing anywhere this year”.
Star attempted to contact both Handfield and the former Parkmore administration, but had received no response at the time of publication.
