Umpire guilty on striking charge
A round 11 V.F.A. game in 1906 between Preston and Williamstown saw the first near-riot at Cramer Street, when the locals, with just one win for the season, led Williamstown by 12 points at three quarter time only to lose by ten points after the visitors kicked four goals, all off free kicks, to Preston's nil in the last quarter.
The incensed Preston crowd mobbed the central umpire, J. Grogan, and the Preston Leader reported that police with batons drawn had to escort him, both into the changing rooms, and again to the railway station until a train arrived.
The Leader declared Grogan's performance "most unfair" and "inciting a demonstration of disapproval not seen at the ground before". And unless we accuse the local newspaper of bias, the Williamstown Advertiser also noted "Preston have won but one match, but there is not the slightest doubt that had the umpire not been on our boy’s side, 'Town would have been well beaten".
A scan of the Leader over the preceding summer months leads to an interesting question of the V.F.A. administration of the time. Just why Grogan was allowed to umpire the game in 1906? The previous year, Grogan was found guilty in the Preston Court of assaulting a spectator while umpiring another game between Preston and Williamstown in 1905.
A local youth, William George Bott issued proceedings against John Grogan, cited as "from Geelong and an umpire for the Victorian Football Association", for assault. Grogan later served a cross-summons on Bott and it was agreed to hold both cases together. Bott told the Preston Court that he was standing in front of the pavilion and that "in a very exciting game a lot of shouting was going on". About ten minutes before full time, he went to the fence just as the ball went over, and knocked the ball onto the field.
Grogan threw the ball back into play (there were no boundary umpires at the time), and it was immediately driven out of bounds again. At this point, Bott claimed Grogan walked to the fence, and instead of picking the ball up, struck out and hit Bott on the nose, felling him and that he did not remember anything until being taken home.
Bott claimed he had not said anything to the umpire, and James Olver, a local councillor, who said the ball was lying inside the fence and that Bott had his hands in his pockets when the umpire struck him, corroborated this statement.
Four other witnesses gave evidence that Grogan had struck Bott without provocation before picking up the ball. One, however, suggested a person standing behind Bott had reached forward to grab the umpire, but had then pulled his arm down.
The bench established that Grogan's case against Bott had only been issued after Grogan received the summons. Grogan claimed Bott had said "You --------- mongrel, come here and I'll do for you" and that Bott had struck him while he was waiting at the fence for the ball to be returned from outside the arena. The contact with Bott had occurred when the spectator came at him again and he raised his arms to protect himself.
Grogan's witnesses included one spectator from Newport who claimed Preston spectators were incensed because the umpire "had to occasionally penalise them". Four players from Williamstown gave similar evidence, one stating that he saw a woman poking the umpire in the ribs with an umbrella (laughter in court).
Three of them, however, stated that the ball was inside the fence and not outside as Grogan had claimed. The chairman of the bench, Mr. James Lyon, said that while the evidence was conflicting, they found that it was sufficient to convict Grogan. He went on the express sympathy with the plight of umpires, but said "it would never do to allow cases of this kind to go unchecked, especially on the part of an umpire".
Grogan was fined 20 shillings and ordered to pay £3/6/- costs, in default, seven days imprisonment. The summons against Bott was dismissed without costs.
Comments
Luke McKenna 29 December 2012
That is fascinating! Great article. One question, did Umpire Grogan's career continue after this incident?
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