NNSWF investigation: OVA and Goats preliminary final

NNSWF confirmed an incident took place, but declined to comment further due to the ongoing investigation.

On the eve of the grand final between OVA and South Armidale in Armidale on Saturday, September 23, Moore Creek president Matt Bridge moved to downplay the incident.

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Bridge said the "altercation" was between a man with strong links to OVA and "a friend of a friend that turned up to support" the Mountain Goats.

He said the former threw one punch "and that's all it was", with "ground officials" defusing the situation, while the latter had "nothing to do with the Goats whatsoever".

"It was two blokes," he said "One from Oxley Vale and one ... which is a friend of an ex-player who hadn't played for two years for us.

"But they turned up to watch the game - last 20 minutes. Turned up after cricket."

"Nothing involved in it really," he added.

OVA declined to comment given the matter was still being investigated.

The incident occurred after Mushies had beaten Moore Creek 3-0 at Johnson Field on September 16.

In the lead-up to the match, Goats co-coach Dean Hoy told ACM that Mushies' 49-game unbeaten run in the Premier League was a distortion because they had lost matches outside of the competition during that period.

It was a continuation of well-documented banter between the two clubs.

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