- The risk of hypothermia caused the suspension of a football match
- The teams did not leave the dugouts after half-time.
- A polar ice explosion has hit rural Victoria
Football players and referees did not emerge from the dugouts for the second half of the game as wet and cold conditions left some players and referees with symptoms of hypothermia.
Conditions in Ballarat and Victoria’s Central Highlands are cool in the middle of winter, but they were even cooler on Saturday.
The rebound in Newlyn, 20 kilometres from Ballarat, was at 2.30pm on Saturday.
But just an hour later, some players and officials were showing early signs of hypothermia and the Newlyn versus Springbank match sensibly had to be ended early.
Central Highlands Football League president Doug Hobson said he had consulted with both clubs on Sunday and no one had been injured.
The temperature in Ballarat on Saturday afternoon was around eight degrees, but with winds gusting at 40km/h the wind chill was close to or below freezing.
The rain was coming down sideways as they put the cakes in the warmer and laced up their boots, and Mr Dobson saw at one point that the forecast showed a wind chill of -3.4°.
The region received around 15 mm of rain.
Conditions were wet in Powelltown for Saturday’s football, forcing the abandonment.
A polar ice blast has hit rural Victoria, raising the risk of hypothermia
“Yesterday was just one of those icy polar blasts,” Hobson told NewsWire.
“We have some days like that. They were relentless.”
When the Newlyn and Springbank players came on at half-time, Newlyn were ahead 2.11 (23) to Springbank 1.9 (9).
“Some players felt a bit cold… It was a very sensible decision to suspend the match,” the league president said.
“It was canceled before there were any harmful effects on anyone who had a pre-existing condition that couldn’t be corrected.”
Newlyn senior coach Jarrett Giampaolo said the weather made the game “one of the worst I’ve ever been a part of”.
“It was a shocking day, the oval was completely burnt and it would not have been possible to find too many blades of grass there,” Giampaolo told the Herald Sun.
League rules dictate that the half-time result stands, should the game be abandoned, giving Newlyn four premiership points.