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The SANFL has confirmed that it will refer the result of Sunday's controversial preliminary final between North Adelaide and Woodville West Torrens to the SA Football Commission, with a meeting to be held later this afternoon.
Earlier today, the league confirmed that North Adelaide had 19 players on the field at the start of the final quarter of Sunday's preliminary final at Adelaide Oval.
It's believed the extra player was on the oval for about five minutes and during that time, the North Adelaide Roosters kicked a total of eight points.
"SANFL can confirm that … there were 19 North Adelaide players on the field at the commencement of the fourth quarter," the statement said.
In Sunday afternoon's game, North Adelaide beat Woodville-West Torrens by five points, 15.10 (100) to 14.11 (95).
The Roosters are expected to play Norwood in next Sunday's grand final at Adelaide Oval.
The Eagles were up by 47 points in the third quarter before North Adelaide hit back, setting up an enthralling game.
Eagles chief executive Luke Powell said the points scored by North Adelaide during those controversial five minutes should not be counted.
"The SANFL has got to put what's best for the integrity of the competition, and until that happens we can't really say what we'd like too much," he said.
Mr Powell said the club was considering its legal options.
"They [the players] feel like they've had something taken away from them," he said.
North Adelaide CEO Greg Edwards defended his team on Twitter, after social media was flooded with comments.
"Wow, I've had enough," he wrote.
"Shouldn't they ask themselves how we kicked 12 goals in a row, seven after this incident, in a prelim."
Mr Edwards said the team had several injuries and team officials thought one of the players was getting treatment off the ground.
"There was a small period of time where it looks like we had an extra player on the oval, obviously it wasn't on purpose," he said.
ABC football commentator Michael Maney was quick to spot the issue from the boundary.
"There's been some controversy down here, we think North Adelaide might have started with 19 men on the field," he told ABC Grandstand.
"A player has just come off, Alex Spina is off.
"They were sitting here with no players on the interchange bench just a moment ago … they may have had 19 players on the field."
ABC commentator Neil Cross said he believed it was unlikely the final score would be changed.
"My understanding is … the chance was there, the captain from the Eagles didn't call for a count, that moment's passed."
The ABC understands that Woodville-West Torrens told an official that it believed North Adelaide had an extra player on the field but couldn't get the message to the captain to organise a head count by the time the extra player had come off the field.
The NEAFL grand final had a similar controversy on Sunday, as the decider between Southport and the Sydney Swans was stopped early in the final quarter for a head count.
Southport, who were leading by 60 points, were found to have had 19 men on the field for a 20-second period, during which no points were scored.
Southport went on to win 14.6 (90) to 5.5 (35).
NEAFL officials said in a post-match statement that the breach of the rules had "no material impact on the outcome of the game and the score should stand".
Topics: sport, sanfl, adelaide-5000
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