Senior sergeant injured in Halls Creek brawl following East Kimberley Football League grand final

The Shire of Halls Creek is threatening to ban next year’s local football grand final after a fight broke out resulting in six police officers being injured including the town’s top cop who was taken to hospital with head injuries. The violence erupted after the final whistle in the match between the Yardgee Dockers and the Billiluna Kururrungku Roos in the East Kimberley Football League’s Senior Men South grand final on Friday. Six police were assaulted and a police vehicle was damaged. Three women, aged 29, 49 and 47 and a man, 21, have been charged with assault public officer and are due to appear in Halls Creek Magistrate’s Court next Tuesday. A 17-year-old woman has also been charged with assault public officer and is due to appear before the Halls Creek Children’s Court on the same day. A Halls Creek resident, who wished not to be named, said after the match ended the umpire had boots thrown at him. “So he bolted off,” the person said. “A massive fight broke out, which ended with two cops in hospital, and because of that the pubs were shut.” A police spokeswoman said the fight broke out around 4.30pm last Friday. “At the conclusion of a Football Grand Final, held at the Halls Creek Oval on Great Northern Highway, a number of fights erupted between spectators. During the incident six police officers were assaulted and a police vehicle was damaged,” she said. Witnesses also saw police vehicles being pelted with rocks. Police ordered the Kimberley Hotel to shut its doors and the weekly disco was cancelled. The town’s other bar, Russian Jacks, was also closed. Shire of Halls Creek CEO Phillip Cassell said the council would seriously consider banning next year’s football finals from the town. “The behaviour at the football and after the football is absolutely abysmal,” he said “If that’s the way people treat their sport, treat their recreation block, we have to have a serious look if we make that facility available for that activity. We will be seriously considering the use of that facility for next year.” The Shire of Halls Creek is about to spend $1.2 million upgrading the football field, including improving lighting. Seventy-five per cent of that cost will come from the State Government. East Kimberley Football League President Wayne Paul declined to comment, but confirmed he is preparing for weekend matches as usual, which includes the Senior Men North grand final at Kununurra Oval on Saturday. It is understood the league has not yet made any decisions about hosting future finals. Before the match police had tried to stop full-strength alcohol being smuggled into the town, which has laws stipulating that only reduced-strength alcohol can be sold takeaway. The West Australian understands in the days before the game police conducted road blocks on the Great Northern Highway heading to Broome and Kununurra, where large quantities of alcohol were seized. “They could only stay a few hours at a time because they couldn’t carry the amount of grog they confiscated back to the police station. It was physically impossible to fit it into the van,” another local told the West Australian. In the Kimberley, the carriage of alcohol in a vehicle is limited to crack down on sly grogging, or carrying liquor with the intent of selling it on. In Kununurra, the closest town to Halls Creek to sell takeaway full-strength takeaway alcohol, police stood outside the bottle shops checking everyone buying booze. Police conducted criminal history checks on each customer and then decided who could purchase alcohol. It is understood a lot of people with addresses in Halls Creek were knocked back. It is also understood officers from from Kununurra and Perth were brought to Halls Creek in anticipation of trouble. Final Score Yardgee 15 11 101 Roos 11 2 68