The Ballarat Football Netball League board granted the Lions an exemption from a finals bylaw, which paved the way for them to bring up two players from lower grades to fill the side.

Ballarat won the clash by three goals.

Part of the reason behind the Lions’ struggles to field an A-grade team was because some of its players have been starting for both Sunbury and Rupertswood during 2016.

This caused issue on Sunday when Rupertswood also had an elimination final in the Riddell District competition, leaving Sunbury short for the encounter with Ballarat.

Swans senior coach Leesa Battistello said the Lions should have been forced to play with just five eligible players.

“It’s just really disappointing that a team like Sunbury, who had 22 people play A-grade for the year, were still unable to field a team,” Battistello said.

“This year we had three season-ending injuries to our team, but we’ve still been able to manage our list and ensure we had full team prepared for finals.

“One of the reasons Sunbury was unable to fill a team was because three of their players were playing in another team in another league that day.”

Battistello said a “discussion ban” was placed on the issue from Saturday onwards to help the team focus on the game.

“We were actually really worried that the issues surrounding it would distract us from our game,” she said.

BFNL rules stipulate that to qualify for finals, a player must start in five home and away games in that grade during the season.

Sunbury Football Netball Club president John Sanderson conceded part of the reason the A-grade team was short on numbers was because of a clash in finals with Rupertswood, but said there were others that “just couldn’t play that day”.

He said a player from B-grade and another from C-grade were elevated to the top team.

“That gave us seven players on the court, just to make us competitive, otherwise we wouldn’t have been competitive,” Sanderson said.

“I can’t understand the issue when you’ve got players coming up from a lower grade, especially two grades lower.”

Sanderson made the point that reserves footballers were able to play up in seniors in finals matches without the need for exemptions to be granted.

Rupertswood won its A-grade fixture against Diggers Rest by 10 goals to keep its season alive.