KATS DOWN WOLVES TO REACH NPFL GRAND FINAL IN SCORE CONTROVERSY

Wickham Wolves taking on the Kats

The Karratha Kats have advanced to the Grand Final of the North Pilbara Football League after controversially defeating the Wickham Wolves on Saturday at Millars Well Oval.

Wickham took an early lead in the first quarter, before being overtaken by the Kats by half time.

But the match remained a close affair as just one point separated the two sides by the end of the third quarter 8.7 - 55 to 8.6 - 54 with the Kats barely ahead.

But it was the final moments of the game that proved pivotal, with a conflicting umpire call.

With the scores level, the Kats tried to boot a goal, but the boundary umpire called it out of bounds, while goal umpire called it a point.

Spectator, Lockie was filming the match and saw the last seconds. “About 30 40 seconds to go roughly…And he's kicked around the pool as the video shows. The boundary umpire signaled out in the full as the video shows. And the goal Empire Signal Point so the boundary umpire quickly put his hands back down. And then there's a bit of confusion.”

“I'll play around over to play the kick from the boundaries on and then the Umpire running and they all had a chat

and then they called the point.”

As the clocked ticked down, all umpires decided to go with the goal umpire’s decision, allowing the Kats to scrape home with victory.

The Karratha Kats won 10.10 - 70 to Wickham Wolves’ 10.8 - 68.

Ngaarda Media’s Sport Correspondent, Ross Humphries who was at the game, described the last moments as a “minor controversy”.

The Kats face the Dampier Sharks at Windy Ridge in the Grand Final on Saturday night, with bounce down at 6.45pm.