TWO weeks have passed since our son's team won its under-15 grand final. It was a game that began with typical adolescent nervous energy, punctuated by an angry northerly that caused the lead to change several times and completed by an occasionally tense presentation attended by two young policemen carrying guns.

Maybe it was the mistral that provoked a father from the opposing team to run onto the ground and physically confront our young coach during the final quarter. He claimed it was the sight of his son — the star of the team, who already had been injured — being taken from the ground after a heavy bump.

Either way, it was one of the more disgraceful acts I have ever witnessed at a game of football and certainly the worst during my son's eight seasons of junior football.

The politics that have followed the incident have been baffling. The father in question, who claimed his son had been targeted all day, had to be removed from the ground by other parents but not before he had picked up our coach's spectacles and broken them into pieces.

I was not close enough to hear some of the obscene abuse that other witnesses testified was being directed at our coach. Some of us were warned, however, by the team manager to stand away from the opposition parents and therefore our coach's bench.

During the presentation, some of the abuse directed towards him while he tried to speak marred the ceremony, although it must be said our boys still seemed joyous enough. And we got the feeling as we trailed from the ground and headed for our clubhouse across the other side of town that the independent officials who witnessed everything were not keen to press charges.

At the time of going to press, our team has not been notified of any punishment directed at this father who still seems to believe his actions were somehow justified, judging by the letter he sent to the league. The case was heard by the league three nights ago and there the father said he had not been able to bring himself to apologise in writing to our club.

His shamefully conditional apology to the governing body indicated our league should place greater controls on hard tagging, that his son was taken out during a behind-the-play incident and that our coach turned around and smiled after the incident. His letter, which received strong support from his club president, indicated such behaviour was typical of our club.

Clearly, I am conflicted here but all of the above is so ridiculously far off the mark it is laughable. The so-called behind-the-play incident was a legitimate hip and shoulder that resulted in an opposition free kick because it was deemed a second or two late. The game, including footage of the father on the ground, all has been captured on video.

This from a father who should have known better. He has another son playing for an AFL club and he must have been around junior football for some time. The club president's father was an AFL club president. Can they honestly be trying to justify a parent entering an arena and attacking an opposition coach?

Under-15 A-grade football is not always for the faint-hearted. One of our players was concussed early in the game and taken to hospital. Our full-forward played with a broken hand. I have no doubt I was watching at least a small handful of boys who will be drafted in 2010.

I wonder whether the league, which each year puts on a brilliant competition that has given our sons almost a lifetime of brilliant memories, joy, disappointment and hopefully some lifelong friendships, would prefer this incident disappeared.

But in recent years, I have become more and more familiar with what I used to know as a syndrome and now believe to be a big problem for football and society. I hate the way some parents abuse not only opposition players but sometimes their own children. Most disgusting is the way some parents abuse the young umpires, some of them teenagers.

At one game last year, one umpire failed to show and the poor man who performed the job on his own was treated with a torrent of scorn and bad language for four quarters. I can still see the look on his shattered face at the end of the game.

As for our coach, I believe his spectacles were not the only thing that was shattered a fortnight ago.

It was a back-to-back premiership for our son's team and the coach, who has had his fair share of personal tragedy in recent years. Last year, his post-premiership speech moved some to tears and another mother on my behalf removed the six typed pages from his pocket for safekeeping after he had spoken.

Towards the end of it, he stated: "At the ripe old age of 23, I've seen a lot of football. Played, watched, ran water and now coached. I've seen some incredible things in football. Two Brownlows to my hero Robert Harvey. Watching Brisbane take three flags in a row.

"I've played with plenty of league footballers … and played under the captaincy of arguably the best player in the AFL in Chris Judd. And I promise you none of these things come close to the feeling I had on Sunday afternoon when the final siren blew and I watched as all the boys piled on top of each other in the centre of the ground.

"Seeing the faces on every parent and friend around the ground … I can't imagine having the same feeling again too soon, so for now, I'll have to bottle up as much of it as I can."

It is of enormous regret to us that the 2007 flag and the reputation of our coach has been, if only in a small way, besmirched by an ugly parent. He should apologise to our coach and our club. And he should replace the spectacles.