There’s tension on court. The Blues are taking on the Jets and the final siren has somehow been delayed. The game is on a knife’s edge and someone has edged the ball through for a behind.

Finally, the siren goes. But no-one is leaving the court. Players, pushers and umpires are all in heated debate. Does that final behind count?

An onlooking official says it is rare for something like this to happen.

“The time keeper is doing her best, but the score board is old and the siren’s button doesn’t always work the first few times you press it,” she says.

The court finally empties. The game has been called a draw. But there are still strong views and it is a good ten minutes before the next game, between the Giants and the Kangaroos, gets underway at the Peter Krenz Leisure Centre.

“As you can see, people get competitive. It’s certainly no token sport,” the official says.

Balloon football is played by teams of five – or as many as ten, if you count the people pushing the wheelchairs.

The game is based loosely on AFL football, with six points for a goal and one for a behind. Instead of an oval, the game is played on an indoor basketball court with a giant party balloon. And there’s no tackling.

The league is organised by disability support service Scope. The idea is to provide something for people who otherwise might not have a chance to play organised sport. 

Players have a range of physical and intellectual disabilities. Some use electric wheelchairs, the rest rely on people to push them along.

Player Tamati Poingdestre says it is more than just a game. It is a social outlet and a place for life lessons some players never got the chance to learn.

“Everyone knows how to win. But not everyone knows how to take a loss. So people learn here that you don’t get really angry, you just tell yourself you will carry on better next week,” he says.

Mr Poingdestre has been coming every season since the league began four years ago. He has seen how people’s attitudes change.

To me it’s like people can take a win easier than a loss now. People don’t care as much if they lose. They’ll come back next week knowing they’ll play better.”

Kangaroos captain Vinnie Mammoliti says that the secret to a successful game is teamwork.

“It’s like in football. You’ve got to work together to get the ball up forward. You’ve got to get in the way of your opponent so he or she can’t get the ball,” he says.

He has just taken to the court, along with Jamie Roberts, whose mum Bev Delves is watching from the sideline.

“What amazes me is that there are never any broken ankles. You watch the people pushing and they just walk all gentle,” she says.

Mr Poingdestre says the game used to be faster, but there were concerns about players falling out of wheelchairs and their pushers injuring backs.

“It’s better now. It’s more about strategy, not just whacking the ball as far as you can down the other end of the court,” he says.

Chloe Butcher is one of a number of Catholic College Bendigo students who regularly help out with administration. She also pushes players on game days.

“We are there to aid the person who is playing and support them to play the game in the way they want to play it. If they want to go right, we go right,” Ms Butcher says.

Pushers need to be in tune with their players. Some players find speaking tricky, so pushers have to ask questions that only require a nod or shake of the head.

"There's a lot of pointing to something if players want something done,” Ms Butcher says.

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Ms Delves and her grandson Mason have been coming to watch Jamie play since last year.

“Jamie always used to say to us ‘come to balloon footy, come to balloon footy, come to balloon footy’. And I thought I’d just sit there and get bored. So why bother?” she says.

She relented and quickly became one of the sports’ passionate fans. She and her grandson Mason watch as Jamie wheels towards a loose balloon on the flank and knocks it out of the opposition’s forward half.

“It’s good for Mason to come see his uncle play. I don’t think Mason would understand it it if he went into ICON, it would be too overwhelming,” she says, referring to Scope’s Eaglehawk office, which provides services and activities for people with disabilities.

A woman who asked not to be named says she sometimes brings her grandchildren to the ICON office.

“They are only toddlers and they think all the people in wheelchairs have sore legs,” she says. “They point and ask ‘sore?’”

Today the Bendigo league boasts nearly a quarter of all Victorian players. Like Mr Poingdestre, Bulldogs captain Jye Yates was there when it started.

“People kept coming to watch. And we’d keep adding teams because they would then say they wanted to play,” he says.

And the league is producing quality players. Next month Bendigo players will travel down to Melbourne to take part in all-star matches, joining competitors from the Barwon league, as well as Melbourne.

“Some of the Melbourne leagues have been playing for 21 years. Our first time we played one of their teams, we won by five points. … The next year we won by 80 points. And last year we won by more than 90.”

Mr Yates isn’t sure what makes Bendigo better.

“Maybe we are organised a bit better than Melbourne. Or maybe it is because we only started playing a few years ago and are right into it. Melbourne must be like ‘well, this is just another week’, you know?” he says.

Balloon football matches take place at the Peter Krenz Leisure Centre Tuesdays from 10.30am.