Change $@a->[0] to $a->[0] or $$a[0] (I suggest and prefer the first form). See perlreftut.
Jeff japhy Pinyan,
P.L., P.M., P.O.D, X.S.:
Perl,
regex,
and perlhacker How can we ever be the sold short or the cheated, we who for every service have long ago been overpaid? ~~ Meister Eckhart