Greg Swann says umpires will be cracking down on missed push-in-the-back free kicks in coming weeks as he also revealed new high-tech cameras were arriving in August to improve the decision-making capabilities of the league’s review centre.
In a wide-ranging radio interview on Wednesday morning, the AFL football boss touched on all things umpiring, saying the game’s referees were adjudicating to a high standard but like players and coaches were prone to mistakes.
Swann admitted a decision that cost Ollie Dempsey a goal in Geelong’s four-point loss to Carlton in round 12 was a goal umpire error, while confirming that Hawthorn’s Mitch Lewis should have been paid a goal square mark in the dying minutes of their six-point loss to Western Bulldogs last Friday.
“That was a mark, and they [the umpires] admitted that they got that wrong,” Swann told SEN.
But Swann dismissed criticism that the league introduced rules on the run.
He said the AFL sat down with the umpiring department every Monday to identify trends and make adjustments.
“When people say there’s a rule of the week, there actually isn’t,” he said.
The former Brisbane Lions chief executive, who moved to league headquarters this year, said the game was in good health – scores were up, stoppages were down, and three minutes had been knocked off the length of games.
He said the league intended to continue with its four-umpire system and would be sending a mid-year update to clubs next Monday.
Here are the key points he touched on.
Milking the shot clock
Essendon fans were left exasperated when Carlton forward Harry McKay indicated he was taking a shot at goal from outside the 50m arc deep into their clash at the MCG on Sunday only to direct the ball to the top of the goal square after wiping 49 seconds off the clock.
“The direction is, if they [the players] call it, they’ve got the 30 seconds, then they must start to walk in at 30 seconds,” Swann said.
“Our looking at that was Harry started walking in at 29 seconds.
“He took his sweet time to walk, I think he got up to about 40 or 41, so he should have probably got a bit of a hurry-up at that stage. But it is at the umpire’s discretion.”
Swann said he was sympathetic to the umpires at that moment because a player such as McKay was capable of taking a 60m shot on goal.
“It’s a hard one to have a hard and fast rule. It’s the first one we’ve had blatantly this year, so we are not jumping at shadows at the minute, we’re not going to change it, but it has to be monitored,” he said.
The ruck rule
Swann said the league did not want to reward the baulker – a ruckman who shied at the centre square ball-up so that his opponent leapt early and gave away a free kick for crossing the line.
“A shout-out to Brodie Grundy, he’s probably the best one at it,” Swann said.
“But again, it’s smart. He’s just, ‘what can I do, what can’t I do, what can I get away with?’ … but we’re not that keen to reward the baulker. So if you sort of jump and the other guy doesn’t, we’re looking to not pay those free kicks.”
The lasso rule
Swann said umpires were awarding on average four kicks a game for the last-disposal out-of-bounds rule between the 50m arcs.
“In our analysis, there’s probably 80 per cent of skill errors and 20 per cent of those sort of accidents … it bounces off someone’s shin, or it comes off the back of the heel,” he said.
“The way we determined it was, if you’re in the goal square and that happens, and it becomes a goal, then that’s how we’ll determine it around the boundary. So, if it does come off the back of your foot, off a heel, or comes off your shin, it’s a goal. So, we work on the same premise [for last disposal].
“We think the lasso has worked really well. We’ll keep monitoring it, but that’s what we’re looking for at the minute.”
Kicking over the mark
Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell was critical of umpires for cancelling a Nick Watson goal in their win against Adelaide because the small forward had moved off his line when taking an after-the-siren shot.
Mitchell said Watson’s arc had taken him closer to the boundary line and had not improved his angle.
But Swann said players had to kick over the man on the mark.
“The man on the mark has to have an opportunity to touch the ball as somebody’s having a shot for goal,” he said. “That will be the dominant rule versus, ‘you’re not allowed to improve your angle’.”
“If you kick the ball on an arc, you’re improving your opportunity, and you’re getting around the guy on the mark.”
Swann said players could start outside the direct line as long as they ended up kicking over the man on the mark.
“We all talk about the ‘Buddy’ [Lance Franklin] rule. Buddy can start two or three metres to his right, and he runs in an arc, but he kicks over the man on the mark. That’s fine.”
The ARC
Swann said the ARC did not have time to overrule a decision that cost Geelong’s Ollie Dempsey a goal against Carlton, despite replays showing the ball had come off his shin and should have been ruled a legal kick.
“That was on me, that decision,” Swann said. “There were two things. So, [goal umpire] David Rodan should have referred it to the ARC because he got knocked over.
“But because he didn’t, the instruction then is to the ARC, ‘If you can clarify what’s happened before the ball comes back into play, you call it’.”
Blues defender Nick Newman took just five seconds to restart play, beating the ARC’s decision-making process by two seconds.
“The instruction was, ‘Don’t bring it back, it’s already in play’,” Swann said. “So, the ARC wasn’t at fault there. The fault was, David should have referred it, and he didn’t.”
But Swann expected the ARC to have even greater insight leading into the finals.
“We get a whole set of new cameras in August, just for the last few games, and then leading into the finals, which should be able to be quicker, with better definition,” he said.
“They’ll be able to see a lot clearer, a lot quicker, and hopefully that improves it.”
Holding the ball
Swann said the contentious decisions among fans were always holding the ball. But he admitted it was difficult for umpires to adjudicate whether a player had prior opportunity.
“Even the decision about if you tackle and hold an [opponent’s] arm, that’s holding the ball, but if you tackle and you’ve got both arms pinned, then that’s a ball up,” Swann said.
“So they’re the grey areas that you sort of look and go, ‘How do we clarify that?’”
Swann said at the end of the season the league would look at rules that were difficult to umpire. “The one that I think, and this is personal … if you get tackled, and you try and kick the footy, and you don’t kick it, as in, you have a swing and a miss, in my view, I reckon that’s dropping the ball.”
In the back
Swann said a point they had raised this week was the push-in-the-back interpretation.
He said players were allowed to hold their position while taking a mark by placing their hands in an opponent’s back, but some were getting away with pushing.
“If it’s a blatant push, pay the push in the back,” he said. “At the moment it seems it is sort of trending towards, so long as you mark it, you can sort of do whatever you like.”
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