Saturday nights worst umpiring decision , did pay dividends. When Gus had his kick forward paid as deliberate out of bounds, most of us die hards cried foul and couldn’t believe the stupidity of the umpire, but then….. Guthrie kicks out on the full ( thanks to Tracs harassing on the mark), a brain fade in hitting the ball 20 metres into the stands ( despite Scott claiming it in the field of play), 50 metres! and Jakes smart kick to Max. 
a goal and we do not have to play Port in Adelaide 

So thank you Mr Umpire for the dumbest decision of the year and allowing the Dees to finish on top.

in all seriousness the decision against Gus could have shaped, who eventually won the Premiership!

we all know how good the Umpiring has been this year!!!!!!!!

Edited August 25, 20213 yr by premiers13

It's funny how history has these moments. The last minute of that game had three questionable decisions. Look back with ~50 seconds to play. How was Selwood's kick deemed to be NOT deliberate? Probably because Brad Close was nearby? The deliberate OOB by Gus was more questionable, as to me (a one eyed Demon supporter that tries to be objective) it appeared that Gus was trying to gain territory and not have the ball go OOB. Gus never even took possession but kicked the ball off the turf, unlike Selwood who had possession.

The DOOB was paid by the umpire in the Demon forward line. The Umpire where the kick came from was the mid field umpire and didn't appear to be going to pay DOOB, it should have been his decision i.e. where the kick came from as he had a better perspective of Gus's intentions. When the ball went OOF from Guthrie's kick and Brad Close punched the ball into the empty stadium from outside the field of play, it seemed to me that the mid field umpire was trying to right the wrong of the previous decision and give Melbourne back the territory the other umpire had taken from us. Close could have easily argued he was only trying to touch the ball before it crossed the line.

Good on Jake Lever for immediately pointing out Close's indiscretion (that said the umpire already had the whistle in his mouth). If Lever had taken the Geelong approach he would have run into Close's back while making his way to take his kick to try to gain a subsequent 50m penalty for obstruction, as Close was running in a straight line between Lever and the new mark. This is a tactic Geelong have perfected under Brad Scott (remember a couple of seasons ago Dangerfield running into Gus's back at a ruck contest to gain a free kick and kick a goal - Selwood smugly walking past Gus clapping after the goal). I'm so glad JL didn't as I think it was far more fitting for Max to do that and put to rest some of his own demons for misses in the past.

The DOOB rule itself is fraught with subjectivity - did the player mean for the ball to go out etc. I don't think that this was the worst interpretation of this rule for the season. For me it was undoubtedly the DOOB that was not paid against Adelaide in the dying seconds of the Round 10 game. Had that been paid - whatever score Melbourne got from that, would have rendered the outcome of Round 23 irrelevant as the Dees would have ended 1st or 2nd regardless. It's funny how history has these moments.