I witnessed a shocking decision by the umpire in the North/Carlton game on Friday.

I have tried to attach a video of it below. The Carlton player received a free for "high contact".

I think this is worthy of being a new topic, since it is such an important digression from the AFL's determined efforts to lessen concussion injuries.

Surely the umpire must realise,that  by awarding a free to the player who is leading with his head, it will encourage players to adopt this method.  The result??? More concussions, even possibly a  broken neck.

That umpire should be dropped and forgotten. He has no understanding of basic football.

Completely agree with you regarding it being an error by the umpire. I don't agree, however, that one instance of an umpire making a mistake warrants his demotion. I'm not being critical when saying this, but umpires make mistakes regularly. That's because it's a hard game to umpire. The best we can hope for is that the number of mistakes made by umpires is minimal. They'll never completely disappear.

Most umpiring mistakes are understandable and forgivable, but not an error as ignorant and significant as this.

The defender plants the feet before laying the tackle, so he had stopped his momentum. Then he moves forward with small steps after that towards the player. Not sure what else they could do to limit the amount of force. 
 

Then again, I don’t know if the Carlton player propelled himself forward either, he seems to be moving at normal motion of picking up the ball then lowers his head just before contact (that video is slow motion so it would have been a fraction of a second). I still don’t think it should be a free kick to the the Carlton player, but this one is closer than I thought it would be.
 

That one is 50/50 for mine in the context of…. if the AFL is protecting the head, and lowering the head happens every time you pick up the ball (you probably don’t want to be smashed in the face by a tackler either, hence lowering the head), then that is tricky to write a specific rule for that will work. Especially if you don’t ‘propel’ forward into the tackle. 
 

AFL is going to have a hard time being a full contact sport and eliminating concussion. Just not going to happen. 

I did think Ginnivan was a big hard done by on a couple of occasions 

might be in the mould of that ducker  from Geelong but not on these times.

i needed to work hard to get ducker 

it removed the d and put s then put again put a f. 

I have no sympathy whatsoever for Ginnivan 

He needs to stop lifting the arm in tackles, simple 

8 minutes ago, 640MD said:

I did think Ginnivan was a big hard done by on a couple of occasions 

might be in the mould of that ducker  from Geelong but not on these times.

i needed to work hard to get ducker 

it removed the d and put s then put again put a f. 

The AFL concedes some instances involving Ginnivan “were not adjudicated correctly” as stated by Laura Kane. In the same breath they claim that Ginnivan “is not umpired any differently to other players.” If his actions aren’t being adjudicated correctly but he’s not being umpired differently, does that mean all other players have instances where the adjudication is incorrect?

7 minutes ago, SthSea22 said:

I have no sympathy whatsoever for Ginnivan 

He needs to stop lifting the arm in tackles, simple 

The umpire based his decisions on the player involved, not the action. Despite this particular player’s history, that’s not professional. 

The Ginnivan stuff is being overplayed. Umpires aren't paying the Selwood arm-raise to anyone these days. Kosi gets nothing for it too. Ginnivan just gets all the attention because he's a high profile ducker. I'm glad umpires aren't falling for it but it's a bit annoying that they waited until the year AFTER Selwood retired to actually wake up to it. Selwood got away with it for 15 years and has even admitted he made a career out of it.

The one that still really pisses me off is the Rozee one from last week. The free kick manipulators have already moved on to this and umpires are falling for it. Beats me how Rivers copped a fine.

 

I get umpires make mistakes but some of the rules and the application (stand rule, 50m penalties, hands in the back) are becoming a farce.

I would hate to be an umpire in todays game and the lack of opportunity for captains to react/discuss decisions also does not help to build relationships.

 

26 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

The umpire based his decisions on the player involved, not the action. Despite this particular player’s history, that’s not professional. 

Wish is great 

8 minutes ago, Jibroni said:

I get umpires make mistakes but some of the rules and the application (stand rule, 50m penalties, hands in the back) are becoming a farce.

I would hate to be an umpire in todays game and the lack of opportunity for captains to react/discuss decisions also does not help to build relationships.

 

Push in the back for me is the absolute worst. I don’t know why or how it came to be so confused, but it honestly gets paid at random. 
 

There’s Ginnivan as an issue yes, but Tom Hawkins has been gifted probably 50+ goals throughout his career for pushing in the back. It’s maddening. 

Ginnivan's problem is that, almost always, his first inclination is to play for the free

8 minutes ago, BoBo said:

Push in the back for me is the absolute worst. I don’t know why or how it came to be so confused, but it honestly gets paid at random. 
 

There’s Ginnivan as an issue yes, but Tom Hawkins has been gifted probably 50+ goals throughout his career for pushing in the back. It’s maddening. 

Then you see guys get the full force of another player's weight in the back -- from hands, knees, or the entire body -- SPLAT, ending up prone on the turf. Play on.

I have nothing to add to this topic, except that incorrect high contact footage brings back memories of the 2021 Grand Final.

At the centre bounce following the 1st flurry of goals in the 3rd quarter (Fritsch-Fritsch-Brown), Macrae picks up the ball and with his head down, charges into (a standing still) Viney and wins a high contact free. 

Ah good memories 😁🔴🔵

If some one plays for the free, If we can see that, so can the blind boys from Alabama,  If its around his neck pay the free. Especially when you are supposedly protecting the head.

 

Does not matter or should not matter who the player is or their history. I personally think Fritta nudges his opponents in the back a little bit, then gets the pill as it drops over behind and he is deadly.

1 hour ago, Jumping Jack Clennett said:

Most umpiring mistakes are understandable and forgivable, but not an error as ignorant and significant as this.

What about the mark Willie Rioli took clearly 2 meters outside the boundary line?

My brother is a Carlton supporter and when we were chatting about the weekend's football - as much as he was pleased to have a ten goal win - he had real concerns for some of the decisions made in that game.

He particularly noted a couple that went against Toby Pink (either paid against him, or not paid for him) which he felt were just appalling. For a tall defender in their third game with very limited support to be coming up against Curnow & McKay is hard enough, but to then have a string of very bad umpiring decisions go against you turns it into a serious test of character.

It simply shouldn't be happening. One of my deep concerns about our game is that the AFL is happy to 'run down the asset' and not do the fundamental maintenance of investing properly in umpiring, junior development, second-tier leagues, and so forth.

The particularly visible and risible umpiring decisions affect the game in much the same way as having a couple of utterly non-competitive teams, or having a wildly compromised draft. There's only so many times people can think 'nah, I'll sit this one out and just check the results' before it becomes habit.

I’ve seen worse than that one. The big worry are the boundary umps at the moment, might need four of them on each side.

Edited April 3, 20241 yr by Dee Zephyr

31 minutes ago, 640MD said:

If some one plays for the free, If we can see that, so can the blind boys from Alabama,  If its around his neck pay the free. Especially when you are supposedly protecting the head.

 

Does not matter or should not matter who the player is or their history. I personally think Fritta nudges his opponents in the back a little bit, then gets the pill as it drops over behind and he is deadly.

Which I can assure you is textbook body-on-body positioning every time. ;)

Howlers in 2024.  Actually most by the boundary umpires who have missed clear out of bounds calls.  I know we want to “keep the game flowing “ but this is not quite what was expected !!!! 

1 hour ago, SthSea22 said:

Wish is great 

Do you mean which is great?

So, you think it’s great if an umpire isn’t impartial?

Is dissent still a rule?

3 hours ago, D4Demon said:

I have nothing to add to this topic, except that incorrect high contact footage brings back memories of the 2021 Grand Final.

At the centre bounce following the 1st flurry of goals in the 3rd quarter (Fritsch-Fritsch-Brown), Macrae picks up the ball and with his head down, charges into (a standing still) Viney and wins a high contact free. 

Ah good memories 😁🔴🔵

I like the one in the 3rd qtr when Ben Brown gives a well timed Tom Hawkins type push in the back to take a mark and kick our 3rd goal in quick succession putting us back in the game.

This has been a hobby horse for me for several years.

I am not arguing that this is or is not an umpiring error.

It is clearly an AFL Administrative oversight / coward in corner issue.

As long as night follows day, inevitably at some stage a player at some level is going to suffer a life changing cervical injury. It is impossible to prevent 100%, but the AFL could at least make it a less likely method of injury by one simple step: ANY PLAYER WHO DRIVES THEIR HEAD INTO AN OPPONENTS LEGS, GROIN, MIDRIFF OR CHEST SHALL BE PENALISED IN EVERY CASE  

There can be no free kick to be anticipated or considered.  Just don’t bloody do it.

It will significantly reduce the risk of such a life changing, family changing, injury, and burdening inevitably an enormous weight of guilt on a non guilty party. 
 

but the AFL being their arrogant selves, will do nothing and then piously wring their hands when it happens asking what could we do to stop it.  Well, Dillon, Gillon and hacks at AFL house just come out and say every low head charge is a penalty against. As long as there is any possibility of reward some will continue to do it.

Here endeth my annual rant on the subject