The AFL Umpires Association (AFLUA) has labelled the current Match Review Officer (MRO) guidelines as "deficient" as Collingwood's Brayden Maynard and Gold Coast's Touk Miller avoided match suspensions for making contact with a field umpire.
Maynard, in a bid to remonstrate a bump, stormed towards Suns forward Ben Long after the half-time siren, and bumped into umpire Nick Brown.
Miller, attempting to pull the Pies leader away from his teammate, also connected with Brown, who was stuck in the crosshairs.
The pair were fined $5000 by the MRO, although calls have suggested Maynard should be sidelined for multiple weeks.
“We have expressed our view that the current MRO guidelines are deficient because they provide no ability to suspend a player unless contact with the umpire is intentional,” the post continued.
“The increases of umpire contact over recent years has proven that fines are not an effective deterrent. Where contact with an umpire is forceful or avoidable there needs to be an ability to suspend players.
“This is important not only to protect AFL umpires but also to make it clear at community level that contact with an umpire is not acceptable.”
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Maynard appeared on the Ausmerican Aces podcast, labelling his actions as "careless", and that he “had to get (the umpire) out of the way” otherwise he “would have bulldozed him over”.
“When I was running over there I came from about 50m deep so I probably should have been aware of what was around me but I had my eyes on one man and one man only and unfortunately the umpire was in the way,” he said.
“Look it was careless, I didn't mean to touch him (umpire) and he was there in the middle and I had to get him out of the way. There was no malice in it whatsoever. If I didn't move him out of the way I probably would have bulldozed him over, let's be honest.”
