Former Hawks great Ben Dixon has hit out at the umpiring in the first half of Saturday night's semi final clash between the Lions and Giants at the Gabba.
Dixon said too many free kicks were awarded in what was a fiery contest between both teams.
In total, there was 54 free kicks paid on the night as GWS emerged three-point victors, setting up for a huge preliminary final against Collingwood next Saturday at the MCG.
Speaking on Fox Footy’s The First Crack Podcast on Saturday night, Dixon said the first half was over-officiated, stating umpires should put the whistle away more in September.
“I must say in that first half — and I’m not a big advocate of wanting to bash the umpires — but that was probably the worst half of football I saw from an adjudication point of view,” Dixon said.
“A final should be let go, it’s contested — it’s everything you want it to be. But ‘Razor’ (Ray Chamberlain) — and I love Razor — he might’ve got some shrapnel from the fireworks before the game in his eye on a couple of those decisions,” in a reference to Canberra Raiders NRL star Joey Leilua suffering that very injury in his side's final against the Melbourne Storm on Saturday night.
Dixon's main issue with the officiating was a warning issued to Adam Kennedy in the second quarter which is sure to draw criticism during the week.
Veteran umpire Shaun Ryan could be heard telling Kennedy he would pay free kicks against him if he continued to target Charlie Cameron's injured elbow.
“Come on, grabbing an arm, hitting an arm — there was nothing in it,” Dixon said.
“Everything would be thinking it’s just got to be played. Play it on its merit. Defenders push, shove, punch — do whatever they want to do, so there was nothing untoward and everything was blowing up because he had tape on his arm. If he didn’t have tape on his arm and he did the same actions, would he have said something?
“I was really disappointed with that. We’ve got millions of people watching and we’ve got an umpire telling a player not to pull and hit an arm.”
Ryan's adjudication likely falls under the AFL's Law 17.7.1 titled Rough Conduct — Spirit and Intention, which states: "Players shall be protected from unreasonable conduct from an opposition player which is likely to cause injury".
Dual premiership Kangaroo David King was equally perplexed by the decision.
“No one understands that, it’s not clear for anyone,” King told The First Crack Podcast.
“We need to review the actual laws of the game and make them simpler for everyone.
“That’s so technical — we still don’t know right now whether it’s a free kick or not.”
King also questioned the constant commentary from umpires.
“If there’s a free kick to be paid, pay it. But what’s the conversation for? I don’t understand the conversation,” he said.
“Do we need to have a conversation with the umpires? Why? If the players acted outside the rules, pay a free kick. If he hasn’t, what’s the conversation about?”
The umpiring in this game was perplexing and embarrassing.
I would not want these umpires being in charge of my grandsons Under 12 match!
I sincerely hope that none of them gets a preliminary final game.
While I was also disappointed with the standard of umpiring. I was happy with the warning given for off the ball contact to Charlies arm. Why should he be subjected to that. The crap off the ball has been going on to long in the game. My daughter (14) has taken up the game but asked why they are allowed to do that sort of stuff. She could easily revert to hockey (she is state level in both) because she sees at cleaner.
So some decision were confusing but the continual barrage from commentators about letting the off the ball stuff go is so far off my view on the whole thing it isn’t even funny. Then again I turned Carlton down to Row so what would I know right.
I was once an avid fan and now I watch a game a week or sometimes 2. I don’t go anymore as I hate the off ball rubbish – pushing guys after a kick, trying to continually hurt the good players and the lack of protection for the ball player from umpires. Dont get me started on eye gouging and the lack of repercussions, My Dad lost an eye while with South Melbourne and it effected everything in his life. Maybe have a look at how NRL is dealing with it – 8 weeks for a second offence (and they were both missed and had nowhere near the intent of mr greene). AFL should have send off for such events.