Former Port Adelaide premiership player Kane Cornes has questioned why anyone would want to be an AFL umpire after yet another offseason of rule changes.
Cornes' comments come after social media went into meltdown over the vision of the new man on the mark rule.
In the footage, Essendon's Kyle Langford was penalised for moving sideways on the mark which resulted in a 50-metre penalty.
Yuk. As if the umpires haven’t got enough on their plate. Watching if attacking player plays on, seeing if defenders get into protected area and watching if defender moves rather than STAND on the mark. #cantseeitall #whatdecisioncomesfirst https://t.co/HMIM838Xgy
— Michael McGuane (@MickMCG34) February 23, 2021
“When I sat down to think about it this week, on the back of even more unnecessary rule changes to our game, I realised it’s not the umpires I should be frustrated at... it's the lawmakers who continued to tinker with the game and make the umpire’s task nearly impossible," Cornes said on SEN and reported by Matt Balmer for Fox Sports.
“AFL is the hardest sport to successfully officiate in the world… this week we just made it even harder.
“Who’d be an AFL umpire?”
The rule change is expected to increase scoring and improve goalkicking accuracy.
