Geelong coach Chris Scott has slammed the idea of match day reporting, and wants the on-field report taken out of the game.
Scott teed off during the post-match press conference, following an incident on the stroke of half-time that saw midfielder Jordan Murdoch go into the book for a bump on Sydney's Isaac Heeney.
Heeney jumped straight back up after the hit and played out the rest of the game, although Scott's issue was with the affect the report has on the player whose name gets taken down.
"I think it highlights the absurdity of match-day reports," Scott told reporters after Geelong's 17-point loss to the Swans.
"To put the pressure on umpires to feel like they have to intervene in split-second moments like that is really unfair on them.
"It serves no purpose at all.
"I think the umpires would say it gives them an element of control, so if there's a bit of a melee they can say they've reported the player, which I think is highly questionable.
"Then the whole footy world will look at it and say the Geelong player had his hands on the ball going for the ball with perfect technique, so it wasn't even a free kick.
"So then to report him and affect him for the next half of the game, I think makes a bad decision even worse."
Scott highlighted just how far modern technology has come as the main reason for his view, suggesting there's no need for match day reports given every incident is already watched over and over.
"This is not the '60s, where we don't have 12 camera angles. It will be reviewed to the nth degree post-game and that's when it should be reviewed," Scott said.
"For an umpire to make one mistake into two mistakes โฆ speaks more to how difficult it is to umpire and to ask them to be thinking about that as well when they don't need to is an error in my view."
