Rob's Blog

On the weekend, an AFL player playing down in the VFL, accidentally ran into the field umpire and knocked him over. It looked pretty funny on TV, but in recent years there have been a few of these incidents and the players have been penalized for it.

Last night this player was given a week’s break by the tribunal, which he probably thinks is a little unfair. However, it is important to protect the umpire or referee in any sport. To do their job properly, they have to be close to the play without getting involved in it. The players and umpires alike need to do whatever it takes to keep that barrier.

Another AFL umpiring incident this week had the field umpire apparently swearing at a player. Even though the umpire denies it, if swearing at the player was required to get his point across then I have no problems with it. If an umpire does a good job, no one notices.

So I guess that means in both of these incidents some of the blame must go to the umpire.

Related Pages: AFL

In the news from last weekend’s AFL round is the decision by Essendon to wear yellow armbands as a sign of support for a teammate with cancer. Traditionally an armband is worn by a team when someone close to the club has died. Essendon sought approval from the AFL to do it, was told that they could not, but decided to go ahead anyway. Of course, the AFL have to uphold their ruling, so Essendon was fined, and they complain about it!

Why are they surprised and angered that they are fined? For a team involved in sport, they should know that when the umpire has made a ruling, even if you don’t agree with it, you take it on the chin and get on with the game.

Although the sentiment by Essendon is great, I can see where the AFL is coming from – these things can get out of hand. There is a story that one player wore a black armband when his dog died. That’s just going too far.

Speaking of AFL, what’s the deal with the split round – six games played last week, and only two this week – wouldn’t four each week make more sense? Maybe there is something I am missing.

Related Pages: AFL, Essendon Football Club

I think the right decision has been made for the disputed AFL game between St Kilda and Fremantle last weekend. Freo was eventually awarded the points, even though the rules have always been that the game is over only when the umpire hears the siren and signals the end of the game. If it takes a few seconds for the sound of the siren to register with the umpire before he blows time, and during this time a team scores, then that score has always counted.

There have been many instances of this in the past, usually as a ball is kicked in the dying seconds of a game. In this case, the siren blower was in error and did not continue to blow the siren until the umpire signals the end of the game. The game went on, and Fremantle scored a behind to put them in front.

Everyone who knows the full story should acknowledge that Fremantle deserved to win and rightly the powers that be agreed. Too many times we look to the rules and regulations to decide on right and wrong – maybe we should be doing what we think is right, even if the rules don’t always agree with what we think.

My opinion has nothing to do with the fact that I was once a Fremantle supporter!

Related Pages: Australian Rules Football