Ongoing umpiring controversies continue to plague the AFL, with Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick expressing his frustration over the weekend and Port Adelaide also affected by several contentious decisions in their three-point loss to Sydney on Saturday.
Despite AFL chief Andrew Dillon regularly backing the umpires, the level of discontent among clubs and fans is escalating weekly. This is compounded by the complexity of the game and the introduction of questionable rules.
During the week, the AFL sent a memo to clubs addressing rough conduct, pushes into stoppages, high contact, the stand rule, and kicks after the siren—all of which have been under scrutiny recently. The memo clarified that the stand rule does not mean "freeze," despite widespread belief to the contrary. "A player directed to stand may turn and face the player with the ball," the memo stated.
However, AFL expert Kane Cornes described the clarification as "ridiculous," especially so close to Round 15. "How many adjustments have we made since the stand rule was introduced?" Cornes asked on Channel 7's The Agenda Setters. "When you bring in stupid rules, you're then forced to clarify them, which wouldn't be necessary if you hadn't introduced a stupid rule in the first place."
Cornes argued that the stand rule is "confusing for everyone," with players still being penalised with 50-metre penalties for incorrectly standing on the mark due to approaching from the wrong direction or confusion over who is on the mark.
"The stand rule is the single stupidest decision the game has ever brought in, and now we're making it harder by constantly adjusting it, leading to memos being sent out ahead of Round 15," Cornes said.
Beyond scrapping the stand rule, Cornes proposed an immediate fix for umpiring overall. His solution revolves around three key principles: only awarding free kicks when umpires are 100 per cent certain, increasing umpire contact hours, and applying common sense to decision-making.
"If you're not 100 per cent sure it's a free kick, then it's play on," Cornes explained while unveiling his four-point plan. "No one ever complains if a free kick isn't paid. They only complain when umpires overcompensate and pay something that isn't there."
He suggested umpires should ask themselves whether they would pay the same free kick in a grand final, where standards are typically at their highest.
A major point of contention is the current training regime for umpires, who reportedly attend only three hours of contact training per week, with the remainder conducted via Skype. "We have umpires getting paid more than assistant coaches, yet they only turn up to training for three hours a week," Cornes said. "Give me a spell ... What sort of league are we running here?"
Cornes highlighted recent examples of confusion, including an incident on Saturday where the umpire gestured to Sydney player Riley Bice to "move it on," only to penalise first-gamer Xavier Bamert with a 50-metre penalty when he moved off the mark. The penalty resulted in a goal to Sydney.
"In this case, the umpire signals to the player to move on. The Port player, Bamert, thinks play on is called, so he goes over the mark. A bit of common sense would have resolved this. That's poor umpiring—he should have just called play on rather than 'move it on,'" Cornes said.
"My plan is an easy fix. We make things way too complicated," he added.
Meanwhile, AFL football operations boss Greg Swann spoke to Damien Hardwick about his outburst regarding umpiring. Hardwick admitted he overstepped the mark but avoided a fine and appreciated Swann's handling of the matter. "Swanny's a cracker. You've got to love him, and that's why he's a great football person," Hardwick said.
Amid Hardwick's criticism, he also targeted the AFL's new last-disposal or lasso rule, introduced this year to keep the ball in play. However, players are now being penalised when the ball accidentally deflects off a boot. "I think it's a ridiculous look when the ball accidentally trickles off a guy's toe after being hit into; it's not as if he's deliberately trying to kick it out of bounds," Hardwick said after the Suns' loss to Geelong. "This is not the reason we won or lost. They (the AFL) change a lot of things, just change that."
