You know what the worst thing about the end of this game is?
It detracts from the fantastic, gutsy comeback of the Carlton Football Club after the Dockers appeared to put the game out of reach.
The Blues went nine-points down as Michael Walters converted following a holding the ball free kick against Brodie Kemp. It appeared as though the Baggers were cooked. The game had been an arm wrestle all day, and their arm was now being bent at an angle it shouldn’t. It should have been over.
But Carlton refused to lay down.
A dropped mark from Josh Treacy – one of two crucial marking errors from him in the last quarter – saw the Blues rebound to the other end. Within a minute, a Charlie Curnow contested mark and goal drew them to within a single kick. Then a quick hack forward from a stoppage was marked by Matt Cottrell. His goal gave the Blues the lead.
And that’s when the shit hit the fan.
Freo players claimed the kick to Cottrell was touched and pleaded their case with the umpire. The sad part was, they were completely correct, with the footage showing a big deflection off James Aish. This means the decision to pay the mark to Cottrell was incorrect, and the Fremantle players knew it.
Credit at @LeviDraper on X for the footage.
The umpire, apparently having some type of existential crisis by that point, decided that he was no longer in the mood to listen to the opinion of players, even though they were correct, and following the Cottrell goal, awarded a free kick to Carlton. And maybe a fifty-metre penalty because his feelings were really, really being hurt. Or maybe he just got confused about where the kick was going to be awarded? Who the hell knows?
It is apparent that the umpires didn’t know much of anything at that stage. No wonder the ATO considers what they do a hobby, because the way this was handled was completely bush league garbage.
Whilst Carlton did the hard work to secure the lead, the umpire’s sensitivity to the situation, and his itchy trigger finger slammed the door on Fremantle’s chances to claw back the lead. It took the air out of the stadium – just killed the excitement and left a feeling of dread amongst fans present. Neutral supporters groaned, as a conmtentious unpiring decision effectively ended the game. And truthfully, this is the exact thing people feared would happen when they brought in the “dissent” rule. It was the scenario footy purists warned about.
Remember those comments that went along the lines of “it’s going to cost a team a game one day…”?
Pepperidge Farm bloody well remembers!
And it won’t be something the Dockers forget any time soon, either. Or anyone who watched the umpires double down on their inability to make a correct call.
Usually, I would put up the paywall here and jump into the review for members, but there is a bit more to say about this.
Up until now, I have seen very, very few dissent free kicks paid this season. One was paid in the Crows’ loss to the Dees on Thursday night. It was Mark Keane who earned the ire of the umpires in that game, but I am struggling to think of any others. Later in that game, there were several instances where a dissent free kick could have been paid. All were allowed to pass. It feels like a lot have kind of been given a green light this year.
There is this thing called consistency. People tend to appreciate it so they know where the parameters are in any given situation. They like to know things in back and white, but this is such a grey area, largely dependent on how robust any individual umpire is feeling at a particular moment in a game. People like to know that in-game situations are being assessed fairly and without the emotion of the moment overriding common sense.
I don’t think we got that in this instance. I think the umpire jumped the gun on it because he knew he and his ilk had made a mistake. He needed to defuse things, and he did it by dumping a whole heap of petrol onto a fire.
To pull a dissent free kick out in a moment like that, in a game where emotions were running high and players were at the tail end of putting their bodies on the line for 120 minutes… it seems to plain against the grain of what this game is about. Players giving their all for four quarters, only to have the rug pulled out from underneath them by a self-conscious official.
I repeat – it did not decide the game. Carlton’s fightback was incredible, and deserves the respect of the footy world, but it denied Fremantle the opportunity to attempt to re-take the lead. It was a mistake from the official that was compounded when he was called out on it, and to see a result put to bed by a decision like this… it makes the footy purist in me turn away in anger.
As a neutral, yes… anger.
And that’s what we’re wanting from the people who love the game, right? Anger.
Maybe the AFL will institute a new rule to stop supporters or writers commenting on incorrect decisions, as well? It seems to be the way they solve everything else – by making more rules, which lead to more problems.
They need to own it and issue an apology for the way that final minute played out, because Freo were punished by the ineptitude of the umpires to do their job.
Now, we can get on with the review.
The remainder of this article is for our members. They support me, and I provide for them. It’s a good deal.
HB’s game reviews commence as members-only content. Sometimes, he opens them up to all after a day or so. But sometimes… he doesn’t! He believes work such as this is worth twenty-five cents per day. If you don’t, that’s fine. You’re welcome to join and keep reading if you do.
