When the goal umpire from Friday night’s cliffhanger in Perth straddled the goal-line and interfered with the path of Matt White’s shot at goal, he put further unwanted focus on the much maligned goal review system.
At the time of its inception, AFL stated the available technology would not allow every decision to be clarified but the system would hopefully help prevent the ‘howlers’ that occasionally blotted the umpires’ scoresheet.
It seemed an interesting decision to implement a system that could at best help confirm 25% of disputed decisions.
In hindsight, it appears the AFL simply wanted to be able to say they had a decision review system for the sake of having one, not to actually improve the game.
The mere fact we do not have cameras in each of the goal posts to give us the best view of disputed calls is a farce and the suggestion cost prevents this from happening is even more insulting to our intelligence.
For an organisation that has stated repeatedly the integrity of its competition is paramount, the refusal to take any real steps to ensure correct scoring decisions are made is beyond puzzling.
The AFL claims to be the leading sports code in the country, but in this area it is sadly lagging behind.
However, technology is not the only option open to the AFL. The suggestion of adding an extra goal umpire at each end would provide a far better outcome than the current system, and we would not have to deal with the lengthy delays experienced at the moment.
The other way the incorrect decisions could be reduced immediately is to change the way the goal umpires are coached.
A novel idea might be to take the obvious focus on positioning away, and actually tell the umpires their number one priority is to actually watch the ball! The number of times you see a goal umpire sprinting from one side of the goals to another as a quick snap flies towards the goals without actually watching where the ball is going is amazing.
This fascination with positioning has led to the practice of straddling the goal-line, clearly placing the umpires in a position where they can get in the way of both the ball or the players.
Goal umpires from 30 years ago didn’t seem to have a problem staying behind the line and making a correct decision, so why can’t we trust today’s group to do the same?
Any use of technology in sport should only be introduced when there is clear and quantifiable evidence to show it improves the accuracy of decisions. If not – as is the case with the AFL’s score review system – then the system should be abolished.
This would be an embarrassing result for the AFL, but not as embarrassing as keeping a system that makes a laughing stock of those doing their best to implement it.
(Editor’s note: Image of football’s lack of review system included as being representative of a system that doesn’t work!)
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