There is an interesting precedent being set at the moment. Jeff Gieschen has, not for the first time, apologised about the awarding of a free kick. This is made more interesting because the Geesh has undermined one of his umpires.
At elite level sport, those who dare take on the responsibility of policing the game are the ones who are under the highest scrutiny. The boss of the umpires stated publicly that the free kick awarded against Scott Thompson was wrong.
Here is the issue. I have read the laws of the game and this is what it is says:
15.4.5 Prohibited contact and Payment of free kick –
(d) Pushes, bumps, blocks, holds an opposition Player or
deliberately interferes with the arms of an opposition Player, who is in the act of Marking or attempting to Mark the football.
I have also watched the incident and to be honest, by the letter of the law, a free kick should have been paid. You can make up your own mind.
Notice that the law doesn’t specify where on the body the push has to be. The push in the back is a separate law.
Jeff Gieschen said, “There was a little bit of incidental contact on the shoulder, but certainly not a push out.”
That’s an opinion, one that is equally valid as Ray Chamberlain’s. So I would have paid the free, Jeff wouldn’t give the free kick, and Razor did.
It’s highly unfair for the spokesperson for the umpire’s association to spend time in front of a screen, watch an incident, probably in slow motion and then apologise to a football club for two incidents in two weeks.
Ray Chamberlain made a decision in a split second, which he believed was correct. The Crows aren’t suggesting that the decision was a factor in their 11 point loss, but in a worrying trend the umpires association seems to playing nice and trying to win friends.
Dean Cox was the recipient of a free kick for no other reason than he asked for one, and now Jeff is doing his best to work his way to the top of the Christmas card list of every Adelaide fan.
The AFL umpires do a good job overall, but no matter how well they umpire the game their performance will be held under a microscope. Each and every week supporters will hold umpires accountable for a team’s loss.
The free kick count in the North Melbourne versus Port game was highlighted as a reason for Port Adelaide suffering their first loss of the season. North received 38 whistle blows compared to Port Adelaide’s 15.
When I watch my team play I look to blame everything other than the obvious reason. North Melbourne were a better team on the day.
As much as we want to believe it, the umpires do not affect the outcome of a game.
Decisions are made and the game moves on. Do we want to reach a point where in game decisions are referred to a video official because umpires are afraid that they will be publically undermined in Monday’s paper?
As a coach of a local rugby side I spend a lot of time speaking to referees, and something I was told is that a match official should never apologise for a decision.
The reason being that a show of indecisiveness means that the players will take any opportunity to question a decision. You were wrong before, you’re probably wrong now.
The next time Ray Chamberlain puts his whistle to his mouth in a marking contest, will he second-guess himself? Every single player now knows what Mr Gieschen thinks is acceptable in those circumstances.
Players can and probably will question most decisions made now. Jeff may have created a monster and I only hope that he is prepared to control it.
Round 6 was supposed to be umpire appreciation round. I can only imagine how appreciated they feel when their boss rings a football club to apologise for a mistake.
I’m not going to hold my breath for the opposite to happen, Nathan Buckley ringing Jeff because Alan Didak staged for a free kick.
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