Calm down, everybody.
The furious rage being directed at the AFL’s goal review system by footy commentators and fans is way over the top.
The latest controversy, which occurred late in Essendon’s thrilling six-point victory against the GWS Giants, caused no end of angst among the footy fraternity, with critics of the system calling it embarrassing to the game.
Former Brisbane Lions champion and Fox Footy commentator Jonathan Brown was scathing of the score reviewer’s inability to see that Giants defender Adam Kennedy had touched the ball when Essendon’s Shaun McKernan kicked a goal to level scores at a crucial stage of the final quarter.
“This is the biggest embarrassment in our game since Meat Loaf sang before the grand final,” quipped Brown.
It’s true, the ball looked touched. However, Kennedy himself said that he only got “a slight finger to it,” noting, “it (the touch) wasn’t a big chunk”.
For his part, McKernan said that he “didn’t hear anything so I’m going to go and say it was a goal.”
(Paul Kane/Getty Images)
Given that, it seems perfectly reasonable that the goal reviewer couldn’t tell with 100 per cent certainty or conclude beyond reasonable doubt that the ball was touched.
Had the ball been more obviously touched or had the deflection off Kennedy’s finger caused the ball to deviate or spin in a different manner, the decision would have been far easier. But it didn’t. The ball went gun-barrel straight off McKernan’s boot.
Some, such as SEN’s Garry Lyon, believe they could tell that Kennedy’s finger was bent backwards from the force of the ball. Others, such as Mike Sheahan, said he couldn’t tell.
Again, that being the case, isn’t it fair and reasonable the goal reviewer could not be totally convinced it was in fact touched?
So, why all the outrage?
The reality is these sorts of decisions are often made in various stages of the game and at different parts of the ground, but because they don’t directly result in scores, fans and commentators don’t lose their heads over it.
For example, if a player marked the ball with the opposition breathing down his neck at centre half forward only for a replay to show that the ball had been touched off the boot, few would bat an eyelid.
If the player who marked the ball then turned around and kicked it to a teammate who kicked a goal, would fans become enraged for days on end? I don’t think so.
And what if a player marked the ball from a short kick, 30 metres out from goal, only for a replay to show that the ball had only travelled 12 metres rather than the required 15 metres when he marked it? Would everyone jump up and down and stomp their feet in disgust?
Again, not likely, certainly not in the same manner we’ve seen in recent days.
Yet these are all examples of the same thing – goals resulting from an umpiring mistake or a debatable interpretation of a rule.
The fact of the matter is that we home in on moments and increasingly lack the ability to view a game of footy in its totality – with all the messy greyness, player errors, debatable interpretations and mistakes by umpires that lead to the result we end up with at the end.
Instead we pounce on a moment, generally towards the end of a game or at a crucial stage of a match, and we go crazy, exclaiming that it was the reason a team won or lost.
No it wasn’t. It was just one moment providing one interpretation leading to one score in 120 minutes of football.
The answer to the sorry saga of the goal review system is to scrap the review of touched kicks and leave that to the officiating umpires to call live. After all, it’s their job to adjudicate whether a ball has been touched off the boot at every other point in a game.
That then leaves the goal review system to simply determine if the ball crossed the goal-line or hit the post.
In other words, the system needs to be simplified, because while technology can be used to make life and sport much better and more accurate, on other occasions it doesn’t help much at all.
And worse, in instances like this, it hijacks the game and makes a lot of people unnecessarily angry.
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