Former AFL player David King has urged the league to correct the spiking numbers of free kicks paid during games, after a ‘whistle-fest’ marred a thrilling match between Hawthorn and Brisbane on Sunday afternoon.
Fans and media alike have united in condemning the free kick-heavy match in Launceston, which saw 63 frees paid (36-27 Hawthorn’s way) – the most in a match since 2012.
Speaking on Fox Footy’s First Crack, King described some of the calls made as ‘just ridiculous’, and said the AFL needs to step in to walk back crackdowns on umpire dissent and prohibited contact off the ball.
“We’ve lost our way with umpiring at the moment,” King said.
“It’s causing a lot of angst amongst the fans and I think at club land too now… we really have no idea what a 50m penalty is with dissent; we really are lost with basic umpiring decisions now.
“Some of the free kick goals today were just ridiculous. I’m not going at the umpires, I’m going at whether it’s the decision-makers above them.
“Whether it’s the guidance they’re given, from the commission down – let’s just put the whole lot in there, not [just] the absolute umpire.
“It has to come from Brad Scott [AFL football boss] and Dan Richardson [AFL head of umpiring] – it has to come from those guys… ‘we’ve gone too far, let’s pull it back.’ And tell us: we’re pretty forgiving, we want our game back.
“Right now, there‘s far too many whistles. We had almost a record today, and the goals from free kicks are through the roof.
“The game was a whistle fest today and you just can’t have that. It’s just unenjoyable to watch: let the players sort the game out.”
Among the most controversial decisions were free kicks paid against stars Lachie Neale and Tom Mitchell for prohibited contact, with Neale retaliating to a shove from opponent Jai Newcombe, and Mitchell pushing Lion Jaxon Prior in the back after the ball went out of bounds. Both frees went on to directly lead to goals.
However, King wasn’t only disappointed by the Hawks-Lions game, with a controversial 50m penalty for umpire dissent in Friday night’s Carlton-Sydney game against Swan Chad Warner.
The dissent crackdown has caused consternation all year, with King saying the rule is a prime example of a ‘major problem’ at the highest level.
“That isn’t dissent, it’s just not having a go at the umpire. And if the umpire thinks that is, then we’ve got a major problem,” he said.
“I think you’re losing the fans with this, and that’s a dangerous place to be. The fans have lost the handle on their game now, and they’ve started to talk with their feet.”
Crowds have noticeably been dwindling in the AFL this season, with the league unveiling a plan mid-week to allow children up to 14 free entry to games between Rounds 14 and 17.
Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir admits his team failed to adequately adjust for wet conditions for the second week in a row, in an upset 36-point loss to Collingwood on Sunday.
Following a shock defeat to Gold Coast in the rain last week, the Dockers were once again shown up by the Magpies in a heavily congested game, scoring just six goals – including only one across the second and third quarters combined.
It means the Dockers, who headed into the fortnight in second spot on the ladder, have scored a combined ten goals in the last two weeks, with Longmuir describing their problem as ‘a mental thing’.
“Players read too much into the conditions and it affects their games too much, especially with ball in hand,” he said after the match.
“Whether it’s the actual conditions or we think it’s wetter than it is or drier than it is, I think that second quarter we just fuelled their forward game and fuelled their field position.
“We turned the ball over in really poor areas going for stuff that in the conditions wasn’t on, and then as it dried up we kept playing wet weather footy when they were playing dry weather footy.
“We just got caught in-between with our ball movement and clearly we couldn’t score or keep the ball in our front half after the first quarter.”
Having emerged as one of the stories of the season with six consecutive wins between rounds 3 and 8, Longmuir said the last fortnight would serve as a ‘reality check’ for his still-developing Dockers.
“We were riding high, and everyone was getting way ahead of themselves,” he said.
“If you get marginally ahead of yourself in footy, it gives you a reality check, and we’ve gotten that.
“If you’re off in any part, you get what you deserve. So it’s a reality check for us.”
Victoria Police allege over 50 fans were ejected from the MCG, during Saturday night’s Dreamtime at the ‘G match.
Among the accusations include reports of officers being bitten and punched, with Inspector Jamie Templeton blaming the increased violence on ‘pre-loading’ of alcohol before the match.
“Tens of thousands of football fans attend matches every week and the vast majority support their team and enjoy the atmosphere safely and responsibly, so it was disappointing to see so many spectators engage in disruptive behaviour last night,” he said.
“We did see what appeared to be higher levels of alcohol consumption and aggression. It was noticeable that ‘pre-loading’ of alcohol prior to the game was significant in contributing to more incidents of poor crowd behaviour than usual.
“Police, Melbourne Cricket Club and the licensee work together to manage alcohol consumption at the ground, including reducing alcohol availability. The responsible service of alcohol is actively monitored and supported by police at liquor outlets.”
The Herald Sun also report that a man was viciously attacked by a group of youths and beaten with a didgeridoo outside the ground following the match.
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
I was pleased the previous week to see Garry Lyon admitting on SEN that “Melbourne got the greatest run from the umpires I have seen for a long, long, long time. Jeez they had a good run." btw - great to see Goldy on Sunday working harder to impact deep forward - 2 goals and actually flying with real intent for a mark. My slight annoyance with Goldy is he's gone through the motions a bit - - that game on Brad Scott's last match - was one out of the box. That said - he still gets stuff all from umps - they're always holding him in the ruck!!!
Brendon the 1st
Roar Rookie
I actually thought the issue with that game were the missed frees at one end, Brisse should have got a holding the ball call there with about 2 mins to go, they'd been paying them all day. I agree, if they are there, and from what I saw, most of them were they have to pay em, but they have to then keep paying them right to the final siren, not put it away in the last 2 mins. Fagan said it perfectly "we gave away to many frees"
pablocruz
Roar Rookie
That would go some of the way to make the rule palatable. The man on the mark should be allowed to stand where the mark was taken! Play on is not called quickly enough and sometimes not at all when the kicker runs off his line. Nevertheless, the rule stinks!
pablocruz
Roar Rookie
I've been an avid fan for the best part of 6 decades, Nick. An RFC member for many of those years. I'll comment as extensively as I wish. I'm entitled to do that. I won't submit to their wishes meekly and quietly. If the AFL loses rusted on fans like myself they'll find themselves in strife down the track. Will the AFL listen to the obvious unrest? Well see. If not, I don't have too many games left in me.
pablocruz
Roar Rookie
Yep. Go figure. Sanitisation at its best. Or worst?
pablocruz
Roar Rookie
Nowhere near as much as in the past. At least 50% less.
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
Stand is fine - - because the Mark is the mark. The rules were always that you stand on the mark. So - I'm fine with that. However - the kicker needs to be brought back behind the mark as well - - I umpire locally and I'm hot on that; I call them back twice and if they don't come back then it's play on and that means the player on the mark is back in the game. 50m penalties are annoying - - we need the capacity to go 25m on some lesser things. But - remember - it was brought in largely because Sheedy was happy to concede 15m's in the name of slowing things down.
Munro Mike
Roar Rookie
btw - was glad of one thing. Goldy was far more focussed on ensuring he spoiled the ball and brought it to ground - after being made to look silly by Darcy - he covered Gawn pretty well.
.kraM
Roar Rookie
Nice projection. Send me the rent bill or is it still free?
Curmudgeon1961
Roar Rookie
C'mon Roar ~ those ads are mostly manageable but sort that Officeworks one out and dont repeat that format please
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Not by people in the know One thing worse than a Bot and that's a real person imitating one!
Ben
Guest
Police officers bitten, people bashed with didgeridoo, mass elections, just Aussie anglo larrikinism. Single ejections from the round ball games would make headline news in mainstream media, of course we know the reason why (anglo racism with AFL being the epitome of this).
Ben
Guest
You're from Sydney and you follow AFL, middle class anglo greens voting weirdo much?
Ac
Guest
Sydney attendances are down and the giants crowds are paltry. The joke with the Giants is that if the real attendance was posted then they could all fit into the pay phone outside the stadium. But a real worry for the AFL is that TV viewers for the Syd year treats are extremely low in Sydney.
Dusty does Danger
Roar Rookie
I just want to know, what is excessive force? How did Dylan Grimes get pinged for a copy book ball and all tackle that gave away a free kick resulting in a goal to Hobbs? If your attempt at tackle is broken, it is a soft effort. If you tackle hard, your a thug! How does one who is running at full pace, slow up and soften their tackle technique? We are sanitising the game to the detriment of the game itself as a spectacle. Do we just watch NBA basketball like our kids?
Knackaz
Roar Rookie
Not to mention the score reviews more often than not going against the Bloods. Wicks' great goal when we had some momentum denied because the score review fools guessed it might have been touched. Whoever does the reviews should be publicly doxxed ...
Knackaz
Roar Rookie
As a Swans supporter the “running too far” free against Chad Warner (which was wrong anyway) then a 50 for nothing just did my head in. It was an exciting piece of play which is always good to see. The umpires (who have absolutely no feel for the game) and Brad Scott and Dan Richardson (whoever he is) are ruining our once great game. Robbo on 360 tonight summed up the frustration of all footy fans perfectly. Fans are voting with their feet. The score reviews are also a disgrace, so often wrong, with a magnificent goal to Sam Wicks being denied because they love to deny goals. The game is too demanding to play for it to be ruined by over-officious umpires and petty bureaucrats. Memo to the AFL that they should heed before it’s too late ~ Get woke, go broke. Sack Brad Scott …
Nick
Roar Guru
You're also commenting extensively on it on this forum (and I presume other websites). As far as the AFL is concerned, you are an actively engaged fan.
Nick
Roar Guru
The home average of Sydney this year is just under 28k. In 2019 it was 31. So, yes it's down but it's not way down. It's 10% down. And while I would ordinarily agree with you on the Brisbane game poor crowd, that is easily explained by the inexplicably awful timing of putting that at Sunday twilight. That was the marquee game of the round in the graveyard slot. And no, they rarely sold out the SCG. I went to 8 games at the SCG a year solidly for 10 years, and they would have sold it out a handful of times. I stand corrected on the showdown figure. Freo's 42k figure peak shows their is now room to grow for them. You're being very picky on Carlton. They also got 44k to Docklands against Sydney, and - god only knows why - 40k turned up to watch them play North Melbourne.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
That certainly explains why David King makes so many dumb comments; he's stopped watching.