Mass confusion erupts over AFL 'abandoned match' rules after Easter Monday's bizarre lightning-enforced delay

The final quarter of Geelong and Hawthorn’s Easter Monday clash was about to begin when drama unfolded.

With the Melbourne weather having threatened to impact proceedings throughout the afternoon, the heavens opened during the third term as a downpour turned the match into a scrap, before the arrival of lightning forced the game to be suspended just before play was set to resume.

“We’re going to a stopped game with lightning – off to your rooms,” umpire Nick Foot instructed Cats and Hawks players, while a message appeared on the MCG screens urging patrons to find shelter.

AFL rules state a lightning-forced delay to play requires a minimum 20-minute waiting period, with play able to be suspended for up to an hour before the match is called off.

The league confirmed shortly after that the match would begin at 6:11pm (AEDT), some 40 minutes after being postponed.

As the match was past half time before being halted, a failure to resume play would have allowed the AFL ‘discretion’ to award Geelong the win, as they were leading by 36 points at three-quarter time.

AFL rules state that in the event of a match being called off, ‘the scores of the teams at the time the Home and Away match was interrupted shall be deemed to be the final scores of the Home and Away match and shall be used in the calculation of percentage… the team with the highest score shall be declared the winner’.

However, in mass confusion, Fox Footy journalist Jon Ralph reported at the time the Cats would only be awarded the win as they had been leading by 11 points at half time, claiming only that score and not the one at three-quarter time when the match was suspended would be a factor in determining the result.

Adding to the drama, Cats coach Chris Scott said after the match he had likewise been told by the AFL that the half time scores of the match would be counted as the final scores had the match not resumed.

“In the doomsday scenario, [AFL executive general manager] Laura Kane would have, after 60 minutes of delay, a decision to make. She has total discretion there,” Ralph said during the three-quarter time break.

“Clearly, given Geelong was in front at half time, they would be declared the winner – she has discretion, though, it’s not a hard and fast rule.

“You’d imagine if we were getting to 50 minutes plus and the lightning was clearing, they’d still be able to make the decision on whether they restarted this contest.”

When asked by Sarah Jones what would happen had the Cats not been in front at both half time and three quarter time, Ralph conceded it was ‘a great point’ and exposed a ‘loophole’ in AFL rules.

“That’s [awarding the team in front at half time the win] a hard and fast rule,” he said.

“Back in the day of John Elliott, we might have marched into the Supreme Court and Carlton might have argued for the points!

“They have to find a time somewhere, and clearly that is half time, that is specifically written under the AFL rules. Thankfully we’re at a stage where, 36 points is the margin, we’re not at that stage, but it just shows that every rule the AFL ever puts in has a significant loophole.”

Commentator and Hawks great Jason Dunstall decried the mistaken reading of the rules, saying awarding the team in front at half time the victory is ‘the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard’.

“Why wouldn’t you reward the team that’s in front?” he asked.

“So if Hawthorn were leading at half time, and now the score is this margin at three-quarter time, the team that’s leading at half time get the points?” Leigh Montagna added.

“I’ve got a rule – the team that’s winning when they stop the game wins the game!”

The drama is the second time in recent memory lightning has delayed a game, with a Melbourne-West Coast match in 2021 stopped midway through the final quarter due to lightning around Optus Stadium in Perth.

A similar circumstance saw a Sydney-GWS match in 2014 have an extended quarter time break, while another delay occurred in early 2023 when Brisbane and Melbourne were forced into the rooms at the Gabba when the lights famously went out.