Go with the whistle! Perhaps the greatest lesson in Australian sport has long been that one must accept the umpire’s decision.
We are taught from a young age that umpiring is important and that we must accept the decision whether we like it or not. Of course, as sport has evolved, and Australian society along with it, this concession of the discretion of the umpire has not come as naturally as it once did. Sport is better though when we accept the decision.
Lachie Neale’s recent second Brownlow Medal win was one that was greeted with more than the usual uproar around whether the umpires should dish out the votes. This, of course, is an argument that has been around forever.
After Neale came over the top of the well-backed favourites, doubts over where he polled and shouldn’t have, were everywhere. There were even reports of reviewing games, questioning all kinds of decisions that were supposed to have influenced the eventual winner. While all this might have seemed necessary at the time, the effects of these arguments are far-reaching and misguided.
The first trickle that runs from these contentions is ‘where does it stop?’. If we strive for perfection at the highest level then it is only natural that those from the lower tiers of the great game, or any game of that matter, must do the same.
We must question the validity of every decision. If the umpires were to lose the job of B&F voting, watch the pressure come on their counterparts at lower levels. Not just through official lines either.
Such a move would surely enable some to question other things about umpiring. This demand we have for our adjudicating to be perfect and the concession from the top that sometimes it isn’t, will see some get more vociferous at local footy.
Accepting the decision will be seen less and less and bellows from the bleachers, or in country footy’s case right on the fence, will multiply and the pressure will only increase on people trying to do a tough job well.
AFL umpire Robert Findlay. (Photo by Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images)
Umpires get a unique seat to watch a game of footy and the fact that they have traditionally voted on league medals has long been a rightful acknowledgement of that. We should all remember that most league medals are, certainly Charlie is, fairest and best medals. Fairest being a wonderful phrase to include in the explanation of what the medal means.
Doesn’t this mean that there are rightly more than just stats at play when awarding votes? If not, it should do. Would that not be harder to consider from behind a stats sheet and a wall full of screens?
Footy is just a game, a game to be enjoyed. They’re all just games to be enjoyed. I understand this reality is stretched a bit when you consider the amount of money that flows in because of the game. I understand that to those making a living from the game, it may be more than that.
However, to the fan, to the everyday pundit, the ones that produce the money the game wants to generate, it is still just that: a game. A game to be enjoyed and debated. Striving for perfection in every part of it, particularly decisions made by humans, surely ruins some of that debate.
The fact that the game is imperfect surely makes it perfect to those of us who love it.
Footy gives those of us that love it so much… so much. As a young dream-filled kid, it teaches us about teamwork, about selflessness and sacrifice. As we get older it gives us something to use as a vehicle to escape the real world and delve into something that is so subjective, so random in nature that there is rarely a right answer, which is the beauty of it.
Then finally, as a result of its beautiful uniqueness it teaches us, and keeps teaching us, that we should accept the umpire’s decision, and we should let it keep doing exactly that.
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