Caroline Wilson has confirmed that there will be a “reset” with communication between AFL House and the public, with the league conceding that “several” of the umpiring decisions during Essendon’s 45-point loss to Geelong were incorrect.
During the third term in Saturday’s match, Essendon’s Jye Menzie grabbed the footy inside Geelong’s goal square and chose to run the ball through for a rushed behind.
While Geelong small forwards Ollie Dempsey and Brad Close were nearby, the pair backed off and ran sideways, leaving Menzies to step over the line without attempting to dispose of the ball.
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Under the AFL’s rules, players in defence can rush the ball through for a point if they are under immediate pressure from opposition players inside the 10 metre goal square, which technically, those Geelong players were.
However, the field umpire called the ball back and paid it as a deliberate rushed behind, awarding Geelong a free kick from 10 metres out, directly in front of goal.
Now Wilson has confirmed that AFL footy boss Laura Kane has admitted fault for the call.
Kane has apologised for the deliberate rushed behind decision, putting in a personal call to Bombers coach Brad Scott on Monday.
“What happened today, is that (Essendon coach) Brad Scott received a phone call from … Laura Kane, obviously wanting to talk about the ‘series of unfortunate events’, as the Essendon coach called them,” Wilson said on Nine’s Footy Classified on Monday night.
“She’s admitted first off, that the Jye Menzie rushed behind, she’s apologised for this. The umpires have admitted this was the wrong decision.
“They’ve admitted that was wrong.”
But, there was even further fallout after Kane’s call, with Scott opting to meet with umpiring stakeholders, to participate in a robust conversation around the round 16 decisions.
“What happened after this conversation … (Scott) had a lengthy meeting with Michael Jennings, the umpires’ coach and Steve McBurney, the umpires’ boss, just pleading for some clarity on what is the philosophy around ‘holding the ball’,” Wilson said.
“The umpires are saying that not every decision in that series (Essendon vs Geelong) was wrong, but certainly … several of the decisions were wrong.
It comes as the league undertake a “pivotal shift” on how umpiring decisions will be explained going forward, in what Wilson labels as “big concessions from the AFL”.
“There has been a reset at AFL HQ, that too much focus has been on umpiring, it’s taking up too much time,” she said.
“I think that’s a really significant shift. The AFL is insisting and Laura Kane is saying that they want to continue to be as transparent as possible, happy to explain (decisions).
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“But no more Monday televised explanations, as we’ve been seeing all year.”
The Bombers went down to the Cats by 45 points, dropping to fourth on the ladder after the loss.