Source :- THE AGE NEWS
On Tuesday night the AFL said the umpires had misled their bosses with their explanation for not stopping play while Lachie Schultz was lying on the ground wondering where he was and why his arm was waving involuntarily in the air.
Less than 24 hours later, the AFL clarified. No, the field umpires had not misled them – it was the umpiring department that was responsible for a “miscommunication”.
Collingwood’s Lachie Schultz stumbles leaving the field in the round nine match against Fremantle.Credit: AFL Photos
It was all very misleading.
This latest AFL schemozzle could have been averted if someone at AFL House had checked the available audio and footage to establish what had happened when Fremantle’s Jordan Clark knocked out Collingwood forward Schultz on Thursday night. In fact, it could have been averted without technology if the AFL had more seriously examined the likelihood of the umpires having no memory of seeing the Schultz incident.
As this masthead reported on Friday, there was an umpire less than five metres away from when Schultz was on the ground with his arm in the air in the fencing position unconsciously taken by people who have been concussed.
It never made sense that the umpires would rely on an explanation of not remembering the incident.
It also made no sense that four umpires would try to escape responsibility by saying they didn’t see Schultz, and therefore didn’t stop play, when what happened could be so easily verified by the audio and video.
The AFL has been protective of umpires to a fault for decades, for good reason. Now, they had thrown them under the proverbial bus.
And now here we are, with communication and trust broken down as two sacred cows collide to create an AFL-inspired mess.
This year we have a new sacred cow – the AFL football operations department. There is a perception among clubs that the department has become inaccessible and inexperienced, shielded from the cut and thrust of football clubs and media. Like the AFL broadly they appear more worried about perception than performance.
AFL umpire Simon Meredith has more than 500 games experience and is one of the most respected officials in the game. Credit: AFL Photos
Mistakes are turning minor issues into firestorms.
The simple principles which have guided the AFL are being ignored.
Firstly, don’t unnecessarily throw shade on umpires. The second is to gather all facts before making statements. The third is to better connect with stakeholders, especially clubs and the media.
It explains why at around 1pm on Friday the AFL thought they had enough evidence to inform the media that the reason play had not stopped when Schultz was knocked out against Fremantle was because “the umpires did not see the injured player”.
Answers were needed because the media were enquiring about the decision to continue play after Magpies’ captain Darcy Moore had made his displeasure about play continuing while Schultz lay unconscious on the ground clear in his post-match interview with Fox Footy.
“Players on both teams thought the game should’ve been stopped at least for 20 seconds to let him off the ground,” Moore said.
But the information the AFL had relayed to the media about why play had not been stopped was wrong.
And the bemused umpires, which included nine-time grand final umpire Meredith, knew it was wrong. What was being aired publicly never made sense to the umpires or the umpires’ association.
Umpires aren’t perfect, but we can take it for granted they don’t tell fibs. Integrity is drummed into them from the moment they pick up a whistle.
The next eight matches of the round flew past and footy attention switched to clutch of tight matches – the average margin for each game was just 10.3 points, the lowest average margin for a round since round 10, 1970.
But the Thursday night match stuck in the mind of someone at the host broadcaster Channel Seven who, like much of the media, wondered how not one of the umpires had seen Schultz on the ground. They went back and accessed the audio from the game and found the conversation between umpires as the incident unfolded. They knew he was in trouble and made a judgment call to allow play to continue.
Then the AFL blundered again.
A statement provided to The Agenda Setters only incensed umpires further as the football operations boss Laura Kane declared that the umpires had misled the football department.
After that dubious explanation which put the onus on umpires came an acceptance of responsibility from Kane.
“Having said that, this is on me,” Kane said.
The umpires had every right to be furious particularly when it was said they had been counselled over the incident at training on Tuesday afternoon, with some in Victoria, others in Western Australia.
The clubs, already dismayed at being told during the Willie Rioli imbroglio they should elevate any minor incident to the AFL, were aghast, too.
Inside the AFL a recognition was dawning that this past fortnight was not just a bad patch, it was the bad patch that exposed gaping cracks in the administration.
Lamentably, the AFL’s Tuesday night statement, blaming a miscommunication from members of the umpiring department, made no apology to the field umpires. It should have. The AFL should apologise to the umpires. The AFL should not only review their processes with this incident but their culture which appears to have become isolated from the rest of the industry and protective of those within.
The AFL has lost the faith of its clubs. The AFL Commission need to stand up and find out what is going on.
