Source :- THE AGE NEWS
Field umpires knew Collingwood player Lachie Schultz was lying injured on the field when they let play continue during last Thursday night’s match at Optus Stadium, despite later telling the AFL they hadn’t seen him, according to new audio of the incident.
The audio was played on Seven’s The Agenda Setters on Tuesday night in an embarrassing situation for the league.
Lachie Schultz of the Magpies collapses in the hands of medical staff.Credit: Getty Images
AFL football boss Laura Kane told Seven she took responsibility but explained she had initially been given the wrong information by the umpires.
The AFL had released a statement last Friday saying play should have been stopped but the four umpires – Justin Power, Simon Meredith, Craig Fleer and Martin Rodger – had not seen Schultz on the ground.
Schultz was badly concussed when he attempted to tackle Fremantle’s Jordan Clark and was first struck in the head by Clark’s hip and shoulder and as both players went to ground. Clark’s body landed on Schultz.
The Collingwood player was knocked out, with his arm involuntarily held up in the air. The play continued and soon after came within the vicinity of the prone Schultz, as Collingwood moved the ball forward and subsequently scored.
But the audio of the match contradicted the umpires’ memory of the events, which they relied on to tell the head of the AFL umpires Josh Mahoney they had not seen Schultz injured.
“We have got an injured player in the middle. I am watching,” one umpire is heard on the audio as saying.
“We are OK. We are OK.”
As Schultz is attempting to get up and, dazed, stumbles on wonky legs, one umpire is heard saying “Ooh. What do you think Craig?”
Later they are heard talking to a player on the ground saying: “We can only stop the play if the ball is coming near or if they instruct us to.”
All four umpires were called into AFL House on Tuesday for a tense meeting with AFL football operations boss Kane, who late on Tuesday released a statement to Seven in which she took responsibility, but put the blame for being misled back onto the umpires.
“The statement [released on Friday by the AFL saying the umpires had not seen the injured player] we released was incorrect,” Kane said.
“We were given the wrong information from the umpires. It’s inconsistent with the vision. They – the umpires – were going off memory and not the vision. And we should always look at the vision.
“All the field umpires from the game have all been coached this afternoon that they should have stopped the game.”
The AFL’s footy boss, Laura Kane.Credit: Simon Schluter
Kane told The Agenda Setters the error “is on me. It’s the footy department that runs umpiring and that sits with me.”
Tuesday’s statement was a stark contrast to the statement released Friday, which said play should have been stopped but the umpires had been unaware of the injured player.
“The play can be stopped by the umpires, who are instructed to stop play as soon as they are aware there is an injured player in the vicinity of play. In last night’s match the umpires did not see the injured player at the time, so play continued,” read an AFL statement.
“Upon review, if umpires were aware, play would have been stopped when Daicos had possession in the middle of the ground.”
Collingwood captain Darcy Moore said after the game it did not feel right that play had gone on with a clearly unconscious player on the ground.
Lachie Schultz talking to teammates after Thursday night’s win in which he copped a heavy knock.Credit: Getty Images
“We were pretty concerned at how severe he looked – how disorientated he looked,” he said on Fox Footy.
“Players on both teams thought the game should’ve been stopped at least for 20 seconds to let him off the ground.
“Obviously, a lot of the Freo guys are connected to Lachie [a Dockers past player] as well, so that was really our first concern, because of just how nasty it looked.”
On The Agenda Setters on Tuesday night, host Kane Cornes – a former Age columnist – said he believed the four umpires involved in the game should be stood down for a month.
When contacted by this masthead for comment, Collingwood said it was a matter for the AFL, and that they’d made their position clear on Thursday night from Moore’s and coach Craig McRae’s comments that the game should have been stopped.
The AFL Umpires Association has been contacted for comment.
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