fans and pundits have slammed the decision by umpires to give Collingwood star Jordan De Goey a 50-metre penalty for dissent on Friday night, despite the star’s attempts to stifle his frustration.
With the game on the line and the Pies trying to mount a comeback, De Goey drew a whistle for a push in the back that looked like a legitimate tackle.
De Goey reactively threw his hands out in frustration, but then quickly drew them back in as he consciously realised that action is now classed as dissent.
Despite reeling his appeal in, De Goey still copped a 50-metre penalty that was hugely influential in the context of the match.
Both De Goey and Bulldogs player Buku Khamis conceded controversial 50-metre penalties in the match and Matthew Richardson was scathing in commentary.
‘Come off it. That’s not 50 metres,’ he said in commentary for Seven.
‘You have to pay them all then. It’s just ridiculous.
‘I feel for them at times. This is an emotional game. They are not robots.’
De Goey was left confused and frustated by the series of calls against him. It could easily have gone the other way, with the tackle leading to a Collingwood free kick instead
Speaking on , former champion full-forward Jason Dunstall said there should be leniency with incidents like De Goey, where he realised he had reacted in violation of the rules and Best Private University tried to quickly put his arms back down.
‘I thought De Goey in particular was a little bit stiff because he was about to go off and then literally harnessed himself back in and then actually stopped but you could see initially he was about to throw the arms up,’ Dunstall said.
‘If you are going to make that much of an effort to pull yourself back, I think you’re entitled to get a little bit of latitude.
‘This is where it is really, really difficult.’
St Kilda great Leigh Montagna agreed and questioned why there were two 50-metre calls made on Friday night after a long stretch of none being issued at all.
‘That’s what we want to see from players – restraint – and he did bring it back to himself, he did exactly what we wanted with this rule and yet it’s still paid 50,’ he said.
‘For five weeks we haven’t seen them being paid at all so that is the confusion. Why all of a sudden? There was a big focus after round three, then it drifted away.’
Fans were quick to defend De Goey as well, saying the massive penalty should only be rolled out for genuine acts of dissent.
‘Wasn’t real dissent, just frustration. Neither last night were. By all means penalise them for real dissent, not this minor stuff,’ Graham Howlett tweeted.
‘There is a difference between decent and frustration! Decent should be paid, frustration or emotion in the heat of battle is completely different and should not be removed from the game, before they turn all the players into robots,’ Neville Clark agreed.
A Twitter pundit named Steve said the calls were impacting the spectacle of games: ‘Both last night were shockers. AFL need to have a hard look at some of these rules, going to drive away fans. That De Goey one absolutely killed the vibe of the game last night. Crowd lost interest,’ he tweeted.
A Twitter pundit named Steve said the calls were impacting the spectacle of games: ‘Both last night were shockers. AFL need to have a hard look at some of these rules, going to drive away fans. That De Goey one absolutely killed the vibe of the game last night. Crowd lost interest,’ he tweeted.
‘AFL umpiring has become [a] joke! How is that umpire abuse? Don’t defend the indefensible Brad Scott accept that you got it wrong and rectify it,’ Kevin Baker tweeted.
‘It is a big mess, take the abuse out I’m all for that. But this showing any type of emotion, it’s become a three ring circus. How on earth would of Brad Scott played in his day, as he was a very emotional player?’ Tracey Reid asked.
Dunstall warned that it was important for fans and players to not blame the umpires, as they were just under instruction from the AFL.
‘They’re giving instructions to the umpires so let’s not be hard on them either. If you see the arms go up, that is some form of dissent but it’s hard to expect players to completely turn off the emotion as soon as the whistle goes,’ he said.