Dane Rampe faces AFL grilling for his bizarre night in Sydney’s win over Essendon

Dane Rampe could yet face a ­double-­barrelled please explain from the AFL over his bizarre night at the SCG despite the league backing the decision of the umpires not to punish his brain explosion.

Dane Rampe celebrates Sydney’s win with coach John Longmire. Picture: Phil Hillyard

Sydney co-captain Dane Rampe could yet face a ­double-­barrelled please explain from the AFL over his bizarre night at the SCG.

The AFL wants to know more about what ­possessed Rampe to climb the goalpost in the result-sealing moment against Essendon on Friday night, despite the fact chief executive Gillon McLachlan supported the decision of umpires not to punish the brain explosion with a free kick that would have cost the Swans the win.

Rampe climbed the goalpost as Essendon’s David Myers lined up for goal from 60m out after the final siren.

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Myers failed to make the distance and Sydney won by five points.

The Sunday Telegraph ­understands the AFL’s match officials are also likely to review a separate incident from the second quarter, in which a frustrated Rampe told field umpire Jacob Mollison he talked “like a little girl”, a sledge that was broadcast live on Channel 7.

The AFL’s match review gave the match an all clear for any charges.

But that doesn’t stop the league from asking Rampe for a “please explain” over his two incidents.

Financially sanctioning him for disrespecting the umpire could be difficult to justify when no action was taken on the field at the time.

Incidents involving shaking the goalpost have attracted a fine in past years.

Dane Rampe sledges umpire Jacob Mollison. Picture. Phil Hillyard

At the naming of the NSW AFL greatest team of all time last week, the captain Wayne Carey declared Rampe (chosen as an emergency reserve) was the one player he would have hated to match-up on.

But in a rollercoaster 48 hours for Rampe, all Sydney coach John Longmire could do was shake his head in disbelief upon being told of his co-captain’s climb up the post.

“(I asked him) what was that about? Maybe I broke rule No.1 that I always live by, which is never assume that everyone knows everything,” Longmire told Triple M Footy.

“No, I had no idea until ­Jarrad McVeigh said something to me after the game.”

Longmire had no interest in being drawn on whether Rampe should consider himself lucky he didn’t cost his teammates an inspiring five-point upset over the Bombers.

“I’m not going to get involved in that too much,” Longmire said.

“The game is done, and we won the game.”

Dane Rampe jumps on the goalpost after the siren.

Former All-Australian Leigh Montagna said Rampe should have known what he was doing was against the rules and accused umpires of being too scared to make a game-defining call when a free kick to take Myers to the goalsquare would have followed the exact letter of the law.

But Rampe’s “talks like a little girl” sledge, delivered in the heat of the moment after he gave away a free kick because he couldn’t hear the umpire’s instructions, was interpreted at the very least as unfortunate phrasing, if only for its disrespectful and condescending tone to the umpire.

On the goalpost climb, McLachlan said umpires got it right in deciding Myers was no chance to kick the goal from that distance.

“I’ll wait and see what the umpiring department and the footy department says but, for me, it seems pretty practical umpiring,” McLachlan said on SEN.

“If he (Rampe) had stayed there (up the post), it would have been a free kick. He (umpire Andre Gianfagna) gave him the warning and it didn’t impact.”