Southern league umpire penalises Keysborough team for supporter’s sideline jibe during finals

The comment “It’s not about you, mate” shouted at an umpire by a Keysborough supporter saw the fan’s team hit with a 50m penalty in a finals match. Here’s what the league had to say about the controversial decision.

Southern league chief executive Lee Hartman has defended the actions of a field umpire who copped a slur from the stands.

If you don’t mind umpire!

A Southern league field umpire has come in for criticism after paying a 50m penalty in response to “abuse’’ from a supporter.

The spectator, a Keysborough supporter, yelled “It’s not about you, mate’’ after the umpire gave a free kick to Murrumbeena in the Southern league Division 2 qualifying final against Keysy at Cheltenham last Saturday.

The comment prompted the umpire to award Murrumbeena a 50m penalty, which resulted in a goal in the first quarter.

The Beena won the match by 13 points.

Keysborough officials were miffed at the decision, saying the supporter was between 10 and 15m away from the box and clearly not part of the club’s coaching staff.

They also questioned whether the words “It’s not about you, mate’’ amounted to abuse of the official.

A Keysy supporter contacted Leader about the incident, calling it “laughable’’.

He said no obscenities were used towards the umpire.

SFNL chief executive officer Lee Hartman was unaware of the 50m penalty.

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He said if the supporter was standing some distance from the Keysborough box and wasn’t one of its coaches, the 50m should not have been paid.

But Hartman confirmed the league had given umpires instructions to crack down on abuse coming from coaching boxes.

He said it had been going on for too long and the SFNL wanted to stamp it out.

“Some of the language coming from the boxes and from players hasn’t been dealt with properly,’’ Hartman said.

“We asked the umpires to pay attention to it in the lead-up to the finals and in the last few weeks there’s been a lot more green cards issued for bad language and insults and stuff like that.

“If it’s coming from the box, yes, they can do something. And if it’s coming from around the box we’ve asked clubs to be vigilant about it and move people away. If in this case he was 15m away, yeah, that’s not something that should be punished.’’

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