Former St Kilda coach Grant Thomas suggests radical change to AFL umpiring

A former AFL coach wants to abandon one of the pillars of our game in what would be a radical change to the way matches are umpired. MARK ROBINSON has the details.

Long-time critic of umpiring, Grant Thomas, says the rules need to be clarified and prior opportunity eradicated as the state of the game again is being questioned.

And Thomas stressed the blame was not on the umpires, but on the leadership and culture of the AFL and the umpiring department.

Under football boss Laura Kane, the AFL mid-season changed the interpretation of prior opportunity and holding the ball. But after an initial positive response, players, coaches and fans are confused by the lack of consistency of interpretation from game to game.

Other rules, including deliberate rushed behinds, which was contentious in the Essendon-Geelong game on Saturday night, are also under the spotlight.

Thomas said he had never seen more games in a single season decided by interpretation than what he has witnessed this season.

“Interpretation leads to problems,” Thomas said.

“It is not the umpires’ fault … we need cultural change. The AFL are pathetic leaders. They don’t know how to instil the right culture and direction and clarification within the organisation.

“If our rules, and interpretation of those rules, and implementation of those rules is wrong, it has a drastic effect.

“There are so many games decided by adjudication and wrong calls, that they cast a massive dispersion over the whole integrity of the game.”

In response to the calling of a “Royal Commission”-type review at the end of the season, Thomas said the first objective was to “define and clarify the rules … effectively, have a real forensic look at the business”.

Umpiring has been a hot topic of late. Picture: Getty Images

“In one play, we can have a free kick to one side, a ball-up, a free kick for the other side, and a call for play-on – that’s four outcomes and each of them can be correct,” Thomas said.

“That says we have an interpretation overlay, which then comes down to human influence, and what they think on the day.”

He believed the game had been hijacked by the “checkmate” moves made by coaches, which stifle the contest, and which needs to be countered by ending prior-opportunity for players.

“You’ve got every single decision by the AFL, and by extension the umpires, to open the game up (met by) the checkmates at 18 clubs trying to win the ball back, not create contested footy and trying to maintain possession,” Thomas said.

“The perfect solution is, if you’re caught with the footy, that’s it. There’s no interpretation, there, no prior opportunity. Prior opportunity is where most of our concern is with umpiring.

“The AFL made a decision mid-season to creep more towards it. They’ve now realised players are so damn good and so damn quick with their hands when they have an option, but they’ve never applied that principle when they haven’t got an option.

“That’s part of the problem they allow too much time to the player with the ball.”

In that regard, Thomas said, it was time to abandon one of the pillars of the game that was to protect and encourage the ball-winner.

“If we protect the players going for the ball any more than we currently are, you won’t be able to call it a competition,” Thomas said.

Could getting rid of prior opportunity help improve the standard of matches? Picture: Michael Klein

“You still need a brutal, competitive and physical environment. What happens when you have a rule in place that says there’s no prior opportunity? Let’s see what that does to the game.”

He suspects mass numbers around the ball would reduce, and that because players would not have time to look and assess, they would be forced to move the ball forward which in turn creates “chaos footy”.

“It will be like, when the scores are level with two minutes to play, and both sides are trying to win and it’s chaos footy,” he said. “They won’t be measured, methodical and choosy, so you’ve got to have representation forward of the ball. It’s the perfect thing our game currently needs.

“There’s very little chaos footy and interestingly most of the teams that have won the premiership in the last decade were all the teams who rolled the dice and said we’re playing chaos footy.”

A long-time advocate of not putting umpires on a pedestal, he also believes McBurney, who took over the role this year, should be replaced.

“You should never put an umpire in charge of umpiring, that’s the first mistake,’’ Thomas said.

He said the department needed a sports/business/corporate/manager-type person who could “change the brand and culture of umpiring’’.