The AFL Appeals Board ended up with correct result on Curnow brothers but we’re no clearer on ump contact charges

ED Curnow copped a week while little brother Charlie is free to play. JON RALPH writes all in all, it’s probably the fairest result. But is anyone actually any clearer on what is allowed and what will be ignored.

Ed Curnow was eventually suspended. Pic: Getty Images

TWO weeks into the umpire contact controversy, the only certainty is no one knows what constitutes intentional touching of an umpire.

The appeals from the AFL proved Steve Hocking and the league are determined to protect their umpires.

Whether or not the Curnow boys actually ended up with suspensions was probably secondary to the league’s message in appealing.

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As it turned out, the appeals board found the common sense that had deserted the judiciary on Tuesday night.

Ed Curnow gets a week for a more forceful push than his brother, who escapes suspension and gets to play against Melbourne.

All in all, probably the fairest result.

Ed Curnow was eventually rubbed out for making intentional contact with an umpire.

So what do we make of all of that now that the dust has finally settled?

Unfortunately not much.

If you lined up the list of umpire contact incidents in the past month, we are still clear as mud on what is allowed and what is ignored.

Tom Hawkins instinctively slapped at the wrist of an umpire and got a week.

Ed Curnow’s push to an umpire’s chest was the worst of the lot and yet initially only saw him fined.

Charlie Curnow looked to be protecting an umpire from a melee and yet was thrown in with his brother.

Corey Gregson walked behind umpire Dean Margetts in the same passage of play as Hawkins and put a clear hand on his back.

He had no case to answer for force similar to Charlie Curnow’s umpire touch.

Adam Treloar’s friendly hug of an umpire in Round 4 saw no sanction but got another go-around on social media in light of recent events.

Adam Treloar enjoys a fist-bump with an umpire back in 2016. Picture: Colleen Petch.

And Steven May’s clumsy way of working through why he gave away a free kick was seen as the most worrisome by former umpire Derek Humphrey-Smith yet he only got a fine too.

The solution at year’s end might lie in more prescriptive penalties for intentional umpire contact.

At the same time the league could finding ways to publicly show the respect and friendship between umpires and players.

Because as AFL umpires association chief Peter Howe said this week, the last thing the umpires want to be seen as is pedantic.

Right now intentional umpire contact is directed straight to the tribunal, where the jury has total discretion to hand out any penalty they like.

So make that penalty a mandated minimum week’s suspension.

If you are found guilty of intentional umpire contact, you get that penalty at the least.

Anything aggressive becomes a multi-week suspension, as AFL advocate Jeff Gleeson said in the appeal.

Tom Hawkins copped a week. Pic: Getty Images

The problem for fans wasn’t that the Curnows weren’t suspended, it was that they got a different penalty from Hawkins.

The punters want consistency, above all else.

Then find ways to show that umpire-player connection away from the combustible environment of the on-field action.

Make a public show of umpires and more players shaking hands before games, put umpires up in occasional joint player-umpire press conferences.

The league has attempted this year to make umpires more available for media interviews, which without fail show them to be intelligent and considered.

They care about getting the Brownlow Medal votes right, they work hard on their craft, they want to remain in the background with only a few notable exceptions.

The hope is the resultant publicity from the spate of cases won’t ensure a trickle-down effect at lower levels of football.

But until the AFL’s judiciary gets its own house in order, they can’t expect the punters to know what is acceptable either.

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