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Debate over free kick before Dom Sheed’s winning goal in AFL Grand Final rages on

DEBATE is raging about whether the Grand Final winning goal from West Coast’s Dom Sheed should have been allowed at all.

Andrew McMurtry
2 min read
October 1, 2018 - 12:20PM
Dom Sheed game winning goal put West Coast ahead for the first time in the match.
Dom Sheed game winning goal put West Coast ahead for the first time in the match.

THE biggest moment of the AFL Grand Final has been clouded in controversy as debate rages over whether Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard should have been awarded a free kick in the game’s closing stages.

Maynard was blocked by West Coast’s Willie Rioli, leaving Dom Sheed to mark and kick the winning goal.

The non-call has led to intense debate over whether Maynard should have been given a free kick instead of Sheed’s mark being paid.

In the moment, Maynard blew up over the push but the umpires awarded the mark with Sheed going back and kicking the now famous goal to seal the Eagles’ victory.

Speaking on SEN Breakfast, former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon and ex-Essendon premiership winner Tim Watson both believe a free kick should have been called.

“It is umpired differently in a big game,” Watson said.

“I think they swallowed their whistles in the last quarter. They decided this game won’t be decided by our decision making.

“In any other game, that is a free kick.”

Lyon agreed but praised the way the game had been officiated throughout.

“It’s 100 per cent a free kick but if you want to raise other incidents where West Coast didn’t get a free kick or Collingwood got a lucky one I’m happy for you to do that, but on this particular incident, that’s a free kick,” he said.

“The game started and as a commentator, you go, that’s a free kick, and before the whistle is blown you look down the ground to see if anybody is free.

“This happened to Scott Pendlebury in the first four seconds, I looked down the ground, and then thought, oh he didn’t pay it.

“Then something else happened in the next 20 seconds for West Coast and the whistle hadn’t gone.

“I thought if that’s the way it was going to be, that’s great, you are going to have your head ripped from your shoulders to get a free kick.”

Dom Sheed and his Eagles teammates celebrate winning the AFL Grand Final.
Dom Sheed and his Eagles teammates celebrate winning the AFL Grand Final.

Four-time premiership coach Leigh Matthews told Channel 7 the umpires “choked” in not calling the free kick.

“I think that proves that umpires can choke as well,” Matthews told Channel 7.

“That’s a shepherd, that’s not a protection, that’s an illegal shepherd.

“There were four free kicks (paid) in the fourth quarter so what we’re saying is there were only four illegal actions in the last quarter.

“I don’t believe in this principle that just because it’s a big game in the last quarter (we) don’t pay free kicks — if they’re there they’ve got to be paid.

“Those moments where you don’t blow the whistle, those moments are just as critical as the ones where you do.”

Chief football writer for The Herald Sun Mark Robinson also declared the free kick had to be paid.

Robinson wrote Rioli’s actions were “blatant and illegal”.

However, stablemate Jon Ralph disagreed and he wrote at The Herald Sun “early indications are that the umpiring department was supportive of the non-call” ahead of a review from the AFL.

He also quoted 206-game AFL umpiring veteran Matt James who said he felt Maynard “plays it up a fair bit”.

Others have weighed in on the debate.

The AFL is expected to hand down its review into the AFL later today.

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/debate-over-free-kick-before-dom-sheeds-winning-goal-in-afl-grand-final-rages-on/news-story/b8922bb03c3a9be3f5ad36a7e53ea38a