‘They screwed up’: AFL is officially broken as five words spark complete meltdown

Footy fans and commentators from across the board have voiced their fury as a “seismic” shift in the game sparks anger and mass confusion.

The dissent crackdown has sparked mayhem. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

Fans would love to be talking about the footy they saw across the Easter long weekend but the only thing on anyone’s mind is the confusion caused by a heightened focus on policing umpire dissent.

AFL bosses announced in the pre-season they would crack down on umpire abuse to stamp out “disrespect” towards officials and while it’s an admirable and much needed stance, the execution has made the league look like a laughing stock.

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Backchat and abuse would no longer be tolerated — but what we discovered on the weekend is players don’t even need to open their mouths to be pinged for a 50m penalty.

Five words spark complete meltdown

As Brisbane defender Harris Andrews found out on Thursday night, simply holding your arms out is enough for officials to blow the whistle.

“Arms out is 50, mate,” the umpire told Andrews when explaining why he’d been marched 50m back towards his own goal after initially giving away a free kick on the arc for holding Collingwood’s Darcy Moore.

Those five words were the catalyst for a furious debate that has left nobody feeling like they know what the rules are anymore.

The Harris ruling seemed like an odd one out and possibly the result of a pedantic umpiring when many more examples were exposed from later games of players gesturing with their arms when decisions didn’t go their way.

Harris Andrews was the first victim of the weekend. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

There were plenty of instances of players in the St Kilda-Suns game holding their arms out, but none of them gave away free kicks or 50m penalties.

It led to calls for consistency across the league.

“This is the confusion because the same round, how many examples of arms out I could have found that weren’t a free kick against and certainly weren’t 50m,” Port Adelaide champion Kane Cornes told the Sunday Footy Show.

“It’s one of those grey areas in the game that we have to get out.”

Melbourne legend Garry Lyon told SEN Breakfast on Tuesday: “What we’ve got right now is the biggest competition in the country where we heard an umpire verbally say on the broadcast, ‘Arms out is 50, mate’ and then we watched 10 instances over the weekend where arms are flapping like an ibis.

“You’re saying zero tolerance, that’s all we can communicate as commentators, and then all of a sudden there’s variations of it.”

There was more uproar on Monday as Hawthorn beat Geelong. Cats star Tom Hawkins was awarded a contentious free kick in the third quarter and when Tom Mitchell and Jack Gunston appeared to raise their arms over the decision, a 50m penalty was blown.

Suns and Saints players got away with it but Hawthorn and the Lions weren’t so lucky, it seemed.

“To be honest I’m not clear on it,” Hawthorn star James Sicily told Fox Footy when asked if he knew what did and did not constitute dissent. “I just try and keep my hands to myself and stand there. I feel like that’s the best way to go about it.”

Some pundits weren’t as diplomatic. Lyon told Fox Footy on Monday it was “a disgrace what we’ve seen this weekend”, while Collingwood great Dane Swan urged the league to get rid of the rule — though with slightly more colourful language.

It was a sentiment shared by plenty across the game.

Please explain. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

‘They screwed up’: Confusion reigns

Channel 7’s Nick McCallum reported on Monday that, per the AFL’s guidelines, umpires who didn’t penalise players for gesturing with their arms were in the wrong.

“AFL affirms umpires who did not pay 50 metres against ALL players who raised their arms at contentious decisions over the weekend screwed up,” he tweeted.

“They will be told they must do so. Games will be decided by such penalties … that won’t increase respect for umpires, rather the opposite.”

Ex-Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley says there’s no way players should be punished for gesturing with their arms.

“This is a train crash and it’s happening in slow motion,” he said on SEN Breakfast. “It’s not going to end well.

“If you want the umpires to be respected don’t ask them to give frivolous 50m penalties against, for someone who just puts their arms out. It’s ridiculous.

“It’s ridiculous, it’s not disrespect. And it does not impact the game of football. The penalty is ridiculous for what you’re trying to achieve.

“You cannot penalise a player (for putting their arms out), because that is not disrespectful.

“I think there are things being penalised at the moment that are not disrespectful.”

Who knows what’s going on. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

North Melbourne icon David King was another who trashed the confusion around umpire dissent and called on the AFL to clarify its stance.

“I didn’t think it (dissent) was a massive problem, and now they’ve created a massive problem,” King told SEN on Tuesday.

“No statements today. You front the media, you front up and you tell us what the hell is going on with our game.

“We’re five weeks in… tell us what dissent is.

“This is just a total mess. You want zero tolerance, if that’s your starting point and your end point, you are going to have 40 50m penalties a game.

“This notion that you could correct it at the start of this year was complete smart-a***ry from the atom splitters at the AFL.

“Simple as that, this was never going to work. If you want zero tolerance, it’s a seismic shift.”