The AFL have wheeled out Jeff Gieschen, head of the umpiring department, to spin the video referral system being ‘trialled’ during the pre-season. And spin it he did.
The AFL sees a positive in two incorrect decisions being overturned for the cost of six referrals. Add in the incidents where a referral wasn’t made — three by our count, two according to the AFL — and the picture starts looking a bit messier.
"We want to back the goal umpire as much as possible, but we have the ability to check and see and we should be doing just that." Gieschen is quoted in the story as saying.
The problem is that goal umpires can be certain of their decision — so certain they don’t entertain a video referral — and still be wrong. We’ve seen three such examples just in the first round of pre-season.
It’s great to back the umpires, but then the AFL ‘backs’ them by introducing video referral. Apart from the Hawkins and Wellingham ‘goals’, this is a non-issue.
All video referral is doing is highlighting exactly how many mistakes the ‘goalies’ do make — and it looks like it’s going to be a lot more than Gieschen and the AFL would have had us believe.
Video referral is a solution in search of a problem. We reckon they’ve picked the wrong problem!
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