It’s hard to avoid coming to the conclusion that AFL umpires don’t watch pre-season games back to assess their performance. How else to describe their touching but misplaced faith in a video referral ‘system’ that doesn’t include goal line cameras?
Once again tonight, during the WCE–Saints pre-season match, a goal umpire perfectly positioned on the goal line decided to refer the decision to video. Had the umpire, or the controlling field umpire, watched this year’s pre-season matches and seen the shemozzle that is Adrian Anderson’s video referral system, they would never waste everybody’s time by making the referral.
The powerful ego known as Dwayne Russell, calling the game for Foxtel, enthusiastically reminded his incredulous colleagues that it was important to ensure that the umpires got the decision right. The whiney, quavering voice of Mark Ricciuto blurted out that the referral had done nothing of the sort (before he was summarily silenced on the matter).
Is Russell doing the AFL’s bidding on this? Despite weekly evidence to the contrary, he is not stupid. And yet he runs Anderson’s line
Quite how anyone — Adrian Anderson, Jeff Gieschen, the AFL Umpiring Department, Dwayne Russell or anyone with even the slightest degree of interest in AFL — could believe that a camera at 45° to the goal line or an elevated camera directly behind the goal umpire could possibly shed light on a decision on whether the ball was touched before the line or not ranks as one of the great mysteries.
AussieRulesBlog is quite tempted to send an invoice to the afore-mentioned Mr Anderson asking for a refund of the comprehensively wasted forty seconds consumed by this particular video referral. “Inconclusive” just doesn’t do the process justice!
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