Great expectations

As some of the heat comes out of the goal line video review controversy, new AFL football operations boss Mark Evans thinks the only viable options open to him are to stick with an imperfect system or revert to goal umpires being the sole adjudicators.

 

Evans didn’t endorse the existing system, but saw nothing in the immediate future that would be an advance on it. The Age’s report quotes Evans as saying only one percent of scoring decisions were reviewed, with two decisions so far this year having been overturned by the review.

 

"At the moment, we have a system where we can correct the absolute errors and that's got to be better than not having it [at] all."

 

Well, AussieRulesBlog begs to differ, and here’s why.

 

The video review system as it stands is set up to fail. The only scenarios where it can deliver anything like certainty are those serendipitous occasions where the direction of the ball coincides with the direction of a camera and there is a sufficient deflection of the ball from an object to determine that the ball struck the object.

 

Anything else, save those occasions where the broadcaster has installed goalpost cameras, is a complete waste of time and energy.

 

Our prime reason for dissent is that the very fact of having, and utilising, a video review system implies that it will contribute meaningfully to the game. Just by using it, we create that expectation. It doesn’t matter how many times everybody says it is imperfect, the expectation will remain.

 

While the game remains hostage to the spurious logic that says we must employ any measure that we think might bring us closer to absolute accuracy, these controversies will continue, and will continue to be a blight on the game.

 

Thanks for nothing, Adrian.