The Scott Welsh incident at the opening of the Bulldog's fourth quarter against the Saints last Saturday night was a classic case of poor communication. And yet there was an area of abysmal communication — beyond the obvious — that no-one seems to be speaking about.

I wonder how many Bulldogs fans at Docklands stadium were in the dark over this incident? Out of nowhere, the umpire holds the game up and before you can say “Charlie Sutton!”, Riewoldt is kicking a goal from the goal square!

It's a feature of elite aussie rules in the noughties that three umpires are going to see infringements away from the ball. If you're a footy fan and your attention is on the ball and the near proximity, there's little chance you'll understand why a free kick is suddenly being paid (often when looking straight at an incident it's impossible to fathom the reason for the free kick!).

The umpires at AFL level are miked up and can fairly easily be monitored to ascertain the reason for a free kick. Surely the technology to show a screen on the scoreboard that explains why an off-the-ball free kick has been awarded can't be rocket surgery.

This is an issue the AFL administration has to deal with.