AFL get it right, St Kilda get it wrong!
Tonight in the game St Kilda vs North Melbourne (in which the Saints had a great come from behind win), the AFL’s interchange rules where challenged again when the Saints had 19 men on the field for a brief few seconds. But after the huge media focus on the 19 men incident involving Sydney and North, they changed the rule. Where in the past, the Captain needed to call for a head count and if either club has more then the normal 18, the team with too many players on the field losing there entire score, the rule was changed to the more appropriate and easier to administer rule of the interchange steward and reserve umpire handling the rule with the penalty being either free kick from the center and a 50m penalty or a free kick where the ball is and a 50m penalty which ever puts the team closer to goal. But back to the incident at hand.
It happened in the 4th quarter at a vital moment when St Kilda had just hit the front. The ball was in the Saints Forward line when, from best information available at the moment, Luke Ball was involved and the player that jumped the gun was chasing Brent Harvey. The interchange steward acted immediately and the emergency umpire informed the main umpire of the infringement. Daniel Harris took the shot at goal after the virtual 150m penalty and kicked a goal to put North back in front.
At the time and during the call the commentators talked about how this was not right and unfair, but a rule is a rule. At the time of the Sydney incident, media commentators where at pains to point out how the rule that there should be no more then 18 men on the ground for any team was perhaps the most basic yet most important and they also pointed out that it needs to be enforced and the current rule was just unpractical in the current football environment. So the AFL changed it exactly as they should of to be a free and 50ms (the from the center was just extra stuff). Some have said after the fact, why isn’t it just a free kick? The reason I see is that it has to be a real punishment or else you have a guy ready to run on any time you want to hold up the play (it takes time for the Emergency Umpire to get from the boundry to the middle to pay a free). By having the 50m and the center, it means you virtually are giving up a goal to do this so it can’t be used as a tactic. Personally I thought they should have got a free from the goal line.
But perhaps the most suprising thing happened as I tuned in to watch “The Fifth Quarter” on Ten after the game. I was ready to yell at the TV about how stupid they were for saying the incident was wrong. To my suprise, Robert Walls went through the incident and came up with the conclusion that everything was done correctly and seemed to have no problem with it. So thumbs up to Wallsy. Normally I think you say some really silly things but tonight you used your brain and came up with the right answers! Keep it up!
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