Other Recent Issues in the Football World

Welcome to AFLRAT's forum of what has been bugging us lately in the AFL World. This site is for all issues from the politics at the highest level of the game to the bodgy umpiring decisions we see week in and week out! If you would like to comment on any of the issues presented or know of an issue you think should be added, please email us!!

Eddie Maguire versus "The Goal Umpire From Hell"

Media personalities versus the umpires has been a steadfast issue this season starting with Essendon star James Hird commenting on footy bias by umpire Scott McLaren during a segment on the Footy Show earlier this year. Hird received a hefty fine for his effort and was further rewarded by becoming the new face for promoting umpiring in Australia. Ironically however, merely weeks after the incident involving Hird, Eddie Maguire criticised a goal umpire on field by calling him "the umpire from hell" while commenting a Friday night football match. However no further action was taken against Maguire as his comments were seen by the AFL to be acceptable in his capacity as a commentator and had nothing to do with his role as president of Collingwood. Surely Hird's comments could also be deemed acceptable in his capacity as a media personality and not have anything to do with his role as an Essendon midfielder? AFLRAT understands the neccessity to have respect between players and umpires to promote a fair and harmonious game, but we would like to bring attention to the fact that Eddie Maguire's comments should not be justifiable under any circumstances and should have been treated with the same seriousness that Hird's comments were!

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The Collingwood Commentator: Conflict of Interest or Not?

Yet another criticism of Eddie Maguire and his capacity as a Friday night commentator this season! The role of the commentator is to provide an objective objective report of what is happening on the field. However, Friday night commentator Eddie Maguire who is also president of the Collingwood Football Club has been in a position where he has commentated several Collingwood games - providing an anything but objective account of the game and getting a bit too emotionally involved in the actions taken by the umpires. AFLRAT believes this is completely unacceptable. Eddie Maguire should not be allowed to commentate Collingwood matches particularly when he is the president of the club - it leaves a very poor mark on the football commentating world! We believe that either Eddie should opt to commentate another day of the week where Collingwood is playing on Friday nights or Collingwood should be prohibited from Friday night matches while Maguire still continues to commentate on that night!

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Is Waiting for Play On to be Called Truly Playing On?

Going back to the Essendon Fremantle match at the dome about a month ago - you may or may not recall an incident where a 50m penalty was rewarded against Jeff Farmer of the Dockers. The incident in question entailed a penalty being awarded against the Dockers after the ball was kicked out of bounds on the full - Fair Call! When the Essendon player took the free kick, he ran three steps inside the ground clearly playing on. However, he was tackled legally around the middle by Farmer on his third step on the ground from the boundary. The umpire rewarded a 50m penalty for this action by Farmer with the justification that it wasn't play on because he hadn't yet called play on despite the fact that the player was approximately 2 metres in front of where the penalty had originally been rewarded!! The question we ask you is what is the point of the play on call? Isn't play on there to enable players to move the ball forward quickly? Additionally why should players defending have to wait for someone to tell them that a player has played on before they try to speeden their defense to prevent play on occurring? Doesn't the fact you have to wait for play on to be called after play on has occurred defeat the purpose of it being play on - and is unfair to the team defending? Surely umpiring calls should be made according to what actually happens on field not what the umpire has called previously? Ultimately that incident involving Farmer at the Essendon match was a case of holdling the ball and should have been a Fremantle free kick - as the Essendon player concerned had prior opportunity for disposal from the free kick and was tackeld upon playing the ball on!!

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