Umpire's call against was Jordan McMahon wrong
Jon Ralph | February 28, 2009
THE AFL umpiring department has admitted an umpire erred in penalising Richmond's Jordan McMahon for a deliberately rushed behind against Collingwood.
McMahon made history late in the final quarter when he became the first player to be penalised under the new trial rule.
He was hemmed in on the boundary and while trying to handball he was tackled by John Anthony and the ball jarred loose over the behind line.
The infringement was paid by field umpire Simon Meredith.
The AFL's instructional DVD, Laws of Australian Football 2009, outlines the criteria an umpire must use to determine whether a behind has been deliberately rushed.
They are:
WHAT is the player's intention?
IS THE player contesting the ball?
WHAT is the degree of pressure the player is under?
WAS there a teammate in the vicinity of where the ball crossed the scoring line?
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In McMahon's case, all four of those issues were relevant.
McMahon tried to handball to teammate Matt White, who was in the goalsquare, while under extreme pressure.
The AFL yesterday said after consideration, the decision was simply wrong.
"The view was that after a full analysis, it wasn't a correct decision," AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said.
"He had his arm clipped as he was going to handball and it changed the handball's direction. Our initial view was that he had handballed it straight across the line, but he had a teammate in his vicinity and his intention was to go to that teammate. He was bumped and tackled as he was trying to dispose of it."
While no harm was done in what was a comprehensive loss for Richmond, it shows the rule will become a matter of interpretation, and particularly crucial in close games.
Richmond was unfussed yesterday, with football manager Ross Monaghan saying no complaint would be lodged.
"We will leave it up to the AFL as to whether they thought it was a correct decision or not. We are not too concerned about it. I am sure the umpires will have a look at it," he said.
Post-match, coach Terry Wallace said he was likely to contact AFL umpires' boss Jeff Gieschen to get a proper ruling.
"We're not allowed to talk about umpires' decisions, unfortunately, but I'll speak to Jeff about it, just to get clarification with it," he said.
"I was surprised with the call, but that's OK, everyone's got to get used to what goes on. It didn't make any difference to the game, so we don't get carried away by any of those sorts of things."
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