Deliberate out of bounds call, decision Jayden Short Richmond v Western Bulldogs: Was it right or wrong?KATE SALEMME
Herald Sun
7 May 2017AFL GAMES record holder Brent Harvey has called for the league to make an immediate change to the deliberate out of bounds rule after a contentious decision against Richmond’s Jayden Short on Saturday night.
Short was penalised when he appeared to fumble the ball under pressure of two Bulldogs players in the last minute of the Tigers’ five-point loss to the Bulldogs.
The free kick essentially ended the game as the Bulldogs were able to hold onto the ball for the final seconds.
“You just can’t call that,” Harvey said. “As an umpire, that can’t be called.
“The initial part he’s trying to handball but in the second part he tries to grab the footy as well and his hand is getting held.
“I’m feeling for the umpires at the minute because their job is too hard. There’s so many rules — the deliberate is getting worse and worse.”
The AFL has this year introduced a stricter interpretation of the deliberate out of bounds rule and penalised players for not making enough effort to keep the ball in play.
Harvey said he “absolutely” felt for Short in that situation.
“That will not get paid again for the whole season,” he said.
“When there is players around you and you fumble the ball, the umpires never pay it. For some reason though (that was paid).
“In a close game, that’s costly.
“It’s unbelievable.”
Harvey, who retired after being moved on by North Melbourne at the end of last year after 432 career games, wants immediate change.
“I don’t think we wait until the end of the season because stuff like this is going to keep happening,” he told Fox Sports.
“So we (the AFL) need to go back and have a quick look at it and change the rule slightly because I still think if you’re not willing to keep the ball in, they’re going to pay it against you.
“And I still think that’s not deliberate out of bounds.
“So they’ve got to go back and tinker with it slightly.”
Richmond coach Damien Hardwick didn’t weigh in on whether the Short call was right or wrong but when pressed on the league’s rules he declared there are too many left to umpire interpretation.
“I don’t know, it was pretty hard to see it from the (coaches) box. I’m not sure exactly what it was from that one,” he said of the call.
“I’m not sure whether it’s that rule or all the rules to be frank.
“I feel really sorry for the umpires, the amount of interpretations they have to make. We just keep adding layer upon layer.
“So I don’t blame the umpires at all, at all. The holding the ball rule. How many interpretations are in that?
“It’s not their fault, they’ve got to go through five decisions to make an actual decision. I actually think they do a pretty good job, under the circumstances.”
Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge was at a loss to explain the deliberate rule and at times had to laugh while trying to answer questions about the rule in his post-match press conference.
“Ultimately if you’re kicking it out of a pressured situation and there’s smothering hands and the ball needs to go a certain way to clear the area,” he said. “Is that insufficient intent?
“I don’t know how it went tonight, how many were paid and weren’t paid but there were definitely ones that weren’t paid that were paid last week. So the insufficient intent, is it clearer or less clear? I don’t know.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/richmond/deliberate-out-of-bounds-call-against-richmonds-jayden-short-in-loss-to-western-bulldogs-slammed/news-story/29003ffd78b394aedad5e6a46d2452bd