Richmond coach Damien Hardwick praises AFL umpires, but ... Chloe Saltau
The Age
April 3, 2014 - 4:35PM The umpires' willingness to put away their whistles has been widely celebrated, and Damien Hardwick is happy with the standard of officiating, but the Richmond coach wouldn't mind a few more free kicks for holding the ball to go the Tigers' way.
Hardwick said he had contacted the umpires' boss, former Richmond captain Wayne Campbell, to raise a couple of areas of concern after round two. One was an apparent reluctance to pay free kicks for holding the ball, and the other that the umpires had been quick to call play on after marking contests.
"I think they are doing a lot of things exceptionally well. I love the marking contests now," Hardwick said. "Probably the one we are a bit concerned about, we felt we got called to play on a bit from marking contests on the weekend. We had three guys who were tackled, so we clarified that with 'Campbo' and communication has been great. The other one is just the holding-the-ball decisions, I think we have had 110 tackles and only three holding-the-ball decisions that have gone our way, so if we could just get those right, Campbo, that would be great," Hardwick said with a grin.
The first two rounds have had an average of 16.5 free kicks paid to each side each game, the lowest figure for more than a decade. "Overall, I think the standard has been very good, which I think everyone is happy to see," Hardwick said. "The game is incredibly quick, the boys are massive now and there 's a lot of people around the ball, so overall they are doing a terrific job."
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