"No one has any idea" - Jack Riewoldt says that players are confused around the dissent rules.
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‘Scratching my head’: AFL star admits ‘no one has an idea’ after controversial dissent callFox Footy from Fox Sports
April 4th, 2023 10:01 pmRichmond spearhead Jack Riewoldt believes “no one has an idea” of what constitutes umpire dissent after the controversial free kick against Stephen Coniglio in Round 3.
The free kick against Coniglio came at a crucial stage of Carlton’s win over Greater Western Sydney on Saturday, with the AFL on Monday releasing a statement from umpiring boss Dan Richardson.
In that statement, Richardson said while players and coaches “get emotional, or become overly expressive when under pressure, “we also have umpires with differing levels of temperament”.
However Richardson declared: “If there was no challenge to the decision, regardless of personal opinion on the threshold, then no free kick could or would have been paid.”
Riewoldt told AFL 360 the decision against Coniglio had left him confused over the threshold for dissent.
“No one has an idea because the umpires, they’ve admitted each umpire has got a different emotional reaction to players, so how are we to know whether we catch someone on a bad day or a good day?”, he said.
“There’s moments after that dissent free kick where players are doing the exact same thing and we don’t get the same result. So I’m scratching my head.
“I would’ve said way worse things and done more demonstrative stuff to senior umpires and just had a normal conversation or just asked a question, which you do sometimes - there’s four umpires, one is genuinely around the centre of the ground or with the forwards - (asking) ‘Why is that a free kick?’
“That’s a bit of a natural reaction, but that could be deemed as dissent, which is the Coniglio example there. I’m still scratching my head about it and I think most of the footy public are as well.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-news-2023-umpire-dissent-stephen-coniglio-free-kick-jack-riewoldt-comments-reaction-gws-vs-carlton-arms-out/news-story/dcacbdbeff444997ba90fd7be39da3d7