Rival AFL coaches Michael Voss and Damien Hardwick both had the umpiring department squarely in their sights in the aftermath of Carlton’s clash with Gold Coast on Saturday.
On the stroke of three-quarter time, the Blues had won just three free kicks for the game — 10 fewer than the Suns at the same stage.
The ledger was evened out a bit more by the end of the game, finishing at 11-16 in the Suns’ favour.
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Carlton still managed to win the game, comfortably putting Gold Coast away by 29 points despite an array of injuries.
But the free kick count was alarming enough for Voss to declare his club would seek official clarification from the AFL.
“We’ll follow some (umpiring decisions) up — and I don’t say that often,” Voss said after his team’s 29-point win. “We’ve got some things to follow up because either clearly we’re not getting it right or we’re just educating it wrong.
“So, we’ve got a couple of things to follow up just to make sure we have clarity as well that we’re seeing it the same way.
“I don’t sit up here and ever do that because I feel like most of it’s all in our control, and I still firmly believe that, but also it’s our responsibility to get clarity when we’re unsure. And we’re unsure so we’ll get the clarity.
“We’ll do the right channels as well because this isn’t about just focusing on (the umpiring); it’s about taking our time, have a look through the vision, let’s be really clear and we’ve always had really good discussions so I can’t see that changing.
“We’ll just probably seek a little bit more feedback this week than what we normally have.”
Rarely are two opposing coaches so aligned on such a contentious issue, particularly when it involves umpiring.
But Hardwick was singing from the same hymn book in his press conference after the game.
He particularly referenced Mac Andrew’s pinning tackle on Charlie Curnow, which was both dangerous for Curnow and precarious for Andrew, who had to walk a tightrope not to sling his opponent and risk suspension.
“There’s 131 effective tackles today and there were four holding-the-balls for both sides,” Hardwick said.
“That one where Mac Andrew’s had Charlie Curnow at the start, that is a very, very dangerous situation for both players.”
With one arm pinned, Curnow held onto the ball for an extended moment and was spun around before eventually getting boot to ball, all the while being wrapped up by Andrew.
“We’ve just got to get on top of this because the players certainly owe each other a duty of care, but as umpires we’ve got to blow the whistle earlier because the reality is they’re putting players in a really compromising position that they could get hurt and we don’t want that,” Hardwick continued.
“We’ve got to look at it, we’ve got to coach it. I know it’s incredibly hard but from a player’s health and wellbeing point of view, we’ve just got to make sure, for the benefit of the game, that we look after the players.
“What it does lead to is a lot of stoppages and all that sort of stuff.”
Voss agreed those types of tackles were a dangerous part of the game, which could be mitigated by an earlier whistle.
“There’s an element where the player and the umpire can make that environment a bit safer with everything that’s going on in the AFL,” Voss said.
“That’s been raised before. I know it’s absolutely a talking point so I’m not so much too worried about.
“There’s a genuine intent to provide the environment as a really safe environment. I think we’ve done that amazingly well in more recent times.”