Whateley
The Advantage Rule - The Worst Bits | The Means Test with Adam Simpson! (25.05.26)
25 May 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main criticism of the advantage rule in umpiring?
The worst bit is the advantage rule and its implementation. So this is not a single moment. This is the accumulation of a few years of just excusing everything that happens. So my main criticism of the way umpiring is done is that this idea that two things can be true and that we can have that decision as being correct and the opposite as being correct as well.
So if you don't plant your flag on the advantage rule... You end up with the set of instances from the weekend where you go, sometimes the players took it, mucked it up, and it was brought back. Sometimes they went on. We watched the ball bounce through for a goal and allowed that to stand. And then you get to the moment where North Melbourne clearly claimed the advantage.
Larky clearly took the decision to score and then didn't. And neither player got it through for a behind. And the umpire brought it back. And we live in this murky world. What is the correct implementation of the advantage rule? And it should be crisp and predictable.
Chapter 2: How has the implementation of the advantage rule evolved over the years?
Predictable and instant for the umpire and understandable from the outside.
Yeah.
But we don't. We live in this murky world. We had the one on Friday night and Hato just made the observation. It really just swings on the umpire's mood. And you can't have rules. And we have too many of them. And it's all about the coaching. We have rules that swing on the whim of the umpire instead of just going, no, no, this is what happened. This is the officiating that's required.
Do you think ā my reason for the confusion is ā the umpire's got to decide whether the player heard the whistle. So if it's in front of 90,000 and they don't hear the whistle and they take the advantage and it's a rush kick.
Yeah, which happened at the climax of the 2023 grand final.
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Chapter 3: What are the challenges in understanding the advantage rule during games?
Yeah, exactly. Brisbane were a judge to have taken an advantage that they absolutely did not take. But that happened.
And then the flip side. The flip side. Yeah, where it's, so for me, that's the grey areas. Did the player, did the team hear the whistle? And if they, because it works, it's working on the other way about the 50 metre penalty. They're not given any more. And is it like, oh, the umpire's assuming that the whistle wasn't heard. So I don't know how to fix that one.
Well, it has to go back to if the player deliberately moved on and there was a gap between the Zerha free kick and Larkin's action.
Yes.
And it can't ā we used to have it swung on outcome, whether the umpire liked it or not, and we have regressed there. So Dudley's ball bounces through for a goal.
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Chapter 4: How do umpires determine if players heard the whistle?
If that doesn't bounce through, it comes back, which is a nonsense. If Larkey kicks the goal, do you reckon it stands?
Yes. Yes. That's not the rule. But my question ā so it goes at a ā it doesn't ā it buggers up, and Larkey didn't hear the whistle. So he didn't hear the whistle, and he kicks the goal and goes ā what happens then? Bad luck? Is it just bad luck if you don't hear the whistle? Get your ears tested. Because I think that's what's happening.
I think the umpire's going, oh, I don't know if they heard that I blew that free kick. I better call it back. There was one bad one the other day. I can't remember the game.
Chapter 5: What happens when players act on the advantage but the umpire disagrees?
But he looked at the result, didn't like it, then brought it back. Yeah. So that's probably not on. That's not the rule. But I think the gap is, and I don't have a ā A real answer. The gap is the umpire is trying to decide whether the player heard it or not.
So if they took that out. We just live in this murky world with it at the moment where any decision will do. No, that's not how it works. And we live there with holding the ball. Oh, any decision will do here. No, it won't. We have to drill down and can you stop asking questions that no one knows the answers to?
And I love the game's capability of throwing up three within 24 hours, which all contradict each other.
Chapter 6: Why is consistency in umpiring decisions crucial for the game?
So they can't all be right. No. But I bet you they all get ticked off. Yeah. I bet you they all get ticked off.