Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Our Tuesdays start with our leadership portfolio and Luke Hodge. Hello to you, Hodge. Good morning, Gerard. I wouldn't want to be... a leadership advisor of the AFL right now because there's some rumblings going on. I did feel that Swanee was just pushing out the company line where it's as good as it's been in a long time.
I feel that Andrew Dillon said the same thing last year and we all sat back and went, really? But let's be honest. There's so many things there we could start with from your introduction then.
Chapter 2: What are the current challenges facing AFL umpires?
I'm going to go with a couple that a topical threat, especially for a player. One's the holding the ball rule. The other's the stand. And I'm going to start with a little bit of support for the umpires because I would hate to be an umpire right now trying to adjudicate holding the ball. You sit back and go, what has to go through their head? Have they had prior... Did they try and fend off?
Did they shrug a shoulder just to try and get a high free kick? Is he trying to get it out or is he trying to hold it back in for a ball up? Did he try and dispose of it? And did it hit a fingernail or did it hit a boot? Because technically that's a possession. That's all to happen in one second.
We can always go back and replay and we'll comment on it as commentators or people at home sit back and go, that's clear from what we're looking at is holding the ball. But for the umpire who has to make all these decisions in a split second, I feel they've made it too hard for the umpires. The old-fashioned, I feel the old pub test, which everyone loves to rate things of,
is you go back, if he gets a hand or a foot to it, that's play on. If he doesn't, then it's holding the ball. Just make it a lot simpler for the umpire to understand and to call it right then and there. And he doesn't have to go through five to ten different tick-offs or crosses if they were able to do that.
So that's the holding the ball one, because I know that coaches were frustrated, players were frustrated, supporters and commentators were all frustrated on the weekend. The other one's the stand rule. And you scratch your head. And I think what you do need, you need a little bit of common sense. I think the two that obviously are the standout is the Ben Miller one. He wasn't in the contest.
And his sole thing is to stay with his player. So in my mind, it's like if he's not trying to delay the person with the ball and his sole mindset is to stay on his man, which that's what he was doing, then he's not interrupting, he's not delaying. So let him continue with his opponent. I think that is the common sense approach there.
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Chapter 3: How can the holding the ball rule be simplified for umpires?
that the AFL should allow the umpires to take into the stand rule. If he wants to stay and delay, or didn't they sort of do 50-50? They try and delay, but then they try and stay off their opponent. Bang, you have to stand because a little bit of your mindset is trying to delay the ball from playing on. No problems at all. You've got to stay there and stand. If you don't, then it's 50.
But in his instance there, his sole thing was Maxwell and his opponent, and he didn't want to do anything with the person with the ball apart from staying on his player. Then you look at the Jamara and Witts one, and I'm sitting there, I'm scratching my head because this is a prime example of an umpire in a robot situation going, no, I'm looking at you.
Paul Witts is standing there pointing at Jamara saying, he's standing, he's standing, trying to communicate with the umpire saying, hey, we're trying to work with you. We understand the rules. We're trying to work with you to get someone to stand. But Jamara has been told he's thinking he's the person to stand while Wits is pointing to the umpire.
So that's where I think the umpire needs a little bit of flexibility to say, all right, understand you're trying to do the right thing. You're trying to work with us. Jamara, you come back two metres. Witsy, you go on. If it happens again, I'm going to ping you. But this is a genuine accident. And I mean that. This is a genuine accident of Witsy trying to do the right thing.
And the umpire was fixated. Because why? Because they get dragged through everything if they make a wrong call. So I know I've gone on about both of them. I want to go hard at it, hard at stop and move on because we've got more important things to talk about than stuff that's happened last weekend, and we want to move on to stuff that's happening this weekend and in the future.
I can take a breath now, Gerard.
It is fundamental to the way the game is played. So what you've just expressed there is what everyone's feeling in their own way. Everyone has different perspectives on it, but... It is passionately held in the way that we watch the game and what we expect from it. This stuff matters immensely.
Because we're so passionate about this game. I started off trying to be calculated, but then you start to think about You put yourself in the player's position going, I'm trying to do the right thing. And then the frustration and then it's a natural thing. And this is the best part about our sport is we're so passionate about it. We want this to be the best looking sport in the world.
We want everyone to be watching our game going, how good is this? We want to brag about how good our sport is. Unfortunately, we get to the end of a game and we're frustrated, we're confused, we're upset. And you talk about the codes of league and Aussie rules. Being up here, people are watching our game going, what the hell is going on? And I'm like, I'd love to explain it to you.
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Chapter 4: What insights does Luke Hodge provide on the stand rule in AFL?
I think that's where Ross's head was, but clearly what he said, how the Indigenous boys took it, was a no-go zone. And from that, you've just got to listen to what the Indigenous boys have said. Hilly, being the leader, spoke to Ross, and I think that's where it's been settled between the clubs, the players, and Ross. And I think... They hit it maturely.
I think if you sit back and Ross spoke again, I think this morning, and he apologised again. So I thought for a club, for an issue that could have went pear-shaped, I thought it was very mature from how Bradley stood up and first of all spoke his mind at how the players felt. and obviously how Ross handled it as well.
So this was kept very tight within the club, evidently. So we asked you to take on the guise of the leader. Say you're Cal Wilkie, Jack Sinclair, and you're learning of it subsequently. And Ross had offered to speak to the whole group about it, and the Indigenous players evidently said that's not necessary. How does it play out in the inner sanctum once it is known?
Well, I think it's the same as anyone who has something's happened to them. You ask the player on, would you like this to be raised? How do you like it handled? Do you like the leadership group brought in? Do you want the players brought in? Do you want the coaches and staff brought in? That's the first and foremost, how you ask any player in this situation.
And clearly, Hilly, the Indigenous boy, said, no, no, we want to keep it under wraps. And as we just covered then, that we cleared the air with Ross. We're comfortable with where we're at. We're comfortable how Ross is. sees us, we come from our relationship with Ross, and we're happy to keep it just in-house between the people who know about it now.
So I guess the disappointing thing for St Kilda and Ross and Hilly and the leaders of the Indigenous group was how it got out. That's the other thing, is if we're supposed to be a tight-knit group and we're not telling anyone, because we as players, as Indigenous players, want to keep this in-house between ourselves, how did it get out to the media? That's a way to stick and point and
you can either just park it there and let it go or you can go and try and chase it and it only causes frustration. So that's where the sticky part would be for the players and the people who knew about it, had it to get to the media.
Jordan, to do what he did on the weekend and come out and perform the way he did, he played a really strong game of footy, led from the front like he does every week for his team. And you can see here at the end of the game, I think with the amount of people that came up to him from the industry, opposition players, fakes to come over, and there's a lot of love there and a lot of support.
And he was quite emotional at the end of the game, obviously, that moment. That hit home. He was able to focus on footy, but as soon as that siren went, I think he realised it was back to a pretty tough time. So we'll give him whatever he needs. It may be an interesting week this week for him, a tough week. And if he's ready to go and play again, then again, we'll be there.
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