Not Right

I am sure this post will be lost on our overseas friends, but it needs a mention. One of our football matches this last weekend ended in controversy when the siren sounded to end the game, but the umpire did not hear it and therefore did not signal the end of the game. One of the teams kicked a score during the small period of uncertainty and the scores became level, thus creating a draw.

Now it seems the Australian Football League in its infinite wisdom has seen fit to overturn the “drawn” result in favor of the score as it stood when the siren went.

To me it’s crap. Bollocks. A con. The rules say the game is not over until the umpire signals it is over. Sure it was a stuff up, not the fault of either team but hey stuff up’s happen, live with it. Overturning the previously acknowledged score is the worst possible action the A.F.L could have taken.

A similar thing happened to Collingwood in a night grand final several years back. The opposition team kicked a score after the siren had sounded to end the game, are we now to expect that game to be noted as a Collingwood victory? There was outcry at the time, but as I recall “the game ain’t over till the umpire say’s so” was the rule thrown up at we Collingwood supporters for years to come.

The A.F.L has acted appallingly in the face of this a mere stuff up that they should simply have accepted and moved on.