Death, taxes and a controversial umpiring decision playing a key role in deciding the outcome of an AFL game.
On Friday night, in the final quarter of Fremantle’s hectic draw with Collingwood, Magpies midfielder Lachie Sullivan was penalised for handing the ball to teammate Nick Daicos instead of field umpire Mathew Nicholls after a ball-up call.
The punishment? A set shot from close range with barely any angle for Fremantle ruckman Sean Darcy, who saluted to reduce the Dockers’ deficit to just 14 points as they continued their threatening surge at Optus Stadium.
Watch every game of every round this Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today >
After having called for a toss-up, Nicholls took exception to Sullivan’s unwillingness to give the ball back to him — and, ultimately, it was a factor in costing the Magpies two premiership points.
“He didn’t hand the ball back to me — he handed it to a teammate,” Nicholls could be heard saying on his umpire mic during the broadcast.
“He’s not allowed to do that. It’s a free kick, OK?”
Four-time Hawthorn premiership player Jordan Lewis was sceptical of Nicholls’ game sense.
“I think a lot of our rules are left for interpretation — we see that with free kicks and everything that happens in and around the ground — I don’t think you’d find a person that would agree (on) gut feel that is a free kick,” Lewis told Fox Footy’s post-game coverage on Friday.
After Darcy capitalised on his charity gift, subsequent majors to midfielder Hayden Young and makeshift goalkicker Alex Pearce — and a Jeremy Sharp behind — tied the scores by the time the final siren sounded.
“It’s a big call — they don’t pay obvious holding the ball free kicks in front of goal, and he (the umpire) plucks that one out,” Brisbane Lions legend Jonathan Brown said, going on to defend Sullivan’s defensive thought process.
“That’s about the 1300th page of the rule book. That’s hidden away. It’s just common sense — you can see what young Sullivan was doing, he was obviously very man-conscious in (his) defensive 50 at a stoppage.”
Herald Sun journalist Jon Ralph explained the AFL’s recently-evolved stance on time-wasting during games but preached “some level of common sense”.
“In 2022, the AFL said that they were worried their game analysis team was seeing too many players who were wasting time,” Ralph told Fox Footy on Friday evening.
“So, they had the crackdown, and they said in that crackdown ‘we’ll be less lenient towards players who deliberately delay the play’. So, clearly, it is a rule that you should hand the ball back at a stoppage.
“Here’s the problem: it’s not consistently applied. You see so often players who take the ball over the boundary line, and before a throw-in they drop the ball — they dump it there — they don’t hand the ball back.
“No one believed that Sullivan was wasting time there. No one has seen this decision been paid in so long. By the strictest interpretation it’s correct, (but) there has to be some level of common sense or a shade of grey.”
Lewis cited Nicholls’ extensive umpiring pedigree before claiming the veteran adjudicator would be retrospectively “disappointed” with his decision to penalise Sullivan.
“Matty Nicholls is an experienced umpire, so you would hope in that instance — in a close game — that (he’d) have a level head,” Lewis continued.
“Now, I think we can all agree that (Sullivan’s act) is not a free kick. I know, by the letter of the law (it is), but we’ve seen … there was one (incident) later on during the game where (John) Noble put it on the ground to get back to his position.
“There were countless times when it was a boundary throw in and the player just dropped it and didn’t throw it back to the boundary umpire … I think he (Nicholls) would be disappointed with the decision.”
Collingwood champion Nathan Buckley noted: “It did fuel the Dockers’ momentum, didn’t it?”
Capping the discussion, Melbourne legend Garry Lyon asked: “What sort of game would we have if everything was adjudicated as fastidiously as that was?”
The AFL is likely to issue an explanation on Saturday regarding Nicholls’ call.
Source Agencies
