11.06am: We are back from our break. Jeff Gleeson QC lodges his final submission, saying that "umpires are untouchable". He continues: "It's fundamental to our game … that the umpire is respected. The moment any of us deviate from enforcing that rule, because it's hard, is the moment we change the game and the way our umpires are treated." Gleeson says Greene "complained, swore, got in his face, and bumped him". He said Greene's actions were "insolent and contemptuous".
I think if you are going to say that umpires are untouchable, as a fundamental principal, then it's also beholden on umpires to get out of the way of players and not interact with them as they leave the ground. I don't think that should happen, I think the fundamental principal should change. People bump into each other incidentally all the time outside of football. It's going to happen. It should come down to whether or not the umpire felt threatened; or in play if it was something that put the umpire in danger. Putting your hand on an umpire's back as you talk to him, brushing past them, tapping them on the shoulder...these are normal interactions.
The problem is that the AFL tribunal will not make a subjective assessment of things and hand out appropriate penalties, I assume because they don't want nasty things said about them by the football media, so we get stuck with fundamentalists. They need to bring someone in from the VRC stewards to try and overhaul the culture.
