It’s a real pity that such a classy event was marred a little by the AFL, who foolishly sent our home-grown muppets on to umpire the game. This is from the match report on the SEN website this morning:
The only negative on the night came as the umpires consistently missed obvious holding the ball free kicks...
However, even with the enormity of the game and its ramifications, the failure of the umpires to call holding the ball in clear contrast to the rules was one of the biggest talking points from the match.
There were five or six memorable moments from the clash where even the players had stopped, yet the men in green called ‘play on'.
As blatant a free kick as you’ll see was somehow missed by the standing umpire when Essendon defender Jordan Ridley had Tiger Jake Aarts dead to rights, the ball spilling free after Aarts had ample time to dish it off.
The players around the ball genuinely stopped, setting up for an Essendon free kick. However, there was no whistle, sending Bombers fans into a tailspin.
