A mid-season rule-change has already come back to bite the AFL, with Geelong winger Ollie Dempsey denied a clear goal.
And with the game decided by two points in a major upset victory for Carlton, Dempsey’s score could have been match-defining.
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Dempsey kicked two goals in the first quarter of his side’s clash with Carlton on Friday night, and should’ve had a third if not for the behind that was called when he cleverly shinned a ball from the goal line to register the first score of the game.
The goal umpire — former player and fan favourite David Rodan — was impeded by Carlton’s Blake Acres, who made accidental contact with him from behind, but still made the definitive call that the ball came off hands.
Any contact below the knee is considered a kick, and an ARC review would have found that Dempsey clearly guided the loose ball onto his lower leg and awarded him a goal.
It was a clear miss that should have, at the very least, been sent upstairs to the ARC — particularly given Rodan was off-balance, through no fault of his own, when he made the call.
But the correct outcome would have still been reached if not for a rule-change after Round 7, when almost a minute of play unfolded before the ARC ruled that a St Kilda behind should have been a mark to Rohan Marshall on the goal line.
In the wake of that incident, the AFL changed the rule so that could no longer intervene on an incorrect call once the ball was back in play.
Before Round 7, an incident like Friday night’s would have been stopped at the next stoppage and a goal awarded to Dempsey.
“The AFL justified the (Marshall) decision but said you simply cannot be doing that 55 seconds later and made the rule-change that umpires, once the ball’s back in play, cannot call it back, the ARC can’t call it back, and that the goal umpire must call for the review,” Xander McGuire said at half-time of the Geelong-Carlton clash.
