‘We’re not jumping at shadows’: Footy boss reacts to AFL umpiring controversies

Greg Swann says umpires will be cracking down on missed push-in-the-back free kicks in coming weeks as he also revealed new high-tech cameras were arriving in August to improve the decision-making capabilities of the league’s review centre.

In a wide-ranging radio interview on Wednesday morning, the AFL football boss touched on all things umpiring, saying the game’s referees were adjudicating to a high standard but like players and coaches were prone to mistakes.

Swann admitted a decision that cost Ollie Dempsey a goal in Geelong’s four-point loss to Carlton in round 12 was a goal umpire error, while confirming that Hawthorn’s Mitch Lewis should have been paid a goal square mark in the dying minutes of their six-point loss to Western Bulldogs last Friday.

“That was a mark, and they [the umpires] admitted that they got that wrong,” Swann told SEN.

But Swann dismissed criticism that the league introduced rules on the run.

He said the AFL sat down with the umpiring department every Monday to identify trends and make adjustments.

“When people say there’s a rule of the week, there actually isn’t,” he said.

The former Brisbane Lions chief executive, who moved to league headquarters this year, said the game was in good health – scores were up, stoppages were down, and three minutes had been knocked off the length of games.

He said the league intended to continue with its four-umpire system and would be sending a mid-year update to clubs next Monday.

Essendon fans were left exasperated when Carlton forward Harry McKay indicated he was taking a shot at goal from outside the 50m arc deep into their clash at the MCG on Sunday only to direct the ball to the top of the goal square after wiping 49 seconds off the clock.

“The direction is, if they [the players] call it, they’ve got the 30 seconds, then they must start to walk in at 30 seconds,” Swann said.

“Our looking at that was Harry started walking in at 29 seconds.

“He took his sweet time to walk, I think he got up to about 40 or 41, so he should have probably got a bit of a hurry-up at that stage. But it is at the umpire’s discretion.”

Swann said he was sympathetic to the umpires at that moment because a player such as McKay was capable of taking a 60m shot on goal.

“It’s a hard one to have a hard and fast rule. It’s the first one we’ve had blatantly this year, so we are not jumping at shadows at the minute, we’re not going to change it, but it has to be monitored,” he said.

Swann said the league did not want to reward the baulker – a ruckman who shied at the centre square ball-up so that his oppon