Gerard Whateley is the number one cynic of the AFL’s score review system and asked the tough questions to AFL football operations boss Steve Hocking, the person in charge of the system.
We saw another contentious decision on Thursday night with a Shaun McKernan shot for goal seemingly touched by a GWS player in what ended up being a game decided by a single kick.
Hocking however has backed the score reviewers decision that there wasn’t enough evidence to say it was touched.
“Not in my view, not in the vision that I’ve seen (was the ball touched),” he told SEN’s Crunch Time.
“The operator on the night felt that wasn’t the case. They had about 50 seconds to review that and their view is and the review since is that it wasn’t the case.
“The more you analyse that, and that’s what the fans look at, they think there was a bent finger. Their review was that it was inconclusive so that’s where it landed and I’m happy to support the review officer in that case.”
Hocking admitted the score review system has failed multiple times this year and feels the need for change.
“I feel embarrassed about it (mistakes) definitely,” he said.
“What I will say is we’re committed to improving that and making sure the best model is in operation.
“What good organisations do is they recognise that there is concern around this and we’ve got to move forward on it.
“The important thing for fans to recognise is and know is this isn’t something that’s just happened in the last couple of weeks, I’ve been looking at this since the start of the season and understanding that this was going to be a problem for us.
“There’s got to be improvement.”
Steve Hocking - AFL Operations Boss "There absolutely could be a score review bunker for finals in 2019"#CrunchTime
— SEN 1116 (@1116sen) June 29, 2019
Gerard versus Hocking – listen to the full battle over the score review system below
