Did Marc Murphy take a dive when he was shoved by Jasper Pittard after the three-quarter time siren?
The question has caused an uproar online, with a poll of almost 1,500 people (and growing) split right down the middle.
North Melbourne midfielder Jared Polec took a mark on three-quarter time with a chance to put the Roos in front going into the final break.
He took the mark over Murphy before Pittard took it upon himself to run up and shove Murphy to the ground.
The umpire paid the free kick to the former Carlton skipper, taking away Polec’s shot at goal and ending the quarter.
Kane Cornes and Gerard Whateley had polar opposite opinions on the topic on SEN’s Whateley this morning.
Whateley: “Kane, I KNEW you’d say Marc Murphy dived. So, I’ve watched this over and over and over and I want to run this by you. Murphy has had a mark taken over him. He’s done nothing wrong and doesn’t realise he’s at the heart of anything.
“He’s not looking in any way to his right as a player comes totally unprovoked and unexpected at full pace and bowls him over. If you are standing not braced for any contact and a bloke runs into you, you are going to get knocked over. I just can’t see it as anything other than physics. He got knocked over by a fool.”
Cornes: “No, and let me get this point clear, I’m not defending Pittard and saying it was anything other than complete stupidity … but it shouldn’t have been a free kick. The umpire was gullible. Our very own Bob Murphy summed it up perfectly.” (see tweet below).
The pointless Pittard push.
— Bob Murphy (@BobMurphy02) July 25, 2020
The Murphy flop.
The gullible umpire free kick.
All of it was utter shite.
Cornes: “That is how I feel about the incident. It shouldn’t have been a free kick and I think the best way to stamp out flopping or diving or exaggerating contact, which is probably what Murphy did, the best way to stop it is for the umpire to look at him and say ‘get up Marc, stop carrying on’ and we highlight it. Let’s not reward actions like this – and I did it.”
Whateley: “You’re on the wrong side of this one, Kane. The person we have to stop is Pittard. The umpire 100 times out of 100 has to pay that free kick because if you make that permissible, then in any moment in any part of the ground you are empowered to run in and knock an unsuspecting player over. The game would be a total mess.”
Cornes: “Nah what you’re doing Gerard is rewarding players staging for free kicks and we’ll see it extend to marking contes. If umpires reward that type of action, players will keep doing it. If the stop paying it, that will stamp it out and highlighting it with us will stop the players doing it. It’s an embarrassment factor for the players. No one wants to be accused of flopping or diving and that will stop it. When we reward actions like that, that’s when players will keep doing it.”
Whateley: “There’s no (diving) action from Murphy on my account.”
Whose side are you on? Vote in the poll below
Did Marc Murphy take a dive?
— SEN 1116 (@1116sen) July 27, 2020
Gerard Whateley says no. Kane Cornes says yes. What do you think?