Umpire Ray Chamberlain has explained why a free kick wasn’t paid against Shane Mumford for a high tackle in the second quarter of his side’s draw with North Melbourne.
A free kick had been awarded to the Giants, with Mumford grabbing Tarryn Thomas high after the fact in an incident that was cited as misconduct by the MRO.
Despite that, the decision was not reversed and paid to North Melbourne.
Chamberlain said a free kick should have been paid to the Roos, but sometimes an umpire can lose sight of what is happening elsewhere after they’ve blown the whistle.
“A free kick was paid and then there was a subsequent contest or action where Mumford obviously tackled a player high and took him to ground,” Chamberlain told SEN’s Whateley.
“What happens sometimes in those instances, you can award a free kick and you can get fixated, and this is the challenge for an umpire, getting in to sort out that and you can lose where the football is.
“In this instance another free kick ensued and I believe it would have been appropriate for us to blow our whistle then and penalise Shane for the high tackle.
“But what sometimes also happens in those instances is a free kick occurs, ball spills free and then we miss the player kick it away and they do that to delay the game and we get too fixated on what’s happening on the ground with those players and we don’t keep an awareness on where the ball is.
“So in that situation before we go into our rigmarole awarding a free kick, it’s incumbent on us to blow our whistles again and signal to the players that a free kick has been paid, the game has stopped, don’t kick it away.
“We have all these little nuances around when a free kick happens and what can happen is you can get drawn into just these two guys here on the ground and you lose sight of everything else.
“That will be the takeaway learning for the umpire there: find the footy.”
“How is that not reversed?!” Big Mummy goes BANG 💥
— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) June 13, 2021
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