No accountability: The lost umpire stat baffling Cornes

AFL umpires have reportedly requested that Champion Data not publish specific details surrounding free kicks paid.

Kane Cornes has detected that the free kicks awarded by specific match officials is no longer available on the stats portal.

He wonders why the umpiring fraternity have asked for these statistics to be removed.

“I love to keep the umpires accountable when it comes to which umpire has paid which free kick,” Cornes said on SEN’s Fireball.

“I think that is very useful information.

“You’ve got four umpires out there, I like to know that such and such umpire has paid 11 free kicks to North and three frees to West Coast, for example.

“That information has always been readily available to those who have access to Champion Data stats.

“I like seeing the breakdown of which umpire out there has paid a free kick to which team.”

Cornes continued: “I can tell you now, that information is not available anymore.

“Where has that info gone? Surely it’s pretty important stuff.

“I reached out to Champion Data to find out where this information has gone. They said to me that the umpires got in contact with Champion and said we now do not need that information.

“This is the greatest example of how soft we have become. You can’t have player weights in the Footy Record any more, the umpires now do not want to be, clearly, kept accountable for who has paid which free kick to which team.

“How could this not be useful information for the umpires’ coach to go, ‘Hang on, see that free kick? You paid that to West Coast, we can now break down what’s gone on there and review that’.

“They have got in touch with Champion Data. My suspicion would be that they’re too scared to be made accountable for this information, if there’s a lopsided free kick count and we want to keep them accountable.

“That information is gone. I honestly cannot believe that the umpires would be that sensitive to not make that info available when the profession has never been more highly paid, when everyone else has never been more accountable.

“We’ve spoken about under-fire coaches and players, but the umpires do not want have that accountability. I can’t believe it.

“It needs to be investigated further as to who has made that decision and why this decision has been made. It’d got to be more than ‘this information isn’t necessary anymore’.”

Co-host David King added: ”Who are you protecting the information from? It’s the fans’ game, isn’t it?

“They’re just conversation points, they’re bullet points in our Monday discussions, and you’re just part of the cycle.

“There’ll be good weeks and bad weeks but that’s the game.”

King was also made aware of another statistic that is being kept from Champion Data users and it relates to the stand rule and 50-metre penalties paid.

“At the start of the year when we were having the stand rule discussion, I wanted to know how many 50s were paid last year from a violation of the stand rule,” King said.

“Not an outrageous request.

“Do you think they would give me that information? ‘It’s not a Champion Data thing, it’s an AFL thing’ - they wouldn’t give it to us.

“I just wanted to compare has it doubled, tripled, what’s happening with it? I want to use the facts and I can’t get them.

“Who are we hiding that information and why?”

Cornes said further: “Why are they the only people in the game who are protected from scrutiny? Why do they get protected so much?

“I understand we want junior umpires coming through but they’ll come through. You get paid nearly $200,000 if you’re any good and you can work outside of that.

“It’s a pretty good profession. You get to keep fit, you’re in a great game in a terrific industry. The young umpires will come through.

“I don’t understand why they are immune from scrutiny and we can’t get information that is necessary to keep these people accountable for the fans and the game.”