“Strange” umpiring produces biggest free kick differential of 2026

Geelong coach Chris Scott has labelled the umpiring in Thursday night’s win over Collingwood as “strange”.

The Cats, despite winning by 25 points, were on the wrong end of a lopsided free kick count which finished 24-7 in favour of the Magpies.

Scott was asked about that number in his post-match press conference.

“I wouldn’t focus too much on the 24 part, but the seven part is very strange,” Scott told reporters.

“We’ve had a few games like that this year. If it’s 7-12 it’s a ‘put the whistle away’ kind of night, but there’s a few things that I would describe as strange at the moment.

“I think we’ve been here before, haven’t we? It’s not the forum to be discussing these things but that’s not to say it shouldn’t be discussed.”

Scott added: “All the people in Geelong shirts here are really nervous at the moment, they’re starting to get sweaty palms because they don’t know what I’m going to say.

“But I will bring up one issue that is confusing for everyone, when you have an umpire 12 metres away with a perfect view and he gets overruled, that’s strange.”

The quarter-by-quarter free kick count was:
Q1: Collingwood 7-1 Geelong
Q2: Collingwood 4-4 Geelong
Q3: Collingwood 6-1 Geelong
Q4: Collingwood 7-1 Geelong

Thursday night was very lopsided against the Catters.

The differential of 17 free kicks is the biggest discrepancy in season 2026, bypassing the 16 between West Coast and GWS in Round 10.

Top five free kick differentials - 2026
17 - Collingwood 24-7 Geelong (Round 21)
16 - West Coast 26-10 GWS (Round 10)
14 - Fremantle 27-13 West Coast (Round 20)
14 - Adelaide 32-18 Gold Coast (Round 18)
13 - Richmond 27-14 Port Adelaide (Round 4)

For the record this year, the Cats have received 374 free kicks and given 357 away for a differential of +17, while the Pies have received 342 and given away 330 for +12.