A hit between an AFL umpire and a Carlton player has sparked fresh outrage during the Blues’ Thursday night clash against Brisbane. This mistake resulted directly in a wide-open goal for the other team. During play early in the first quarter, a fight broke out on the far sideline. Umpire Andrew Heffernan ran directly into Carlton player Lachie Cowan just as the ball was coming directly to Cowan.
As the play unfolded, Nick Haynes gathered a loose ball on the outer wing and looked to pass to Cowan. The surprise collision with Heffernan was unfortunate though as this killed the play. Instead, the ball ricocheted directly into the path of Brisbane’s Cam Rayner. Rayner was on all fours when he quickly handballed to teammate Charlie Cameron, who slotted a simple goal.
Channel 7 commentator Kane Cornes remarked on the significance of the incident, stating, “On that occasion, it cost Carlton a goal.” Cornes said this incident was going to be a “huge story.” He described how such cases involving umpires have been taking place all too often in recent games.
This incident isn’t a one-off. As recently as last week, Essendon forward Nate Caddy’s collision with an umpire during the Bombers’ loss to Gold Coast ignited outrage. The growing number of such incidents has raised concerns about the positioning of umpires on the field and whether changes are necessary.
Hodge, another Channel 7 commentator, went on to imply that the entire positioning protocols for umpires should be reconsidered. “It’s hard to say (who is at fault). The umpires are positioned where they’ve been told to stand,” he noted.
Brian Taylor made this point pretty emphatically. He argued that the league needs to reconsider its policies in light of recent events. To that, he replied, “Well, given the crashes we’ve had these last two weeks, I hope that is the case and I think that will be them case by the end of this season.”
