I was watching the scrappy last quarter of the Gold Coast vs Essendon game and the ump called a blocking free against a GC defender. I watched the replay and gnashed my teeth. The ump said the infringer took his eyes off the ball when he momentarily checked a bomber forward. I have seen this free given a dozen times since the 2018 Grand final and reading Rosebury's comment's on the non-free only makes me angrier.
Rather than say he got it wrong or he was 100% right in his decision, he simply says it would have been controversial either way and the AFL had no problem with it. What BS. The simple question is did Rioli infringe by the letter of the law of the new blocking rule? Of course, he did. His eyes were on the player not the ball. He placed both hands on Maynard's chest and pushed while both were two to three metres away from the fall of the ball. The fact that commentators called it at the time and Maynard reacted immediately by saying he was pushed out shows the response from both player and observers was immediate and not an afterthought.
The fact that so many far less obvious blocking frees have been given since then with not an eyebrow raised makes me want to puke.
I know many Pie fans preach about moving on and not focusing on the past but it is ridiculous when you consider how many contentious moments there have been in a number of our grand final losses. It doesn't have to be that way but it seems we are destined to have them. Even the prelim last year had the Darcy Moore push in the back incident in the last ten minutes.
Rather than say he got it wrong or he was 100% right in his decision, he simply says it would have been controversial either way and the AFL had no problem with it. What BS. The simple question is did Rioli infringe by the letter of the law of the new blocking rule? Of course, he did. His eyes were on the player not the ball. He placed both hands on Maynard's chest and pushed while both were two to three metres away from the fall of the ball. The fact that commentators called it at the time and Maynard reacted immediately by saying he was pushed out shows the response from both player and observers was immediate and not an afterthought.
The fact that so many far less obvious blocking frees have been given since then with not an eyebrow raised makes me want to puke.
I know many Pie fans preach about moving on and not focusing on the past but it is ridiculous when you consider how many contentious moments there have been in a number of our grand final losses. It doesn't have to be that way but it seems we are destined to have them. Even the prelim last year had the Darcy Moore push in the back incident in the last ten minutes.
