Goodwin wants healthier umpire discussion

Oliver Caffrey | May 25, 2022

Negative commentary surrounding the AFL’s umpires has disappointed Melbourne premiership coach Simon Goodwin.

The league’s umpiring is again under a spotlight after a series of controversial incidents over last weekend raised the ire of fans.

There were 63 free kicks paid in Hawthorn’s upset win over Brisbane on Sunday – the most in a game since 2012 – amid several contentious calls.

Controversial incidents also occurred during Carlton’s win against Sydney on Friday night, Melbourne’s comfortable victory over North Melbourne and the Dreamtime blockbuster between Richmond and Essendon.

But Goodwin would like to see the conversations shift to how to retain and recruit good umpires and the former Adelaide champion is backing the AFL to get it right.

The dissent rule was brought in this season as a way to encourage greater respect from umpires at the elite level down to grassroots football.

“I think one of the key things that we wanted as an industry was we recognised that there is a shortage of umpires,” Goodwin said on Wednesday.

“The players really embraced in respecting umpires and changing the way that we go about that so we can continue to get young people into umpiring and increase the quality of the umpiring. 

“I’m a bit disappointed this week that we get to a situation where everyone’s now in a position where we’re going to be quite negative towards the umpires.

“I think we have to be quite careful as an industry that we don’t go down that path and we continue to respect and want our young people to get into umpiring.

“We all play a role whether that’s players, coaches, administrators, media, we all play a role in making sure our industry thrives and umpiring is one of those.”