Geelong coach Chris Scott’s created a social media storm after an eyebrow raising monologue on Friday night.
Scott’s team had a rare loss at home to Port Adelaide and naturally there was plenty of drama in the final term.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Chris Scott’s in-depth rant on umpiring and AFL rules.
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With his side trailing by seven points in the dying stages, star forward Jeremy Cameron crashed through a pack in the goal square, landed on the ground with the ball in his lap, and kicked what would have been a freakish goal from point blank range.
But play was called back to the pocket because the umpire refused to pay the advantage after Port Adelaide’s Zak Butters was caught holding the ball by Ollie Henry.
Henry went back and had his shot at goal, but missed, leaving the Cats six points shy of the visitors.
After the game was asked about the holding-the-ball rule, a rule that regularly creates fierce debate among fans.
Coaches can get fined by the AFL for criticising umpires so Scott was delicate in his approach, yet lengthy.
“Just a couple of quick observations around a couple of rules,” Scott began.
“It’s always risky after you’ve lost a close game to do this, but I think it’s a head coach’s responsibility to defend the umpires whenever they can. And one of the best ways you can defend the umpires is, one, to point to how hard the game is umpire – and by world standards, you look at other games, it’s got to be the hardest.
“But then sometimes they just make bad decisions, like all of us, in the heat of the moment.
“The holding the ball one: at the moment, you’re getting a lot more time with the ball. And the biggest risk that I see, as opposed to some frustrations from the supporters and the coaches and the players, is that the players are really clear that they’ve got to be careful taking a player to ground in the tackle.
“At the moment, you can be spun 360 and still get time to get rid of the ball after having prior opportunity … Jake Kolodjashnij gave up a goal against Carlton two weeks ago where he’s holding onto a player – two years ago he would’ve taken him to ground but we’re telling him ‘don’t do that’ – the Carlton player just turns around and kicks a goal because Jake can’t take him down.
“So I would imagine that the umpires have been … like the rules are there. They don’t have to change the rules. It’s kind of like, that is a whistle and a ball-up straightaway or it’s holding the ball.
“Some people say, ‘Oh, there should be no prior opportunity at all’. That’s ridiculous in my opinion. We should protect the ball-player who’s trying to keep the game going and if he hasn’t had prior opportunity, he should get time to try to get rid of it. But if it’s clearly locked up, play a stoppage.
“Maybe there is this fear – and I think it is fear mongering – that if we have too many stoppages, the game doesn’t look as good. I just completely disagree with that – but I always have.
“And then the other one is the advantage rule. Every sport in the world that has an advantage rule, that I can think of, doesn’t blow the whistle when there’s a free kick because they want to see whether the advantage is there or not. In rugby, which is not as continuous a game as ours, sometimes the play goes on for a minute before the referee blows his whistle and then pays advantage. But we don’t have that rule. It’s one worth thinking about.
“The one tonight, the rule is if the play is continuous and the team chooses to take the advantage, then the umpire calls play-on.
“So if we go back to the first bit – there’s four of them out there who sometimes, I think, get in each other’s way a little bit, the game is so ballistic, there are so many players around the ball … maybe we should just go back to ‘this is a really, really hard game to umpire’, and you go in with your expectations that they’re going to make a hell of a lot of mistakes because there’s not much more they can do.
“I think over the years umpiring has improved and I think the young umpires coming through are contributing to a higher standard. Now whether you want four of them out there – because, again, in our game, choosing not to blow the whistle is a decision. The more you throw out there, it only takes one to blow the whistle and he overhauls the rest of them.
“So golden rule for a coach who has lost a game (is) do not talk about the umpires. I’ve spent about five minutes on it. But hopefully you understand where I’m coming from.
“I’m a big advocate of people in the game contributing to the conversation and I’m not saying on any of these issues that I’m right, but you specified the holding-the-ball one, from a coaching perspective, the hardest part – more than the frustration of ‘why isn’t that holding the ball?’ – is to say to players ‘don’t dump them’, but then they can just turn and turn and turn.
“I mean, there was a couple of 360s out there tonight where I mean it’s a whistle one way or the other.
“And again, I ask the question have we got three umpires looking at each other? Because they don’t want to overrule the other one.”
Scott was then asked his thoughts on the Cameron non-goal.
“No, but it was a goal – and that’s the point I’m trying to make.
“Again, this is a little bit of a risk … when there’s a controversial decision, the AFL come out and ,say, ‘Oh look, we made a mistake,’ or, ‘No, in fact, that was right’. It’s a bit offensive to the other 30 decisions that were also wrong that they refuse to tell us about.
“If you’re going to be really transparent about the controversial ones, roll it out so at least … spectators can go, ‘OK, they think that one was a mistake, alright, I won’t worry about that one’.
“But when they say, ‘No, that one was right’, then you’re confused and say, ‘OK I don’t understand the rules well enough, so I’ve got to school myself up’.
“At the moment … there’s transparency around players, isn’t there? The players don’t like their clanger kicks being sprawled across the newspapers – and I get it with umpires as well, I wouldn’t want it either. But if you want to provide transparency and clarity, I’m not sure that you should cherry-pick just the controversial one.”
Scott eventually signed off by saying: “That’s as expansive as I’ll ever be.”
However, there was a mixed reaction from fans with some noting that Scott and his twin brother Brad (Essendon’s coach) often get picky over the rules when their teams lose.
“He literally blames the umpires after every loss,” one fan blasted on X (formerly Twitter).
Another said: “Bloke loves complaining but gets to act as though he’s not, for the record the Cats won the free kick count 19-17 & had a great run from the umps in the 2nd half …”
Another added: “The only time Chris Scott comes out swinging is when he’s on the back foot, seen it for many years now, this reeks of panic stations. Just settle down fella, you’re 7-2.”
While another said: “Or just don’t let another team kick 8 goals in the first quarter of a game? Complaining about free kicks is the most boring argument around. Win the game by being good, regardless of a right or wrong decision.”
Another said: “He’s a disgrace. That clown always concerned and worried by umpires.”
But in fairness to Scott, many fans thought he made good sense.
“Fair points raised and worthy opinion… as a fan the holding the ball calls are woefully inconsistent and frustrating within games let alone across different games on a weekend,” one fan said.
And another: “Can’t believe I’m agreeing with him. The HTB rule is confusing. I thought it used to be if they spun 360 it’s either holding the ball or ball up. Now u can spin around 3 times and if you haven’t fallen it’s play on.”