FORMER AFL stars Kane Cornes and Matthew Lloyd were scathing in response to contentious missed umpiring decisions from round four.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s Geelong v Brisbane game was marred by separate incidents late in the game where obvious push in the back free kicks weren’t paid, ultimately leading to Cats goals in their tight 80-70 win.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Nine\u2019s Sunday Footy Show<\/em>, Cornes commented on the lack of understanding of push in the back rule and how it\u2019s being umpired this year.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an awful position for the AFL to be in when after round four we don\u2019t know what a push in the back is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe umpire explained it and he explained it wrong.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you expect the AFL to come out and go \u2018look, those two ones there we got wrong, and this is how we\u2019re going to adjudicate it going forward\u2019?<\/p>\n \u201cThe fans, media and players are confused.\u201d<\/p>\n The Power legend thinks it leaves the AFL in a problematic situation in how they proceed to judge the rule going forward after Tom Hawkins and Harris Andrews both appeared to push their opponent in the back without being penalised in separate incidents in the last quarter of Friday’s clash.<\/p>\n \u201cThe issue now is there\u2019ll be an over-correction, so in round five we\u2019re going to see probably six or seven paid this week that wouldn\u2019t have been paid previously,\u201d Cornes said.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a simple push in the back decision, we\u2019re all confused.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an issue the AFL have to sort out this week.\u201d<\/p>\n Five-time All-Australian Lloyd believes the over-complication of the ruling has caused unnecessary confusion and needs to be looked at.<\/p>\n \u201cThe problem is they\u2019re never paying them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe rule used to be the hands in the back, it\u2019s a free, just to make it easy for umpires. They\u2019ve taken that away.<\/p>\n \u201cNow the players get away with murder. It\u2019s rare that they\u2019re ever paid.\u201d<\/p>\n All eyes will be on how the push in the back rule will be umpired for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n