Umpire doesn’t expect players to stop the flop

VETERAN AFL umpire Ray Chamberlain doesn’t expect players to stop staging for free kicks.

Flopping was on the agenda recently with umpires being conned by players on multiple occasions – with Cody Weightman, Max King in particular drawing decisions that resulted in goals.

Having been duped by players on occasion throughout his career that were playing for free kicks, Chamberlain said umpires always feel regret on review knowing they’ve been conned into blowing the whistle.

“You feel silly, if you reflect and watch your game back and on reflection you go, ‘Oh wow, I needed to stay out of that’, that’s horrible,” Chamberlain said on SEN Whateley.

“When players play for a free kick, whether it’s in the example of Weightman … it doesn’t make our job easier, but that’s not their responsibility.

“If you make a blue with one of those, you feel like a bit of a dill.”

While Chamberlain would love it if all players competed in an honest fashion, he doesn’t expect that to happen completely in his lifetime as footballers try and find any edges they can on-field.

“I think that in terms of the players playing for things, I think there’s a significant amount of it, in different ways too,” Chamberlain said.

“We are challenged in this space with every club and a multitude of players. This isn’t a one-person or one-club thing, it comes in different shapes and sizes.

“They [players] are aspirational, they are competing to win. They are going to try and find whatever edge they can, and our job is to be better at what we can do.

“I would love it if players ripped in and played their guts out and we got to make an honest assessment. That would make it easier. But it won’t happen in my lifetime.”

While the AFL has the ability to fine players for staging, Kane Cornes called for a new rule to be introduced where umpires could pay a free kick against for trying to draw a whistle.

Chamberlain though disagreed with that suggestion as he believes the best route for umpires is simply not rewarding free kicks when they notice flopping.

“On the basis of what was suggested or tabled from Kane… I think that from a consistency of application, [a] decision on the field is asking for trouble,” Chamberlain said.

“I think what we [need to say] is ‘You are not being rewarded for that, please stand up and take your kick’. I think that is where the water level sits best.”

While Chamberlain conceded the decision to award Weightman a high free kick against Ben Long was wrong, he put that call down to a simple mistake that umpires make every week.

“It is an error. I make several of them every week and have done for 20 years. It is not an exact science, this game. It is grey, it is fast moving and it is 360 degrees,” Chamberlain said.

“We make blues. Our job is to not keep making the same ones, to make less of them and to work hard at getting better.”

Chamberlain has officiated in 369 AFL games since making his first appearance at the level in 2004.

– LACHLAN GELEIT/ SEN