Whateley not a fan of captain’s call review

NIC NEGREPONTIS

Gerard Whateley has dismissed the idea of the AFL introducing a captain’s challenge during general play after calls for it to be considered over the weekend.

St Kilda great Leigh Montagna suggested it should be considered in order to correct game altering plays.

It comes after Carlton’s Matt Cottrell took a mark from a ball that was clearly touched by Fremantle’s James Aish.

Cottrell kicked the goal to put the Blues in front. A moment that was then compounded by Jordan Clark abusing the umpire, leading to a second goal.

Whateley however believes giving players the ability to review general play decisions would backfire spectacularly, especially given the existing struggles of the score review system.

“We’ve raced past logic and reason in this instance. There’s a world of difference between a captain’s challenge in a score review system and a captain’s challenge for an umpiring decision in regular play,” Whateley said.

“We seem to have conflated the two. The game would be utterly unworkable if we randomly allowed a challenge for a high contact tackle on the wing and then polled four umpires in the ARC what the right decision should have been.

“As opposed to a captain’s challenge for a ball that might or might not have hit the post.

“Gillon McLachlan first raised the idea of the captain’s challenge after the 2019 Preliminary Final which went completely haywire with the technology in that game between Collingwood and GWS.

“We haven’t put any layers of protection into the score review system. Racing to captains’ challenges on regular play? We’ve raced past logic and reason there.

“Take Adelaide last year. They missed a free kick in the final frantic moments of that Collingwood game at the MCG when Jordan Dawson was hit high.

“That’s entirely different to the score review that was missed of Ben Keays for the ball that didn’t hit the post.

“We want a better outcome on Saturday because the result just didn’t seem right.”

“I’m there too, of course it would have been better if the field umpire had seen the ball deflect off James Aish’s shoulder, but we shouldn’t delude ourselves.

“The definitive vision wasn’t shown until Sunday. The vision instantly available revolved around whether the ball brushed Aish’s hair. Could it really have been ruled touched on that? That’s not really the question anyway.

“There’s world of difference between a captain’s challenge for the score review system and an umpiring decision in actual play and the latter is an impossibility within Aussie Rules.

“A lot of it can’t be solved. It’s a quirk of the sport.”