The AFL is backing in its crackdown on umpire abuse and believes there are more free kicks for dissent that were missed during the Easter weekend.
The state of umpiring has become the hot topic from round five as players and fans were often confused by interpretations.
Free kicks and 50-metre penalties are now paid for the slightest hint of demonstrative behaviour shown towards umpires, including players throwing their arms up in frustration.
But the AFL’s football operations manager Brad Scott said it was vital the league showed leadership on umpire abuse for all levels of football.
The AFL estimates it is 6000 umpires short at community level.
Six controversial free kicks and 50-metre penalties for abuse during round-five have been ticked off by the AFL.
Dissent incidents involving Carlton’s George Hewett, Gold Coast’s Jy Farrar and St Kilda’s Jack Higgins were deemed worthy of free-kicks but were missed by the umpires.
“We did have some inconsistency on the weekend, we got some wrong and we got some right,” Scott said.
“There were a total of 389 free kicks paid over last week’s round and we had six free kicks paid for umpire dissent and six clearly missed for dissent.
“We have unanimous support from all the club, and the leaders at clubs; in fact they want us to pay these free kicks.
“Our umpires missed some, we acknowledge that, and we’ll work on that.
“Our message to players is that when an umpire pays a free kick, accept it and move on and our message to umpires is we encourage you to continue to pay free kicks or 50-metre penalties where players have shown dissent.
“We will stay the course on this and acknowledge there have been instances across this season where we have missed free kicks for dissent.
“We commend players overall for the shift in behaviour this season and we are already seeing that reflected at the community level.”
Scott admits there is bound to be inconsistency in the adjudication of dissent decisions depending on who the official is.
“There may be some umpires who have a thicker skin than others and decide ‘I’m okay with that’ but it’s not up to the umpires to make the rules, it’s up to the umpires to adjudicate the rules,” he said.
“I think anyone who goes to a community football game of football and sees 12, 13, 14-year-old boys and girls umpiring and copping abuse on the field from players and supporters alike is not acceptable.”
Brisbane Lions forward Lincoln McCarthy admitted it was taking players time to adjust to the crackdown.
“It is not lost on us that the elite level has a unique leadership role in the community, and with that role comes responsibility,” McCarthy said on Tuesday.
“Takes a while to break out of habits.
“We’ve just got to keep reminding each other and keep self-reflecting on how we’re behaving out there.”
Former leading AFL umpire Darren Goldspink believes the league’s crackdown on disrespect shown to officials is not having the desired affect.
“To me it seems like it’s having exactly the opposite effect at the moment,” Goldspink told SEN.
“It’s just putting more pressure on umpires.
“Abuse is an individual thing … it’s a very grey area, and we need to make it black and white, but having said that, I don’t think what they’re trying to do within the AFL is helping at the grassroots level.”
