'Embarrassment to our game': Fury over AFL moment everybody missed
As the controversy surrounding free kicks continues to rumble on in the AFL, a new incident has sparked more anger.
As it turns out, it wasn’t just James Sicily who was pinged in controversial fashion on the weekend.
Port Adelaide ruckman Scott Lycett also gave away a free kick when he appeared to lightly bump his opponent in the back on Saturday.
The innocuous moment – which was largely missed at the time – was highlighted on AFL360 on Monday night, and left footy writer Mark Robinson fuming.
“That’s not a free kick … we’ve lost our way in the first two weeks of this season,” Robinson said.
“When I was watching (the Sicily incident), I was thinking the umpire and the AFL must have got another camera angle to tick it off.
“We can’t deal with zero tolerance because it’s as if the AFL said ‘Roosy (Paul Roos), Garry Lyon and all you people complaining last week — there you go, we’re going to pull everything up’. That’s what it feels like for me, it’s out of spite. Now I don’t think that, but that’s how I felt.
“That James Sicily thing is destructive to our game. The Scott Lycett incident is an embarrassment to our game.
“What Liam Jones did to Jack Riewoldt in Round 2 deserved a free kick … the punch by Ben Cunnington, in my opinion, deserved a report and a suspension … and now we’ve gone from there to this week.
“I think Steve Hocking is a man who wants to look after the game, there’s no doubt that. I think he’s pulled the wrong rein with this — absolutely positive.”
Coaches call for clarity
Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley and North Melbourne counterpart Brad Scott have both called for clarity from the AFL around what prohibited contact means.
“We’re a little confused, I think we’re a little lost,” Hinkley told AFL360.
“Maybe we had a fair bit to do with the adjustments, (with) the Scott Lycett, Paddy Ryder on Max Gawn scenario.
“It’s just a little bit too far.
“If you look at a couple of incidents from the weekend, you would ask more questions about what’s being paid and what shouldn’t be paid.”
The AFL umpiring department is understood to have backed the free paid against Sicily.
But Hinkley said he thought the Lycett free was for an incident elsewhere on the ground, not for anything the ruckman did.
“Scotty didn’t really do too much wrong,” Hinkley said.
“That’s not the game I’d like to watch and certainly not the game the players would like to play.”
Scott, a member of the AFL competition committee, expects more clarity from the league this week on the prohibited contact issue.
He expects the issue to settle down after this weekend.
“The message is the key and clarity is required,” Scott said.
“Any football-loving person would look at those (two incidents) and think ‘they’re not free kicks – that’s not AFL footy the way it should be played’.”
with AAP
