Veteran AFL umpire Ray Chamberlain doesn’t agree with suggestions for a captain’s call to be introduced.
Discussions swirled last week after the controversial finish to Carlton v Fremantle, where a mark was paid after a ball deflected off a player.
Chamberlain believes umpires should be left to make the big calls, with human errors simply being a part of sport.
“Here’s my view on these things – one of the things my old man was firm on, when you play golf, you don’t treat your clubs poorly, he would lose his mind if you disrespected the course or your clubs, and the other thing he said was once the umpire has made their call, shut your mouth. He was adamant,” Razor Ray told SEN’s Whateley.
“Now, if we extrapolate that to (a captain’s call), my view around all of these things is that that’s part of the thrust and parry of sport and been going on forever.
“And the nature of our game is such that we’re talking about a lot of subjective push-pull stuff. It’s not black and white.
“Then there are things like a ball being touched by an arm, does that have merit? Well, in terms of that being a correct implementation, that would be an example where we go ‘oh yeah, cool, right’.
“I don’t dismiss anything off-hand, but my gut feeling is just play the game. It goes for two hours. They’re the champions. They’re the people we all go to watch. They’re putting on the show. And umpires will make the calls – good, bad or indifferent – and in the end, there will be a result.
“Then we’ll dust ourselves off and go again. And that gets you to the start line for September. That’s part of sport.”
Chamberlain added that the AFL has advised umpires to ensure howlers don’t occur with the score review system, hence the increase to start the season.
“I think the AFL has been really clear and these things evolve as things move on. My take on it is, what we’re trying to avoid is a horrible mistake when we could have cleared that up,” Chamberlain added.
“Is the balance right at the moment? Apparently people are getting frustrated by too many reviews, these are all relevant questions.
“I’m absolutely certain that nobody in (at AFL House) is unaware of that. I’m sure they’re constantly reviewing what the fundamental premise is and what they’re trying to avert or avoid and keeping that at the heart of everything they do.”
