Geelong coach Chris Scott says he isn’t convinced the AFL ‘Edge’ technology is up to scratch after one of his players was denied a goal on Thursday night.
Scott’s comments came after Western Bulldogs counterpart Luke Beveridge held his tongue about a few controversial decisions during his side’s 14-point loss to the Cats at GMHBA Stadium.
During the early stages of a thrilling last quarter, Geelong forward Ollie Dempsey was paid a mark in the forward pocket tucked up on the boundary line. Several Bulldogs players in the vicinity of the play were left stunned it wasn’t called out of bounds on the full, despite the boundary umpire being in the perfect position to make the call.
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Dempsey then calmly snapped the goal that gave the Cats some breathing space.
Earlier in the third term, a questionable downfield free kick was paid against Bulldogs ruck Tim English, which led to a Jeremy Cameron goal.
Asked how crucial some of the umpiring decisions were, Beveridge told reporters post-match: “The out of bounds on the full one? … Critical part of the game, lots of eyes on it.”
“But other than that, as I always say, swings and roundabouts. They happen.
“No one’s sitting in our rooms thinking about the free kick differential and no one’s talking about it. It just happens here and there.”
Scott was also asked post-match about whether Dempsey’s mark should’ve been paid, but the Cats coach said he “didn’t have a good view” of the play.
Instead, Scott pointed to an incident from the second quarter when Dempsey thought he’d soccered through a goal near the goalline, only for the ARC to overturn the goal umpire’s call due to a slight spark on ‘Edge’ to indicate the ball had glanced the post.
“I’d love to see the technology around the Edge with that shot of goal, because the goal umpire was 30cm away from that – and if he can’t hear that or see that, then something’s wrong. Like, the technology, please,” Scott said.
“I’m not commenting on the boundary line technology – and I literally haven’t seen that one – but I’m prepared to say that the Edge technology, show us that it works. Because they’re saying it works off sound, the goal umpire is 30cm away from it. If he doesn’t think that it hit the post, I back him over the technology any day.
“I might have a bit of inside information that it doesn’t work that well.”
Scott said he was pleased with his team’s pressure and ability to thwart the Bulldogs’ handball game, but added the ‘shootout’ nature of the game didn’t sit well with him.
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“I don’t think either team would have been going in thinking that the high scoring game was what they were after, necessarily. But it just became clear that you weren’t going to be able to keep the other team to a really low score in the second half,” Scott said.
“So I suspect, I shouldn’t speak for them, but at least our thinking was we needed to stay proactive and keep looking to score, rather than shut the game down. Because my guess is that if you try to do that for too long against them, they’ll just find a way.
“My feeling was it was a pretty high-quality game, two pretty good teams and would have been a good game to watch. And as I’ve said a few times, those good games to watch are horrendous days in the coaches box.”
While Beveridge lauded his side’s perseverance to stay in the game, he lamented the “missed opportunities” and “uncharacteristic” poor turnovers that “set up” the Cats’ momentum.
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“So with the progress that we’re making, these close games … we know we need to be coming over the top and winning these ones, especially when the momentum is in our favour,” Beveridge said.
“It just seemed like whether it was a turnover or we’d given away a free kick, or just at those times when we were coming, just sapped a bit of energy here and there. We weren’t far away.
“It did happen in Darwin against the Gold Coast too, so it’s something we’ve got to sort out. Transitioning from deep in our defence, we’ve got players who really can run and use the footy and every now and then you get a surprise (error) or two – and we just had too many early in this game.”
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