sport news Umpire dissent rears its head in Dogs' win over Pies as Jordan De Goey cops ... trends now
AFL fans and pundits have slammed the decision by umpires to give Collingwood star Jordan De Goey a 50-metre penalty for dissent on Friday night, despite the star's attempts to stifle his frustration.
With the game on the line and the Pies trying to mount a comeback, De Goey drew a whistle for a push in the back that looked like a legitimate tackle.
De Goey reactively threw his hands out in frustration, but then quickly drew them back in as he consciously realised that action is now classed as dissent.
Despite reeling his appeal in, De Goey still copped a 50-metre penalty that was hugely influential in the context of the match.
Both De Goey and Bulldogs player Buku Khamis conceded controversial 50-metre penalties in the match and Matthew Richardson was scathing in commentary.
'Come off it. That's not 50 metres,' he said in commentary for Seven.
'You have to pay them all then. It's just ridiculous.
'I feel for them at times. This is an emotional game. They are not robots.'
De Goey was left confused and frustated by the series of calls against him. It could easily have gone the other way, with the tackle leading to a Collingwood free kick instead
Speaking on Fox Sports, former champion full-forward Jason Dunstall said there should be leniency with incidents like De Goey, where he realised he had reacted in violation of the rules and tried to quickly put his arms back down.
'I thought De Goey in particular was a little bit stiff because he was about to go off and then literally harnessed himself back in and then actually stopped but you could see initially he was about to throw the arms up,' Dunstall said.
'If you are going to make that much of an effort to pull yourself back, I think you're entitled to get a little bit of latitude.
'This is where it is really, really difficult.'
St Kilda great Leigh Montagna agreed and questioned why there were two 50-metre calls made on Friday night after a long stretch of none being issued at all.
'That's what we want to see from players – restraint – and he did
