The AFL has acknowledged umpires, like players, need to adjust their movement and positioning in line with the flow of play.
On Fox Footy’s First Crack, two-time North Melbourne premiership player David King pointed to three instances over the last two weeks in which a field umpire was corridor-side of the play, rather than boundary-side.
In the final instance, a kick from the Sydney Swans resulted in a turnover after the intended recipient collided with an umpire.
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King called for a correction to be made.
“I’ve had a couple of clubs talk to me about this, so this is serious,” he said.
“Their positioning is wrong, they are standing in the spot where teams want to kick the 45 degree, 20-metre pass in to open up the corridor.
“Why are they there? Why aren’t they back 10 metres towards the corridor outside of that inner layer if you like, that first spot of receivers?”
AFL umpiring boss Dan Richardson told Fox Footy on Monday the league was broadly content with its umpires’ decision-making when it came to their positioning.
Umpires, he said, don’t intend to position themselves in an area that could compromise the flow of play, but that it is sometimes unavoidable given the speed at which the game moves.
“You can pick out any moment in the game with a still shot where maybe the umpire is in a spot where the team wants to move through. It can happen in any part of the ground,” Richardson told foxfooty.com.au.
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“Where we can, we obviously don’t want the umpires in the way, so to speak, but I would liken it to players. Sometimes players are in a wrong spot to get the ball.
“You can take a still shot, but obviously you’re aiming to try and get out of the way. Sometimes they might not be quite in the right spot and that’s a combination of the ump but also the ball moves quick and players move quick, so sometimes they’ll just get caught out.”
Richardson stressed any positioning issues were not related to having four field umpires in 2023 and that these instances also occurred infrequently with three field umpires.
Umpires have been encouraged where possible to officiate on the “outside of the play”, Richardson said, but that was not always possible given the risk of play being switched.
Richardson added the positioning of umpires is “a big part of what they’re coached on each week”, similar to players.
