Richmond coach Damien Hardwick has revealed the AFL is set to take the club through the controversial video system review call that cost the Tigers in their elimination final loss to Brisbane amid speculation there was undisclosed vision used.
Tom Lynch had a chance to seal the win for Richmond with a shot in the dying minutes that sailed over the goalpost and was initially called a goal before getting overturned despite the video replay appearing to show inconclusive evidence — a decision eventually ticked off by the league.
Hardwick slammed the ARC following the game, saying the technology “wasn’t good enough,” and if it couldn’t be improved, called for the score review be scrapped altogether.
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Speaking on Fox Footy’s AFL 360, the Tigers boss confirmed the club is investigating whether there’s another camera angle the ARC used, and that if so, thinks fans are entitled to see it.
“We thought we owed it upon ourselves, fans and players to go through the process. (AFL footy operations boss) Brad (Scott) and the AFL have offered to step us through the process at some stage,” Hardwick said.
“I thought there was a precedent set that if there wasn’t adequate vision to assess the situation, it went back to the umpire’s call. That was the thing that alarmed me at that stage.”
Hardwick says his definition of definitive decision is “bet on your kids’ lives it’s a goal or a point”.
“People talk about Tom’s reaction — Tom was blinded by the lights … there’s not enough vision to make definitive decision that’s right. We’ve either got to get the technology to the level it needs to be, or we let the man under the under the post make the decision,” he said.
“It cost people jobs, it cost our club millions of millions of dollars … if we were good enough we should’ve won anyway, but imagine if a grand final was defined by that moment right there.”
AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley highlighted there’s now an “extreme example” of the effectiveness of the score review given it’s “defined” a team’s season.
Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin also weighed in on the matter, saying he was “shocked” by how the events played out on Thursday night.
And he backed Hardwick’s call to either improve the technology or remove the score review completely.
“We’ve all sat through these enough to know when it gets to a decision if it’s not definitive, it goes back to umpire’s call,” he said.
“We’ve got to get the technology to a standard where we’re not in this situation, or we stick to process, or we get rid of it altogether, that’s where we’re at with it.”
Channel 9’s Footy Classified host Craig Hutchison revealed the AFL had extra vision of Lynch’s shot that hasn’t be shown, calling for the league to “show us everything you see.”
Veteran journalist Caroline Wilson says she was also told there’s undisclosed vision and that it indicates it was a point, but believes Richmond supporters deserve an explanation on how it reached the outcome.
Wilson also hit out at the league for how it handled the matter, and believes there’ll be changes made to the process in future as the league also explores introducing extra field umpires.
“All the AFL could say to me when I’ve spoken to them is that it was a point and that he should’ve kicked it better,” she said.
“No one has explained how they overruled the goal umpire … my understanding is probably there’ll be no onus on the goal umpire in future to make a call. The umpire will just say, ‘I don’t know what it was, we’re having a review.’
“(The league is adding) Four field umpires, they’re working towards six at some point and no boundary umpires — I think it’s going to be a different world.
“I thought there was a smugness about the AFL. They had a brilliant weekend, but that was messy and any excuse to have a crack at Damien Hardwick … any excuse to pick on Richmond.
“You just feel it dates back before the hub, but they didn’t like Richmond’s behaviour in 2020, and they’re still banging on about it.”
