Shane McInerney heralded in his 400th game on Saturday with a panel of significant experience. Between the nine officiating umpires there was a total of 1873 games of AFL football including 131 finals and 19 grand finals. Boundary umpire Drew Kowalski was the least experienced with 82 games under his belt.
Chris Morrison who was celebrating his 200th AFL appearance in the same game unfortunately tore his calf during the 3rd quarter but was never coming off in his milestone game. Supported by his team mates he got through the game but his year has ended prematurely.
Field umpire Scott Jeffery didn’t make it to the starting line on Sunday when he failed a fitness test on Friday and could not take his place in the team for the Western Bulldogs v Sydney game. Jordan Bannister replaced Scott. It is now touch and go as to whether he will be fit enough to take his place in round 23 and secure a finals berth the week after.
While on the injury front, Robert Taylor had to pull out of the GWS v Collingwood game and Andrew Stephens injured his “good” calf during the Lions v Fremantle clash at the Gabba and sat in an end zone while, Stuart Wenn and Sam Hay shouldered the load to finish the game.
Channel 7 copped its right whack from the AFL for not showing the conclusive vision of a score review in the Hawthorn v Geelong game when a Sam Mitchell shot for goal was clearly touched before going over the line. Umpires are burdened by having to wear communication devices, cameras on their hats and all sorts of other inventions to improve the channels ratings and they abuse the privilege by creating controversy at the expense of the credibility of the officials who support their coverage.
The Queensland panel were devastated to hear the very sad news that their fitness coach of the past few years Warren Vines tragically passed away late last week. Our thoughts are with his family at this sad time.