What decision should the Commission make on Wednesday?

[Norris Lurker]

Wednesday's crunch day for the St Kilda v Freo game, when the Commission will look at the investigation and take statements from the clubs before deciding what the result of that game was.
What decision should they make?

[Matt79]

Although my heart says give Freo the 4 points, I think it could set a dangerous precedent for a result to be overturned by the AFL when the officials on the day agreed to a draw, whether rightly or wrongly.

If the result is over turned where does that leave future appeals? I suspect more clubs would appeal results for less clear reasons.

Go back to 1996, Dunkley's supreme court injuction enabling him to play in the grand final...let's say (and heck, being Dunkley) very unlikely, he kicked the winning goal after the grand final to win the game. Would Nth Melbourne appeal the decision to the AFL citing they would have won the premiership if Dunkley had not of played????

I know there are a lot of 'what ifs' but, personally even though Freo were dudded, the draw should stand and lessons should be gleened for every future game.

[ROK Lobster]

Both of Baker's points should count. Give it to the Saints. They deserve it.

Result will stand. Too much $ on the line.

[Destructive]

I say give Freo the match. It's not their fault the umpires did'nt hear the siren.

[Matt79]

Originally posted by ROK Lobster
Both of Baker's points should count. Give it to the Saints. They deserve it.

Result will stand. Too much $ on the line.

The only fair and logical solution to this mess seeing that we can't agree on who fairly won is to distribute the 4 points amongst every team...it is only fair.

Thus Sydney are now on 8.25 points.

[liz]

I think it comes down to whether any of the three umpires heard the siren. There is a suggestion that one did. If so, the game should be awarded to Freo.

If not, the result should stand, but the two umpires around that final contest should be suspended indefinitely for being so stupid and not checking given that all the Freo players were waving their arms around in the air.

[ROK Lobster]

Originally posted by liz
I think it comes down to whether any of the three umpires heard the siren. There is a suggestion that one did. If so, the game should be awarded to Freo.

But did that umpire call an end to the game. And if so, does it matter that he was not the controlling umpire at the time?

[Norris Lurker]

One of the umpires did appear to hear the siren. He wasn't the controlling umpire, but the rules say that any field umpire, by acknowledging he heard the siren, ends the quarter.
Of course he'll deny it now - judging by Adrian Anderson's performance in the press conference I'm sure Gieschen's got all the umps to close ranks behind the umpire under seige. Video footage of the umpires will be all-important.
I think the point should be disallowed and Freo awarded the match.

[NMWBloods]

Doesn't have to be a controlling umpire - just any field umpire.

Precedent is irrelevant.

[ROK Lobster]

Well if umpire Ears did hear the siren, and did call it off, why didn't he inform his dim-witted pals that he had done so before they bounced the ball?

There is no precedent. Anything that happened in 1900 is irrelevant. Different times, different competition.

[NMWBloods]

My point was that precedent is irrelevant to any future outcomes. The AFL should not leave it as because of any potential precedent.

[goswannie14]

Originally posted by Matt79
Although my heart says give Freo the 4 points, I think it could set a dangerous precedent for a result to be overturned by the AFL when the officials on the day agreed to a draw, whether rightly or wrongly.

If the result is over turned where does that leave future appeals? I suspect more clubs would appeal results for less clear reasons.

If you read the other threads you will see that there is already a precedent, and in that case St Kilda were the recipients of the win when it was overturned 6 days after the match finished.

there is a precedent for the result of a league game to be overturned on appeal.

It happened way back in 1900 when the result of a St Kilda-Melbourne game was changed from a draw to a one-point win for the Saints after the league ruled that a mark and resultant behind to Melbourne should not have been counted as the mark was wrongly paid after the final siren.

The game should be awarded to Freo.

[tantrum]

I think they should give the match to Freo, but that they won't.

[wheels27]

Interesting that on the day, general consensus seemed to be that a signal was received from a field umpire so the timekeeper switched off, then after a chance to conference, better to blame a faceless official than one seen week to week on TV, so Anderson says "the timekeeper has admitted to an error".

The way the AFL and umpires run investigations like this is shady at best, but if any footage shows ANY field umpire signal anything resembling time, the result should be overturned. The precedent cited was long, long before TV analysis, I can only assume that the umpires in those days were willing (and allowed) to admit they stuffed up and right an obvious wrong. By the sounds of reports, less obvious than this wrong.

[CureTheSane]

You know who is mor eto blame here?

The timekeeper.

Surely he should have been sounding the siren repeatedly after the first one didn't seem to end the game.