A miffed North Melbourne coach Alastair Clarkson has urged umpires to be more vigilant about “getting milked” for free kicks after a pair of dubious off-the-ball incidents involving serial Western Bulldogs pest Cody Weightman led to goals for the Dogs at Marvel Stadium on Saturday.
The first one occurred seconds before quarter-time when North trailed by only three points. Kangaroos youngster Jackson Archer was penalised way off the ball for supposedly catching Weightman too high, but TV replays showed Archer barely grazed the Bulldog’s ponytail.
Weightman accepted the free kick 25m out directly in front and made no mistake.
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And just before three-quarter time, Weightman was in the thick of the action again. After teammate Adam Treloar took a mark 50m out on the boundary line, North defender Aidan Corr pushed Weightman with minimal force, but the umpire got sucked in after the Bulldogs forward played up the contact.
The end result was Treloar being paid a 50m penalty, which turned an incredibly difficult shot on goal into a certainty.
In a game that only produced 20 goals, and was decided by just 17 points, Clarkson described the incidents as “quite costly”.
“It is frustrating, but the umps are making decisions on what they think they see and so you’ve just got to abide by what transpires on the ground,” Clarkson said post-match.
“But it’s a close contest and goals are at a premium, they become quite costly.
“So we need to work out with our own players either is the contact unnecessary? There’s contact that happens between players all the time and what the umps need to be really, really mindful of is just how much their free kicks are getting milked when they are so costly when they’re in that part of the ground.”
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The loss capped off an unfortunate 48-hour period for the Kangaroos who lost young gun George Wardlaw to concussion at training on Thursday, and given the timing of his entry into protocols, the midfielder has been forced to sit out at least two games, rather than the usual one.
“I think he’s OK. It’s just so unfortunate,” Clarkson said.
“To get better in footy, it’s a combative game that we play, and every time players run out for a training session they’re at some sort of risk given they need to prepare well for the game.
“We initially thought he just hurt his shoulder but he just complained of a bit of daziness [sic] from the contact.”
Zac Fisher had to be subbed out with a lower leg injury after an industrious showing that saw him rack up 22 touches from just 43 per cent game time, but Clarkson was optimistic it was at the “minor” end of the scale.
— NCA NewsWire