Leigh Montagna urges AFL to introduce captain’s challenge, challenge wrong umpire decisions, James Aish touched George Hewett kick, Carlton Blues def Fremantle Dockers controversy, comments, reaction, First Crack, latest news

St Kilda great Leigh Montagna has urged the AFL to ponder introducing the ability for players to challenge umpiring decisions in order to avoid incorrect game-altering calls.

Montagna discussed similar mechanisms in other sporting codes worldwide where implementations have been made in recent years to ensure correct outcomes eventuate.

The topical issue arose after Carlton benefitted from a deflected George Hewett kick that resulted in a set shot opportunity and subsequent goal for Matthew Cottrell.

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While the ensuing free kick against Jordan Clark for umpire dissent was ticked off by league powerbrokers, it was the initial Hewett miss by the umpires that drew Fremantle’s ire, as Carlton proceeded to secure the four points and remain undefeated in 2024.

The AFL has since conceded fault for the late-fourth-quarter incident, but it hasn’t stopped a Fox Footy analyst from surfacing a resolution.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s First Crack on Sunday night, Montagna asked why the AFL hasn’t introduced a policy where clubs can intervene in live time.

“My first crack, we’re going to go with the controversy of the weekend,” the Saints great began.

“Of course, that was the Fremantle-Carlton finish, and the (Hewett kick) that was touched that wasn’t paid by the umpire.

“It made me think again — and I went with this three years ago — about why are we not seriously considering, as an industry, having some form of mechanism to challenge an umpiring decision?”

Montagna revisited Saturday afternoon’s controversy before lamenting the AFL’s lack of a system in comparison to innovative codes around the globe.

“Before everyone sitting at home gets up in arms — you can see the clear deflection (off James Aish’s arm) and that’s why all the players knew. It wasn’t just brushing his hand, that was a pretty big deflection,” Montagna said on Sunday.

“Why don’t we seriously consider some form of mechanism to review an umpiring decision, when nearly every other major sport around the world has that form. Think about rugby union, rugby league, cricket, soccer, basketball, the NFL (National Football League) — they all have a mechanism where they can review a decision from the umpire or the referee and challenge it.

“Yet, we’re very quick to just dismiss it in the AFL and say: ‘we can’t have that here’.

“We’ve just got to wait for the letter on Monday for the AFL to say ‘sorry, we got it wrong’, and I think it’s time we seriously have a chat (about it).

“We’ve got the technology to look at most of these incidents, we’ve got the opportunity to be able to do it, and I think we seriously need to have a conversation. If we want to have a conversation about whether we need a red card in football, why are we being left behind and having games decided by (incorrect umpiring decisions)?”

Dual premiership player David King asked Montagna what such a “mechanism” should look like.

“There’s got to be a lot of thought into it, but you can easily (do it),” Montagna replied.

“It has to be off a (whistle), so it has to be a free kick or a mark — you can’t, I don’t think in our game, challenge a non-call, because the game will continue to play on.

“If the umpire lets it play on, you can’t say ‘I think I was taken high’, because the game continues to flow. But if a free kick or a mark is paid, and you don’t believe it’s correct (you should be able to challenge it).

“And maybe you just do it, to start off with, in fourth quarters. Or, we have it in the 20-minute mark of a game, to be able to get these decisions right, because I know people are going to say ‘we don’t want more reviews’, and these sorts of things.

“Well, we’re already prepared to wait for one minute while the umpire goes to the score review for whether a point is scored, or whether it trickles out of bounds in the first 15 minutes of the game. The boundary umpires are allowed to have a conference with the field umpire for 30 seconds (about) whose shin it came off when it went out on the full.

“So, we do that anyway, yet the most critical element of the game — the umpire’s decision — particularly (one) that can decide the outcome, there’s no mechanism to review the decision.

“I just think we need to seriously have a discussion about it, raise it, and see if we can get to it. At some point we will, like every other sport, we should be able to do it.”

Fox Footy’s Ben Dixon concurred with Montagna’s sentiment, lamenting the amount of separate review which took place throughout Gather Round.

“And I love the fact that you brought it up, because I think, on the weekend, we would have had a record (number) of reviews throughout games,” he said.

To limit the total number of reviews that take place in a match, Montagna stated he’d only allow one review per team, at least to start with.

“I’d only have one review, just one review, that’s it,” he responded to Dixon.

“Why do the goal umpires get to have 15 review per game, but we can’t have the captains or the players on the field have one review for a critical decision?”

Concluded Dixon: “That’s what I mean, if we’re prepared to do so many reviews (of everything else) and then you have one captain’s call, whether it’s an out-of-bounds, you get one — I love the idea.”