West Coast Eagles chief executive Don Pyke calls for AFL to clarify how score review system works

West Coast chief executive Don Pyke has called on the AFL to provide clarification on how the score review system works after a hugely-controversial call-back in their massive loss to St Kilda. In the second quarter of the Eagles’ eventual 101-point humbling on Sunday, Saints ruckman Rowan Marshall claimed to have hauled in a mark just before the ball had crossed the goal line, but the goal umpire paid a behind and did not call for a review. After play rolled on for nearly a minute, the AFL Review Centre determined Marshall had in fact taken the mark — despite replays suggesting he was not in full control of the ball before it had gone over the line — and told the umpires to return the ball to Marshall, who duly snapped a goal. Pyke was eager to emphasise the decision did not have any bearing on the result, but said how the scenario played out made little sense. “I don’t know if I’ll seek clarification. I think the industry needs clarification, to be honest,” Pyke told SEN. “I was surprised that it came back, because you go through the scenarios — what if we’d taken it down the other end and kicked a goal? Does it (make) that goal null and void? “How do we keep the game flowing, allow the umpires to do their job, and accept the game’s a very dynamic game, but it’s always had some controversy around umpiring decisions? “Are we trying to remove all that? Because if we are, we expose ourselves to either slowing the game down or stuff like yesterday, where everyone’s like ‘what’s going on here, we’re rewinding the clock 60 seconds’ for something that has now proven to be an error. “What’s the statute of limitations on bringing the ball back? Because the game had gone on — I think we were just about to get a free kick down inside our 50, and all of a sudden, we’re back on the goal line.” After the game, Eagles coach Andrew McQualter said he “didn’t have a clue what was going on” during the incident. “I think if they’re going to do it, it’s got to be clear cut. They’ve got to get it right. If it’s touch and go, I would think you’re not changing the game or the flow of a game to make a decision like that,” McQualter said. AFL legend Matthew Lloyd led a chorus of criticism of the decision on Monday, saying it was “the most bizarre moment I’ve seen, from an ARC perspective”. “It wasn’t the wrong decision, she was confident, she was clear. To bring it back after all that time when we still think it’s the wrong decision, it’s one of the dumbest things I’ve seen in football,” Lloyd told the AFL website. “It was critical. They were only 15 points down there. They wouldn’t have won the game, they were belted in the end, but it kills momentum and it’s a very, very poor decision.” The ARC also came under fire in the final game of the round between Greater Western Sydney and North Melbourne, with Giant Xavier O’Halloran paid a late goal in an eventual seven-point win to despite a score review appearing to clearly show Kangaroos defender Griffin Logue had touched his kick. When asked for his view on the incident, four-time premiership coach Alastair Clarkson called for the review system to be scrapped and “we just leave it up to the umpires to adjudicate”. “There’s mistakes by players, there’s mistakes by umpires, the ball goes through whether it’s touched by a fingernail or not, who cares really? Whether it snicks the post or not, who cares really? Just make the call,” Clarkson said. “Swings and roundabouts — you’re going to win some and you’re going to lose some. There seems to be just as much conjecture now as what there always was.” Commentator David King said the AFL’s football boss Greg Swann urgently needed to deal with “a lot of holes in the portfolio at the moment.” “He’s had his time to get his feet under the desk. He’s got all sorts of issues with the goal-line review,” King told SEN. “That’s without going into the tribunal matters and the appeals board.”