The AFL is reportedly set to change the goal-review system again.
Reports have indicated that there have been over 100 score reviews so far this year, becoming a sticking point for fans, players and even commentators, saying the stop in-game and subsequent halt in momentum is an issue.
However,ย SEN's Dwayne Russell believes that goal umpires are going to be instructed differently when it comes to contentious calls, suggesting they will signal a goal if they believe it so before AFL Review Centre (ARC) inspects the call.
โIf the soft call of the goal umpire is a goal, my understanding is we might be going back to the old system where it gets checked on the way back to the middle, the umpire just calls goal because that's he suspects it is and he knows it's going to get checked on the way back to the middle anyway,โ Russell said on SEN.
โThat's a better system than the goal umpire saying, โHang on, hang on, I think it's a goal, but can we just check it before it goes back to the middle?'.โ
The revised instruction will allow for a full celebration when a goal is kicked, giving players and supporters the ability to salute the six points.
The change has reportedly come about due to the addition of Steve McBurney - former AFL umpire - as Head of Umpiring earlier this month.
McBurney is responsible for the umpire development pathways across the men and women's competition, all the way down to the under-18 programs, while also leading the umpire's department and managing the ARC.
