By ROGER VAUGHAN FOR AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS and ANNA HARRINGTON FOR AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS and DAILY MAIL
Football legend Matthew Lloyd has urged the AFL to take action over Hawthorn players’ behaviour after new footage emerged of the explosive moments after a controversial umpiring decision ended the Hawks’ season.
For a second-straight year, the Hawks suffered the pain of preliminary final defeat, losing 20.11 (131) to 19.8 (122) to the Brisbane Lions at the MCG on Saturday night.
The game slipped from Hawthorn’s grasp when a holding-the-ball decision against defender Jarman Impey gave Lions star Hugh McCluggage a free kick to score the match-deciding goal with 18 seconds left.
A Fox Sports commentator described the umpire’s decision as ‘the biggest call you have ever seen’.
The decision triggered furious boos from tens of thousands of Hawks fans packed into the MCG, with bottles thrown at the umpires as they left the field.
Now video captured by a fan has shown Hawthorn star Tom Barrass running 50m to remonstrate with the umpire who made the call, Hayden Meyer.
video captured by a fan has shown Hawthorn star Tom Barrass running 50m to remonstrate with the umpire who made the call, Hayden Meyer
Barrass is seen confronting the umpire as his teammate James Sicily appears to give him a spray
Former Essendon star Lloyd suggested the AFL should sanction Barrass and his teammate James Sicily, who was seen appearing to give the umpire a spray.
‘This is something I’d expect to watch in soccer,’ Lloyd said on The Sunday Footy Show.
‘They get in the face of referees and it’s aggressive, like (Sicily and Barrass) were.
‘So I think they should both be potentially sanctioned; or we want a please explain for those two players and how they handled it.’
Lloyd said there was ‘no doubt’ the players overreacted.
‘It’s aggressive,’ he said.
Hawthorn great Luke Hodge slammed the wild behaviour of fans, after umpires were forced to dodge bottles and cans thrown from the stands as they left the field.
‘The umpires are walking off, they should not have things thrown at them. A bottle has come down from the top tier,’ he said.
Footy fans were quick to agree on social media, with one user writing: ‘Disgraceful. Should be life bans dished out.’
Furious Hawthorn fans targeted umpires over a controversial decision in the final minute of the Hawks’ preliminary final against the Brisbane Lions
Another said: ‘That’s not the way, boys. Not our night but shouldn’t be doing that.’
A third added: ‘Embarrassing behaviour, no, disgraceful. The AFL needs to come down hard on this type of behaviour.’
Coach Sam Mitchell impressively kept his emotions in check throughout a fraught post-game media conference, where he spoke of mourning.
‘This feeling is the pits,’ Mitchell said.
Mitchell said he did not know about Sicily and Barrass going to the umpires, but he was aware of the bottles being thrown onto the ground.
‘At the end of the game, part of me wanted to break down in tears, part of me wanted to scream with rage, part of me wanted to throw chairs, you don’t know how to react,’ he said.
‘So when you’re in the stand, you need to continue to be feeling that emotion, because that’s why we love it, but how it manifests itself – we shouldn’t be throwing things on the field and doing those types of things.
‘But the passion in the stand and the passion of the game is why we love it so much. So I hope that for the vast majority it was felt responsibly.’
Mitchell spoke of grief and added it was too soon to think beyond what had just happened.
Former Hawthorn great Luke Hodge slammed the wild behaviour. ‘The umpires are walking off, they should not have things thrown at them. A bottle has come down from the top tier,’ he said
The final-minute decision triggered furious boos from tens of thousands of Hawks fans packed into the MCG. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by any fan pictured above
‘I think we’re in a mourning phase. What’s the first part, is it anger? I think I’m still half in anger, probably sense it in my body language,’ he said.
‘What else, what’s after anger? I don’t know, last is acceptance and – I nearly said a bad word – I’m a long way from acceptance right now.
‘I will sit in anger for a bit longer, I’m sure all the players will too.’
Before they left the MCG for the last time this season, Mitchell brought his players into a tight group.
‘It was just, “Remember this”. There’s nothing more raw than that five minutes straight after the siren, when it hurts the most,’ Meek said of Mitchell’s message.
‘Remember the burn and the outrage and how frustrating it is – because that will be our fuel. We have a big pre-season ahead.’
Mitchell spoke of his great pride in the Hawks, who staged an outstanding comeback in the final quarter.
But in the end, it came to nothing.
‘If you want to strive for great things, you will open yourself up for all sorts of emotion, the greatest of joy, and the deepest of pain,’ he said.
