Umpire ‘felt threatened’ by Hawks duo’s ugly post-game spray
Hayden Meyer, the umpire who will officiate the AFL grand final, says he “felt threatened” when he copped a scathing spray from two Hawks stars over a holding the ball call in the side’s preliminary final loss to the Brisbane Lions.
Meyer was confronted by James Sicily and defender Tom Barrass shortly after the final siren, the players furious about the call that all but put an end to Hawthorn’s hopes of winning the flag this season.
Meyer is set to officiate his third grand final match. AFL Photos via Getty Images
Hawks gun Jarman Impey was disbelief as he was pinged for holding the ball with less than 20 seconds left in the match, with the call opening the door for Hugh McCluggage to kick a goal and put the Lions back into the lead.
Sicily and Barrass were both slapped with hefty fines for their actions after the call – Barrass receiving a $5000 fine while his skipper was hit with a $10,000 fine.
Meyer had discussions with the MRO before the fines were given to recall his version of the events, although he had no role in determining the sanction.
“The abuse that came my way, I felt threatened,” Meyer told reporters when asked about the post-game incident on Wednesday.
“I expressed exactly that [to the AFL] - the language, and the way those two players came at me, I felt threatened and intimidated in that situation.
“I spoke to [umpires boss] Steve McBurney the day after and gave my view of the situation, and how I felt and what occurred. He then transferred that to [Greg Swann] and the MRO to eventually come up with a decision around the fines.”
Meyer did not say if he believed the pair’s sanctions should have been match bans instead of fines, telling reporters “that is out of my control [and] not my decision”.
But he admits he was most disappointed to think about the effect that incident as well as the actions of fans who threw bottles at officials as they left the field will have on the future development and interest for people to become AFL umpires.
“It was pretty scary, to be honest,” Meyer recalled of the bottle throwing.
“I suppose what I take from (the incidents) is that it’s not a great look for junior umpires and kids sitting on the couch that we want to recruit into umpiring.
“They see that after the game on the weekend and, if I’m sitting on the couch, I’d be like ‘do I really want to go to my local umpiring community group and sign up to be an umpire?’ That was the big disappointing thing for me.
“We struggle with umpiring recruitment in the local communities – and that [incident] doesn’t help.”
Meyer confirmed he had accepted a sincere apology from Barrass in the days after the match, receiving a phone call from the 30-year-old Hawks defender.
“He was very apologetic and very sincere,” said Meyer.
“I accepted his apology and thanked him for taking the time out of his day to give me a call.”
The AFL grand final is scheduled to take place from 2.30pm this Saturday afternoon.
