It might have been paid HTB, not because he grabbed it out of the ruck but because he took a couple of steps before he was tackled. I've seen HTB paid with far less prior opportunity. I'm not advocating that - I'm in the camp that players shouldn't be unduly penalised for trying to take possession - but compare that to a couple of the tackles Taylor Walker received HTB frees for a fortnight ago - the Lloyd and Rampe ones. In those instances the players dropped the ball so technically were penalised for incorrect disposal but they were set up almost instantaneously and in such a way that it was impossible to legally dispose of the ball.
It remains an aspect of our game that is adjudicated inconsistently. Although I would prefer players to get some modicum of prior opportunity, I can live with any interpretation if it is applied consistently. Like so many other aspects of the game. On the whole, the umpires weren't paying 50/50 HTB decisions yesterday. If they had, I reckon we would have received at least a couple in front of our goal and a couple in defence. But probably the Bombers would have received some too.
They seemed reluctant to pay any frees last night in either 50m arc. There were probably dozens of incidents were an 'in the back' or 'high contact' free could have been plucked out. I'm glad they didn't. I would prefer only blatant frees to be paid. The one awarded to McInerney was an exception - he received only a slight brush across the top of his shoulder. But kudos to McInerney for converting with such aplomb.
Between the arcs, I thought they paid far too many soft frees. This is at least a kind of consistency, in the the umpires have been generally paying too many soft frees this season, not just in our games but in pretty much every match I've watched. Except, of course, that for every soft free paid, there are a handful of similar incidents that are let go.
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