POINTS OF ORDER

Good article by Tim Lane in yesterday's Age:

No stopping video umpire genie once it escapes the TV box

We saw, on the television, Tom Hawkins' kick brush the goalpost, so we know the goal umpire made an error in awarding a goal. The use of a video umpire would have overcome the problem. And had Geelong won the grand final by five points or less, the problem would have been catastrophic.

At the risk of further rubbing salt into StKilda wounds, there has been a key point missing in the continual revisiting of the Hawkins poster: it wasn't a five points or less situation; it was an eleven points or less situation.

Allow me to 'splain.

Hawkins hit the post. (Anyone notice the bizarre way he kicked the ball? Leg high, stiff and swinging sideways, as if he was trying to clear a ledge.) Goal given. One point increase becomes five. Then. The ball goes back to the centre. Geelong get another goal. Eleven point increase. It is reasonable to assume that, had St Kilda been awarded a kick-out, as they should have, they would have maintained possession of the ball and Geelong would not have kicked the second goal.

Fast forward.

Max Rooke marks on the final siren. The Saints players pull the pin. Rooke, with no one on the mark, dribbles through a goal. Geelong wins by 12 points.

Had the earlier mistake not occurred, and Geelong were five points behind instead of six points in front, Rooke would have been kicking for the win, with players on the mark, and the game on the line. He would not have been able to casually turn a six point win into a twelve point win.

Glad I got that off my chest.

Comments

[Francis Xavier Holden]

If we had some bacon AND we had some eggs. Then clearly we'd have bacon and eggs.

[Bruce]

Or maybe Dawson's kick in is intercepted as well and goes back over his head for a goal. He loses the plot does something stupid and another kick is awarded in the square...

Or maybe aliens....

The future is easy to write about and you can end up inventing situations like that bollocks on Next Week's Scoreboard.

[Adsy]

If Milne knew how to kick, we win...

If Schneider knew how to kick, we win...

If McQualter knew how to kick, we win...

If Dempster knew how to kick, we win...

If Raph Clarke had one ounce of peripheral vision, we win...

Etcetera.

Just when I was getting over it Tony. But I do get your, er, point.

[Adsy]

In another mindbending recent article (by a more reputable source than the Werribee Banner, but I'm not sure):

Large Hadron Collider is "being sabotaged from the future"

...Last year, Professor Brian Cox of Manchester University told the UK Telegraph that LHC scientists had received threatening emails and phone calls demanding that the experiment be halted.

But Prof Cox, ex-keyboardist for 1990's pop group D:REAM, dismissed the hysteria in rock-star style.

"Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a tw--," he said.

[RT]

Hawkins could have kicked it, then it hit a beach goal and diverted thru.

[RT]

Beach goal? Make that beach ball. It is 6.43am.

[Big Ramifications]

I thought the disgracefully soft double goal [re: Milburn] was a pretty good evener.

Let's call it an Evener of the Gods™, shall we?

[DAC]

Of course Milburn had the option of not behaving like a prat given he wasn't even close to touching that kick off the ground for a goal by Kosi. In which case that free kick for pratness wouldn;t have been paid.

[Big Ramifications]

Damn straight!

[Bruce]

Unfortunately we don't give free kicks for being a prat. Otherwise where would it end?

[Tony]

Any teacher knows that "The next person who mouths off is in trouble" is asking for a student to get pinged for something pissant.

That said, DAC is spot on. Milburn got right whack for calling the goalie a cheat when he himself missed touching the ball by a mile.

[Big Ramifications]

Testify!