{"id":127580,"date":"2025-09-08T10:43:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T10:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/127580\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T10:43:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T10:43:12","slug":"leigh-matthews-defends-umpire-who-paid-cam-rayner-two-free-kicks-geelong-cats-vs-brisbane-lions-qualifying-final-afl-360-reactions-latest-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/127580\/","title":{"rendered":"Leigh Matthews defends umpire who paid Cam Rayner two free kicks, Geelong Cats vs Brisbane Lions qualifying final, AFL 360, reactions, latest news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian Football Hall of Fame legend Leigh Matthews has gone into bat for the umpire at the centre of Cam Rayner\u2019s controversial free kicks<\/a> in last Friday night\u2019s qualifying final between Geelong and Brisbane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Furore erupted around the MCG after back-to-back free kicks awarded in Rayner\u2019s favour sparked a stunning three-goal turnaround on the stroke of half time, <\/p>\n

Geelong\u2019s Tyson Stengle was lining up a goal to extend the Cats\u2019 lead after a flurry of four-straight goals, before a free kick was curiously paid to Cam Rayner in the goalsquare at the other end of the ground against Mark O\u2019Connor for a shove in the back.<\/p>\n

Watch every match of the 2025 Toyota AFL Finals Series before the Grand Final, LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

WHAT’S GAMBLING REALLY COSTING YOU? Set a deposit limit. For Free and confidential support call 1800 858 858 or visit gamblinghelponline.org.au.<\/p>\n

After slotting the goal from point-blank range, the mercurial Lion instantly drew another free kick after Zach Guthrie also gently shoved the Lion from behind.<\/p>\n

Rayner\u2019s goals came not long after being accused of \u201cintimidating\u201d the umpire in question<\/a> alongside O\u2019Connor.<\/p>\n

The AFL conceded the day after the fact that the initial free kick paid against O\u2019Connor was wrong, however they did tick off the secondary free against Guthrie.<\/p>\n

‘Horrific look’ Rayner gets in umps face | 02:41<\/p>\n

Matthews, who is a four-time VFL premiership player and four-time AFL premiership coach, was of the belief however that the league were wrong for condemning the decision in the manner they did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate the fact the AFL have thrown their umpire under the bus. Okay, it was probably a bad decision, but you don\u2019t have to say it too categorically,\u201d Matthews said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey employ the umpires \u2014 it\u2019s like a coach and his team. The AFL\u2019s team of officiators is the umpires, treat them with respect, and don\u2019t throw them under the bus.<\/p>\n

\u201c(I think) they should\u2019ve said: \u2018It was a very contentious decision, and the umpire at the time chose to give it … you\u2019ve got to look after your umpires, and every other umpire out in the suburbs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthews added that while the free kick was on the softer side, any notable contact between players well away from the play is within its rights to be penalised.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a little free kick … (but) the one I would say; when two players are 100 metres from the ball, the contact should be almost none,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like you\u2019re 10 metres from the ball, and you\u2019re pushing and shoving each other. There\u2019s no doubt that Cam Rayner exaggerated the contact, and the contact from the defender was very little. But at the same time, there should be no contact!<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I\u2019m saying is, there should be no contact 100 metres from the ball, in principle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian Football Hall of Fame legend Leigh Matthews has gone into bat for the umpire at the centre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,3237,89199,1818,89202,13659,39203,44389,28885,8016,64903,85,89201,85482,89200,89198],"class_list":["post-127580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-brisbane-lions","tag-cameron-rayner","tag-david-king","tag-double-goal","tag-geelong-cats","tag-leigh-matthews","tag-mark-oconnor","tag-premiership-coach","tag-premiership-player","tag-qualifying-final","tag-sports","tag-stern-reminder","tag-stunning-three-goal-turnaround","tag-time-chose","tag-umpiring-farce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}