{"id":658229,"date":"2026-05-08T18:17:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T18:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/658229\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T18:17:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T18:17:37","slug":"afl-news-2026-umpire-hurt-in-contact-with-bulldogs-player-ed-richards-port-adelaide-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/658229\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Umpire hurt in contact with Bulldogs player Ed Richards, Port Adelaide match"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFL<\/a> umpire Daniel Johanson had to be assisted from the ground after colliding with Western Bulldogs star Ed Richards in the first quarter of the club’s clash with Port Adelaide. <\/p>\n

The umpire threw the ball up in the centre to restart play after a goal, and backed out afterwards as they do every single time.<\/p>\n

But Port’s Willem Drew and Richards were in that space jostling for positioning at the stoppage.<\/p>\n

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\"AFL<\/p>\n

AFL umpire Daniel Johanson smashed into by Ed Richards.\u00a0Fox Footy<\/p>\n

Drew managed to sneak around the umpire, but Richards wasn’t so lucky, ploughing into Johanson’s back.<\/p>\n

“The umpire’s hurt here, they might have to hold this up for a second,” commentator Dwayne Russell told Fox Footy.<\/p>\n

“They are supposed to keep that area behind the umpire clear so the umpire can back out.”<\/p>\n

Johanson went down to a knee, clearly in pain as play was stopped. <\/p>\n

The Port Adelaide doctor then came out onto the ground and helped Johanson from the field.<\/p>\n

He did return to the game late in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

The AFL will still be furious with the collision, given they have cracked down strongly on incidental umpire contact.<\/p>\n

In particular, the AFL has called out players attempting to use the umpire as a shield at stoppages to create space between them and their opponent, exactly like Drew and Richards were attempting to do.<\/p>\n

\"AFL<\/p>\n

AFL umpire Daniel Johanson down and hurt.\u00a0Fox Footy<\/p>\n

The incident also didn’t stop Richards from positioning in the same spot alongside Ollie Wines later in the corner, with both having to duck in opposite directions around the umpire.<\/p>\n

Players routinely receive $1,500 fines for making incidental contact with umpires. The fines ramp up for each subsequent offence the same player makes.<\/p>\n

The AFL can also refer players directly to the tribunal for excessive incidents for greater fines or potentially suspension. <\/p>\n

Carlton midfielder Adam Cerra was taken to the tribunal for a fourth instance of careless contact with an umpire in 2025, where he was slapped with a $5500 fine.<\/p>\n

The AFL changed the rule after over 110 instances of careless umpire contact occurred across the 2023 and 2024 seasons, multiple of which led to umpire concussions.<\/p>\n

Richards will likely face a hefty financial sanction on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AFL umpire Daniel Johanson had to be assisted from the ground after colliding with Western Bulldogs star Ed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-658229","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658229","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=658229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}