AFL football boss Greg Swann says upgraded AFL Review Centre (ARC) cameras will be rolled out ahead of this season\u2019s finals series.<\/p>\n
The ARC has produced two major talking points this season.<\/p>\n
A delayed free kick to St Kilda\u2019s Rowan Marshall prompted change before a clear goal to Geelong\u2019s Ollie Dempsey was missed only weeks later.<\/p>\n
Swann said the Dempsey decision was more the umpire failing to review than an ARC issue but flagged imminent improvements to the system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get a whole new set of cameras in August, the last few games and then leading into finals. We should be able to be quicker, (with) better definition,\u201d Swann told SEN.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other thing about the ARC is people complain about how long it takes, but they\u2019ve got about 10 or 11 cameras and sometimes you need a lot of those angles to get the decision right.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve looked at some things where you have an angle where it clearly looks like it\u2019s touched and there\u2019s another where the ball misses by a good metre.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes some time to get that right but, again, that\u2019s in cameras that do 50 shutter speed a minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting cameras that do 250 now, so they\u2019ll be able to see a lot clearer, a lot quicker and hopefully that improves it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen we might end up putting a time limit on it, but we certainly don\u2019t want 50 (seconds).\u201d<\/p>\n
Swann spoke at length about the quality of umpiring, including the call that allowed Carlton forward Harry McKay to burn 41 seconds against Essendon while taking a set shot from long range in the final minutes.<\/p>\n
He said the McKay scenario was difficult to adjudicate but similar situations would remain under review throughout the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe direction is if they call it they\u2019ve got the 30 seconds and they must start to walk in at 30 seconds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur looking at that, Harry started walking in at 29. He took his sweet time to walk, I think he got up to about 40 or 41.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe probably should have got a bit of a hurry-up at stage, but it is at the umpire\u2019s discretion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a really interesting one because this is one interesting thing about this job. I was there, you saw it, you know, \u2018Do we want it?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it has been discussed before my time and one of the issues, for example, would be if you\u2019re playing down in Tassie or Mars (Ballarat) where you\u2019ve got a howling breeze, who are the umpires to say to someone like a Harry McKay, \u2018You\u2019re 60 out, you can\u2019t kick it\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe discussion previously was if the man on the mark was 50 or outside, you can\u2019t call it. But again there\u2019s guys \u2026 they can kick it that far.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a difficult one to have a hard-and-fast rule, so at this stage, it\u2019s the first one we\u2019ve had blatantly this year \u2026 we\u2019re not jumping at shadows at the minute, going to change it, but it is to be monitored.\u201d<\/p>\n