{"id":737508,"date":"2026-06-15T06:07:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T06:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/737508\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T06:07:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T06:07:21","slug":"damien-hardwick-put-on-notice-over-umpire-criticism-by-afl-gold-coast-to-be-fined-for-fifth-umpire-contact-offence-greg-swann","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/737508\/","title":{"rendered":"Damien Hardwick put on notice over umpire criticism by AFL, Gold Coast to be fined for fifth umpire contact offence; Greg Swann"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Michael<\/p>\n

June 15, 2026 \u2014 12:23pm<\/p>\n

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Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick has escaped a fine but has been put on notice by the AFL that he faces a heavy financial penalty if he repeats his stinging criticism of the umpiring in Friday night\u2019s loss to Geelong.<\/p>\n

AFL executive head of football Greg Swann called Hardwick directly on Monday to discuss the comments and express the league\u2019s disappointment, but left the conversation with a warning and no fine.<\/p>\n

\"SunsSuns coach Damien Hardwick vented his frustration after Friday night\u2019s game.AFL Photos<\/p>\n

Hardwick complained about home-ground umpiring and decisions<\/a> that went against his side as well as recommending a change to the lasso rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t have a problem with his issue around the lasso, but probably the next bit was a bit overstepping the mark. We\u2019ll have a chat, and hopefully we can move forward from there,\u201d Swann told The Age\u2019s Real Footy podcast on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know from my experience in club land, we hated getting please-explain letters. I just think it is easier to pick the phone up and have a chat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardwick suggested post-match that the decision-making had been influenced by the raucous Geelong crowd at GMHBA Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like the Roman Colosseum. I reckon they [the umpires] were waiting for the crowd to do this one [thumbs down] then, all of a sudden, free kick,\u201d Hardwick said. \u201cAt the end of the day it is what it is, home-ground advantage, we understand that, we know you\u2019re up against it from the start, but a couple of them, I thought, weren\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swann said umpires were trained to put crowd noise to one side and agreed that negative commentary about umpiring could deter young officials from being involved in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it does, but it\u2019s hard to do a direct correlation. My personal view is there is a lot of media now around the game, and I just think it\u2019s lazy journalism to focus in on umpires,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s games where it\u2019s close and there\u2019s mistakes by players and potentially umpires, but in the main it\u2019s players who are out there for most of the time who make a blue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DanielDaniel Rioli was fined by the MRO for this collision with an umpire in the first quarter on Friday night.Channel Seven<\/p>\n

The Suns still face the prospect of a significant fine after defender Daniel Rioli was cited for making careless contact with an umpire. Rioli was slugged $1500 for the offence, his first of that nature.<\/p>\n

But he has chosen to contest the charge, and if his challenge is unsuccessful he will become the fifth Suns players this season to be found guilty of making contact with an umpire, triggering an AFL fine of up to $50,000 for the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cGold Coast will get fined [if Rioli\u2019s charge is sustained], we\u2019ve just got to work out how much that is and what it looks like,\u201d Swann said.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Suns<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe probably will have to wait until tomorrow [Tuesday] because Gold Coast have put in a submission this morning around the Rioli contact, so they\u2019re going to contest that. Obviously, we\u2019ll see where that lands because if they win then it goes back to four [offences] and if they lose then they\u2019re at five.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gold Coast, GWS and Collingwood were all told last week they had four player fines for umpire contact this season, meaning a club fine was pending if they had any further indiscretions of the same nature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [the clubs on four payers contact fines for the season] all got a notice last week to say you\u2019re on the cusp,\u201d Swann said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can fine up to $50,000, but it would be unlikely it would be that much, but we\u2019ll certainly fine them and put them on notice that there\u2019ll be further fines if they turn into six[th] and seven[th] and eight[th offences].<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s episode of the Real Footy podcast featuring Greg Swann discussing all the big issues in football with Michael Gleeson, Jake Niall and Sam McClure will be released on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"MichaelMichael Gleeson<\/a> is an award-winning senior sports writer specialising in AFL and athletics.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"June 15, 2026 \u2014 12:23pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-737508","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\/737508","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=737508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}