Once circumstances forced the umpire to give a 50 m penalty in our favour, it was only a matter of time till we gave one away. I was surprised we didn’t give away more, to be honest.
The whole 50 metre penalty thing has descended into high farce.
Players now step back from the mark before the umpire says ‘stand’ and then they can jump around (a bit, not too much). In most games, several players show dissent and eventually one is pinged. Sometimes, defenders hand the ball to the wrong player and it is OK but then, suddenly, it isn’t. What is play on to advantage and what isn’t? Sometimes it is ok to kick the ball forward when a teammate has just given a free kick away and sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes a player can look mystified and do something dumb but other times it attracts a 50.
The amount of energy wasted on these nonsense rules is staggering. The penalty should be reserved for late hits on a player who has just taken a mark, blatant time-wasting and acts that are not in the spirit of the game.
Having said that, Baker’s goal could easily have been a 50 in this alternate universe that the Tigers are trapped in but, luckily, the ump was too busy running around aimlessly trying to get in the way of the next kick and didn’t react in time.