Dusty let off with a fine

THE AFL has admitted it has revamped the way it judges umpire contact cases after letting Richmond superstar Dustin Martin off with a contentious fine yesterday.

In a major reprieve for Martin and his back-to-back Brownlow Medal hopes, the brilliant Tigers’ midfielder received a $1500 fine for pushing his forearm into the side of umpire Jacob Mollison on Sunday, as the pair discussed an earlier free-kick decision.

Martin is the $6 secondfavourite to win back-to-back Brownlow Medals with TAB. He is currently in New Zealand visiting his father, Shane.

The Martin ruling has caused widespread confusion because Geelong’s Tom Hawkins and Carlton’s Ed Curnow both received onematch bans for intentional umpire contact.

Gold Coast’s Steven May was also sent to the tribunal for making similar umpire contact as Martin.

But match review officer Michael Christian said the league had downgraded Martin’s verdict to careless umpire contact on the basis of a new interpretation which had been applied since the tribunal let May off with a fine one month ago.

Since the May decision, Christian said players would only be hit with an intentional umpire contact sanction — and be sent to the tribunal for possible suspension — if their actions were either “demonstrative, aggressive, dismissive, disrespectful or forceful”.

That is why Eagle Willie Rioli escaped with a fine for tapping the backside of an umpire in Round 10.

Technically, Martin’s contact with umpire Mollison appeared to be intentional in Richmond’s 18-point win over Geelong at the MCG.

But Christian said the umpire contact was downgraded to careless because Martin’s forearm shove did not meet the “spirit” of the law and was not forceful or disrespectful.

“We are trying to find a way through, in terms of interpreting the spirit of the guidelines around intentional umpire contact,” Christian said.

“We believe the spirit of those guidelines were more around forceful, aggressive, dismissive and disrespectful intentional contact to umpires.”