RYAN TO RULE ON BIG DAY
SHAUN Ryan wouldn’t hesitate to invoke the prohibited contact rule in the spirit of the game in Saturday’s Grand Final, the umpire revealed as he was named one of the three key officiators for the premiership decider.
Ryan, Matt Stevic and Ray Chamberlain have been named as the field umpires in charge of the clash, with the latter to serve as a Grand Final whistleblower for the first time since 2010.
Torquay’s Ryan, who found himself amid a social media storm in the semi-final between Brisbane and Greater Western Sydney after warning Giant Adam Kennedy for knocking the injured arm of Lion Charlie Cameron, said he would do exactly the same thing again should the issue raise its head in Saturday’s Grand Final.
But it had made for an interesting few days post-game.
“It’s tough, particularly for the first few days,” Ryan said.
“You go to grab a coffee and everyone’s asking you about it, you go to work and everyone’s asking you about it. But when you’ve been around 18 years, it does happen from time to time so you learn to deal with it.”
He said he had found the incident “surprising” as he had forgotten that he was even being broadcast.
“You’re 100 metres behind the play and you don’t realise that the microphones are live to air,” he said.
“It’s part of the game — 50 per cent of people thought it was fantastic, 50 per cent thought it wasn’t.
“I’ve learned over the years ... I don’t really have views on the rules. That’s not my job. My job is to understand what we’re meant to do and then just do it.”
Kennedy had immediately stopped hitting Cameron’s arm, and Ryan said he would continue to warn players treading a fine line of the spirit of the game.
Stevic, who will line up for his seventh Grand Final, will take the first bounce.
He oversaw Saturday’s preliminary final between Collingwood and Greater Western Sydney in which a goal was incorrectly awarded to Magpie Josh Thomas, but he said umpires would not change their approach to the score review system for the biggest game of the year.
“I hope people can appreciate there’s a lot going on out on the field, even after a goal is scored,” Stevic said.
“We just use our experience and if the goalie calls for a score review, we’ll go in and consult and if we don’t believe it’s touched, we won’t.”