Timekeepers the new `usual suspects’

Christopher O'Leary reports, no matter which way the AFL Commission vote on Wednesday, timekeepers will face heavy scrutiny.

The AFL is keeping fans in tight suspense, following its announcement that the commission this Wednesday will re-evaluate last weekend’s shock draw between St Kilda and Fremantle.

That’s right, another day and a half of media coverage fit for a royal death or Ben Cousins’ misdemeanours. Come tomorrow chat rooms will be overloaded, "Save Fremantle" campaigns will be in progress, and officials are forced under the same rock currently occupied by Tony Mokbel.

So they should be but, rather than the officiating umpires taking all the blame, the match has uncovered this year’s latest batch of `usual suspects’.

Behold, timekeepers, in all their shame.

The league announced last night that their men behind the stop watch had not held the siren long enough for officiating umpires to hear it and signal the game’s completion. They also breathed eight seconds back into the final quarter when Channel Nine’s stop clock went from 2:35 to 2:27.

Timekeepers will now be targeted by fans for an all round stuff up caused also by inadequate signals and an umpire fraternity that lacks free thought. Though it is not the first time timekeepers have felt the heat.

Last year’s Round 13 clash between Sydney and Collingwood was awarded to the Swans after timekeepers Alan Brawn and Ian Parker missed the ump’s signal to stop the clock. Sydney was given 14 precious seconds to hold Collingwood from snatching victory. The football world was furious and Messers Brawn and Parker were subsequently punished.

What were timekeepers on Sunday thinking? Were they so desperate to up stumps and simply ignore umpire Mathew Nichols’s ball up? Did they not know that the siren was hard to hear all day? Do they need a law or a course on holding the buzzer until the umpires’ acknowledgment? Imagine what would have happened if that one patron did not tap his stubbie on the timekeepers’ box and alert them to their chaos?

Either way, timekeepers will face heavy scrutiny well after Wednesday.

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