AFL 2023: Collingwood vs GWS, umpiring, free kick count, Luke Hodge comments, calls them pathetic

Hawthorn premiership captain Luke Hodge has labelled some of the umpiring in last night’s preliminary final “pathetic”.

Collingwood defeated Greater Western Sydney by one point in an MCG thriller in front of nearly 100,000 patrons on Friday night.

The umpiring decisions - of lack thereof - in the second half of the match irked Hodge.

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“It’ll be interesting to see how many of those umpires get a job next week. If you go through a lot of those free kicks that were missed, they will not be at the MCG,” Hodge said on SEN’s Crunch Time.

“I’m not being harsh on them, but this is a prelim final where we put in an extra umpire to make sure we don’t miss anything.

“We’ve got umpires that overrule from 70 metres away three weeks ago, but then when it comes to a prelim when one point causes a win or a loss and a season to finish for a team and the umpires put the whistle away.

“A lot of those decisions were pathetic.”

A total of 24 free kicks were paid on Friday night, with 12 for each side.

The Pies average 18.2 free kicks a game, while the Giants average 15.5.

“They did not do a good job last night,” Hodge added.

“They let too many go away. We put in four umpires to stop certain free kicks.

“Toby Greene almost got his head knocked off just before three-quarter time.”

Originally published as ‘Decisions were pathetic’: AFL great unloads on umpiring after crunch prelim

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