Cricket
Racing
Rugby
League
Motorsport
Football
Golf
Combat Sports
Basketball
Tennis
Other Sports
Sport Nation
AFL’s Laura Kane on Jamarra, umpiring, mid-season trade & more
SEN • May 1st, 2025 9:22 am
Laura Kane has touched on a number of topics swirling around at AFL House with Gerard Whateley on SEN.
The AFL’s Executive General Manager of Football earlier spoke in depth about the Paul Curtis suspension, the matrix at the disposal of the MRO, red cards in footy and much more.
She also commented on Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, the standard of umpiring, holding the ball, mid-season trade period and more.
Jamarra Ugle-Hagan
“We’ve been working with Jamarra, the Bulldogs, Jamarra's management and his family.
“Really clearly, yesterday's statement said that a management plan is in place, and I won't go into the details of what that looks like as it's personal to Jamarra, but we want him to work through the challenges that he has, and if he wants to, we want him to play footy and have a long career.
“Dr Kate Hall leads our mental health and wellbeing team, and if there are resources available to players that we can provide, then we're really happy to do that.”
Is the leave of absence the appropriate step at the moment?
“I think the appropriate step is that Jamarra looks after his wellbeing and that he gets into a position personally where he can train and play if he wants to.
“How he does that is personal to him, and that's why we were pleased that we could all come together to create a plan for him that we hope works.”
Is there a path back to football for him if he chooses it?
“There is.
“He’s a really great kid and a really good player, and if he can navigate his challenges, then we'd love to see him on a footy field again.”
How many cases like this are there that you deal with, or are the real flashpoint ones obvious to everybody?
“We’re available to clubs all of the time, so I won't go into details on how many or who, or which clubs, but what I'm pleased about is that the clubs want to work with us.
“Kate's team are terrific, and like I said, any time that we can offer resources, the Players’ Association offer terrific support and resources for the players. And if sometimes us being involved can help that little bit more, well, it's a really good thing.
“It’s a really open dialogue we have with clubs around wellbeing, and that's not just for their players, it's also for their staff.”
Standard of umpiring
Do you think the standard of umpiring so far this season has been adequate?
“It’s been OK. We're pretty hard on ourselves, and we want the umpiring to be as good as it possibly can be.
“Our umpires are the first to tell us when they make a mistake. They don't want to make errors, and whilst we can have a look on review at many angles, many angles in slow-mo and high definition cameras, it's not what they see.
“But it’s still really important that they make the right decision. Where I've been disappointed is when decisions late in games are made in error, and they're the ones that we're focused on trying to make sure - clearly we want a consistency, and the umpires do a really good job - but they're the ones that we're honing in on and making sure that we can lift that standard and make it as good as it possibly can be for the players but also for the fans.
“So it's something that we're working on at the moment.”
Has there been a lapse around the implementation of encroachment and the stand rule?
“We've been talking about that over the past couple of weeks.
“Probably what's fair to say is the clubs are trying to find ways to benefit from the rules, and that's their job. We don't change the way we umpire, what we ask for is consistency.
“So we say, we want our umpires to umpire consistently and interpret the rules in a consistent way.
“Sometimes, and the stand rules are a really great example, there's creep. Some clubs in different parts of the ground are creeping, and we try to hold a few weeks to see if there is a trend here? Are there a few clubs calling us about this?
“Last night, we wrote to the clubs and said, ‘yeah, there is creep here’. And we have met with some particular clubs, but we've written to all 18 clubs now to say that we will really hone in on this and focus on it.
“Nothing's changed, the rule hasn't changed, the way we officiate it hasn't changed, it’s just that the creep is there. So we just need the umpires to be mindful of that, and they will be moving forward.”
So where liberties have been taken, we should expect that to correct from this weekend onwards?
“That’s right.”
Do you think the crackdown on the 15-metre kick has benefited the game?
“I think that's another example of where you can have a range, and then sometimes you find yourself at the bottom of the range.
“We’ve probably created a new range. We need to make sure we're interpreting the rule properly, and we need to make sure that all parts of the game, the stand rule, the 15m, is interpreted consistently in the same way.
“That's something that we're mindful of as well, and that we've received feedback on.”
So 15 should be 15 whether the kick is going backwards or sideways or in defence or going forwards?
“Not 10, not 12, 15.”
Contact with umpires
In the communication you send to the clubs, there's a focus on contact with umpires. What's the concern piece here?
“Unfortunately we haven't seen that trend down.
“What's really important as the umpires are trying to officiate the game is that they're not expecting contact and they're not expecting forceful contact at that.
“We want to make sure that it's safe for them to do their job and they get out of the players’ way, and so on. But the last couple of weeks, we've had some umpires trial instructing the players to move. Here, I'm talking about around the ground stoppages, ball ups, congested, tight games, tight margins.
“Everyone wants to get the footy, so you'll start to see umpires ask the players to move out of the way, which has worked, which has been really, really good. But we've just reminded clubs that there's a free kick still available to them if umpire contact occurs.
“It’s tricky to, officiate that and so we don't want to get there, but we've paid free kicks, and we'll continue to do so if we have to.”
Holding the ball
GWS coach Adam Kingsley spoke on the holding the ball rule on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Tuesday night.
“I think this can be quite simple, but we perhaps throw some confusion in around because if you make an attempt, that's deemed acceptable and therefore not punishable by a free kick against,” Kingsley said.
“I just think you either correctly dispose of the ball or you don't. And if you don't, it's a free kick against you. Unless the ball's punched out in a tackle, as the tackle's commencing, well, then that's play on.
“If the ball's held in, you either had prior or you didn't. And if you didn't, if you had prior, it's a free kick against.”
Is there a summer project in simplifying holding the ball?
“I don't mind that from Kingers, that's a good explanation.
“We spent some time in the off-season trying to articulate and create clips that explain how we officiate it.
“And that's for consistency, so people know what we're doing, but it's something that we're always looking at.
“Feedback from coaches is really, really important to us. They see the game, better than most, and that's feedback we listen to.”
Is there merit in trying to crystallise it so that we can watch the game and say I know exactly how this is going to be paid and understand it? Or is the game, because it's so grey, elusive on that front?
“Maybe a bit of both. I think that we want to strive for that consistency, and we want to hope that the fans and the players know what is going to happen when that whistle blows, or in fact, if the whistle blows.
“But then we know the realities of how quick the game is. The players are making decisions, split-second decisions, and that's a balance because it's fast and the ball moves around the ground really quickly, and our umpires do their best to get into the right spots.
“I think the magic of the game is that it's grey, and I've said that before, but I think as consistent as we can be is an aspiration we should be charging towards.”
Mid-season trade period
We're at Round 8 - Is there a future world where we're a month away from a mid-season trade period?
“Maybe, maybe.
“We obviously agreed to that with the AFL Players’ Association in theory.
“I have heard a lot of feedback around why it's good, and maybe why it's bad. I think the parameters or the door is open for that discussion.
“It's just how do you make it work? And Is there a perceived or real advantage about where your club is located? So are you Victorian?
“Are the mechanics available to us to have mechanics in place that protect the players, noting that moving in the middle of the year is a tricky thing to do as well.
“So I don't know, maybe. I like it. There's plenty of people that support it, there's plenty of people that don't, and sometimes you'll add a position to direct that, and that's what our clubs also are there to do. They're there to lead the way for their own club and what their club might want.”
Is there an active project to create parameters that you might put before the football world and say, would we go for this or not?
“Yeah, we looked at those during the competitive balance review last year, and that was a big piece of work that we did.
“But there's more work to do on particularly some of those parameters around the inequities that exist for some clubs.
“So, yes, there is, there's more to do.”
Tasmanian draft concessions
How close are you to either the debate or the announcement on that front?
“The debate's alive and well, that's happening now.
“Geoff Walsh, our football consultant, has been around the country to canvass clubs, but also to talk to people who were involved in the expansion sides, being Gold Coast and GWS at the time, many of whom who work in the industry, some who don't.
“So we've committed to the middle of the year, and they have to go before commission, but what we're really mindful of is that, with the ability to trade two years into the future, coming in in this men's draft, that, from a men's perspective, it means that if Tasmania are drafting players in the 2027 draft, then what you do now could lead into that draft.
“So, we're only two years away. A complicated way of saying we've committed to the rules this year because decisions that clubs make this year in the draft could be impactful in a Tasmanian expansion draft in the men's.
“And then in women's, a little bit different because future pick trading's not currently something that is available to them. We’re still committed to having those rules in place by the middle of the year.”
Have you got a guiding principle on that?
“We do.
“The balance that we have is competitiveness and how they compete in the competition initially, balanced with what is the long-term development and what work do Tasmania need to do to develop their own players.
“Clearly the academy models work. There are a lot of players coming out of that kind of intensive talent development model.
“We have an opportunity now to start putting those things in place in a really robust way, so Tasmania can also be self-sufficient.
“The guiding principle of not impacting our current 18 too much, whilst acknowledging that everyone will have to lose something. It’s just how much.
“And how how is that impacted by your ability to trade two years into the future as well, with one eye on competitive balance for the competition more broadly?”
