“How does that happen?”: King and Cornes bemoan Pickett non-free

Andrew Slevison • May 12th, 2025 10:10 am

Melbourne’s Kysaiah Pickett was clearly felled just outside the goal square during his side’s eventual loss to Hawthorn on Saturday.

The Demons gun was chasing a loose ball that was bobbling towards his goal when Hawks defender Blake Hardwick took him down below the knees.

It was a clear free kick that would have resulted in a certain Demons goal in the second term at the MCG.

The non-decision had SEN Fireball duo Kane Cornes and David King talking on Monday morning, questioning whether the standard of umpiring had improved in recent weeks.

AFL EGM Laura Kane recently said on SEN that the umpiring has “been ok”, while umpires’ boss Stephen McBurney suggested the umpires were a “couple under par” in golfing terms.

But missing something as obvious as the Pickett free kick tells a different story in the eyes of King and Cornes.

King said: “If they’re a couple under par…

“How four umpires miss the Kozzie Pickett trip in the goal square is just beyond me.

“How does that happen?”

Cornes added: “I don’t know. Some of the things that the umpires find that we say, ‘What’s the non-controlling umpire paid that for?’.

“When a guy gets his leg amputated in the goal square and he can’t get a free kick.”

King continued: “The whole game stopped and I thought the Hawthorn player (James Sicily) who picked up the ball was going to walk back and say, ‘Nah that’s a free’.

“Like the old days with the captains, ‘Nah, that’s a free kick’.”

Cornes added: “They’re not two under par, let’s be honest.”

King concluded: “They’ve had a couple of bogies the last couple of weeks.”

Listen to King and Cornes discuss the Pickett call and some other incident from Round 9: