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Suns clarify defiant Rowell's post-game comments
Luke Mathews • July 8th, 2025 1:30 pm
Gold Coast Suns head of footy Wayne Campbell has leapt to the defence of superstar Matt Rowell after the midfielder was at the centre of an umpire contact controversy.
The former no.1 pick has been fined four times in the last two years for umpire contact and it is this sort of frequent careless contact which caused the AFL to act.
The league introduced a rule which meant that any player charged with careless umpire contact four times within two seasons could be referred to the Tribunal.
Suns coach Damien Hardwick labelled the change as “frustrating” and thought some of Rowell’s fines were “laughable”.
After the 41-point victory over Essendon on the weekend, a defiant Rowell declared he hadn’t changed anything about how he approaches each stoppage and he would “just keep doing me”.
Campbell said that this wasn’t entirely true and declared that the club and Rowell had addressed the issue and made some changes.
“I don’t think it came out quite like he intended,” Campbell told SEN’s Sportsday.
“A bit of context, we’ve spoken a bit to Matt about the umpire contact thing and we actually presented to the group a couple of weeks ago just around the rule and everything.
“As the former umpires’ boss, I was very conscious of umpire health and safety.
“We don’t want players running into umpires and we certainly don’t want Matt running into umpires.
“The three times he’s been done this year he hasn’t run into an umpire he’s just sort of clipped them, but we understand the stance that the AFL has made.
“We absolutely respect that, and he’s tried to make some changes around that and in fact a couple of weeks ago against the Giants he made some changes and still got fined.”
Campbell believes Rowell was a bit taken aback by the line of questioning after the Suns produced a solid away win in his milestone game.
“I think the interview after the game, it was his 100th game, he’s won a big game and all of a sudden he’s talking about umpire contact,” Campbell added.
“I think he was just taken a little bit aback by that, he’s cool with it all he understands he’s got a role to play and understands the umpires have got a role to play.
“He will do his absolute best without it being his number one focus because he actually does have to play footy and go and win the footy.
“He will try and make sure he doesn’t go anywhere near umpires.”
Rowell will be back in action on Friday night when Gold Coast host ladder leaders Collingwood at People’s First Stadium in what looms as a season-defining clash for the Suns.
