Wodonga Raiders’ coach Daryn Cresswell has called on the umpires to act on blatant and illegal tagging.
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Albury’s Will Blomeley shut down dangerman Matt Neagle, scragging him at one stage when the ball was 40m away in the first quarter.
A frustrated Cresswell approached the umpires at half-time with Neagle, motioning that he was being stopped from playing his natural game.
There’s no suggestion though that the Raiders’ mentor said or did anything untoward to the officials.
And in something of a rarity, Cresswell even admitted his own player Daniel Bond played a similar role on Tigers’ star Daniel Cross.
The Raiders’ mentor was quizzed about approaching the umpires.
“I’d rather not say, but I was pretty disappointed,” he said.
But when pushed, Cresswell opened up on the matter.
“Matty has to learn from that too, I think ‘Crossy’ copped a fair bit of attention as well, probably went both ways to be honest,” he said.
“I think Blomeley did a really good job on him again.”
Blomeley was at the centre of last year’s fieriest match when he produced one of the closest lock-down jobs of the modern era on Yarrawonga’s Mark Whiley, often making contact when the ball was 70m away.
“That’s what ‘Blom’ brings to the table, he’s very determined, they were getting stuck into him a fair bit, but he stuck to his task and played his role,” Albury co-coach Shaun Daly said.
At one stage, an umpire was specifically watching Blomeley and Neagle, but no free kick was given in that instance.
And the umpires had no issue with Cresswell’s intervention.
“As far as I’m concerned, nothing happened,” AFL North East Border field umpires’ coach Shane Downie said.
Cresswell was asked if free kicks should be paid when players are scragged off the ball.
“Yeah, definitely, umpires have got to be on their wits, they know who the best players in the competition are, whether that’s ‘Crossy’ or Matt Neagle or (North Albury co-coach Chris Schmidt) ‘Schmidty’ or Matt Kelly, if a player’s scragged, if you pay one early, it sets a precedent and pretty much stops players from retarding,” he said.
“They’re pretty smart the run-with players blocking space, I’d certainly like to see it looked at.”