AFL UMPIRES manager Jeff Gieschen has defended under fire officiator Ray Chamberlain and his fellow umpires over their performance during Fremantle's win over the Sydney Swans at the SCG on Sunday.
Several decisions during the 11-point loss irked the Swans, with coach John Longmire emailing the AFL umpiring department on Monday seeking clarification.
But Gieschen rated the umpires' performance in the SCG match as 'fine', suggesting much of the angst stemmed from the number of goals resulting from the infringements.
"Whenever you have goals from free kicks or 50s, it gets the fans excited, it gets the clubs excited, everybody gets a little bit emotive about what happened," Gieschen said on his weekly afl.com.au show 'What's Your Decision?' on Tuesday night.
"But the bottom line is, when we drill back into all of those decisions, the vast majority were there."
On the show, Gieschen examined 50m penalties against Tadhg Kennelly and Jesse White, a holding the ball against Nick Malceski and a throw paid against Heath Grundy with a minute remaining.
He gave all four decisions his tick of approval.
Chamberlain came in for particular scorn on supporter forums and social networking sites, but Gieschen said he was comfortable with the "bubbly, gregarious" umpire showing his personality, provided his umpiring maintained a high standard.
"Ray's one of our very best umpires," the umpires' boss said.
"We have a lot of commentators who are fixated on Ray and watch and commentate every move he makes.
"He attracts a lot of attention, everybody knows who he is, and some people don't like the way he goes about his business.
"From our perspective, the key thing is that Ray umpires well; he awards free kicks in a very appropriate manner.
"Yes, he has got a different personality.
"He does his best to make sure he manages his behaviour and his communication, and he does that very well most of the time.
"On the odd occasion he might step across the line … that's up to his coaches and myself to make sure he's pulled back in."
Watch 'What's Your Decision?' for vision of the four incidents and Gieschen's full explanation, plus his verdict on:
- Holding the ball decisions against Essendon's Angus Monfries, Collingwood's Sharrod Wellingham and Brisbane Lions' Joel Patfull
- A possible missed free kick to North Melbourne's Scott McMahon for an infringement by Western Bulldog Robert Murphy in a marking contest
