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The AFL’s general manager of football Mark Evans has conceded that umpiring mistakes were made during Adelaide’s loss to the Western Bulldogs, but stands by the umpire who paid 17 to one free kicks in favour of the Bulldogs.
“Absolutely,” Evans told Rowey and Bicks on FIVEAA when asked whether mistakes were made.
“The free kick count was a heavily skewed count, not that it has to be equal. But certainly every time you see something like that you look for what are the errors.
“You look at missed free kicks and you look at the incorrect free kicks that were paid.
“Some of those certainly favoured the Bulldogs, and some of those favoured Adelaide. When you look at them on balance, the differential would’ve been closer but it would not have ended up equal.
“A couple would’ve come off the Bulldogs and certainly some more would’ve been added to Adelaide.
“The gap would’ve come down by about a third,” he said.
LISTEN TO MARK EVANS HERE:
Evans backed in umpire Troy Pannell who has been put under the microscope this week after he paid 17 to one free kicks in favour of the Bulldogs and made friendly physical contact with Bulldog Jake Stringer.
“He’s had a very, very good year. It would be akin to having a good player who’s had a good year and even if they had a bad performance do you drop them?” Evans said.
“What do you actually gain out of that?
“He will absolutely umpire this week.”
