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Shaun Higgins confirms he couldn't hear play-on call in North Melbourne loss to Western Bulldogs

Daniel Cherny
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North Melbourne's Shaun Higgins has questioned why there was no shot clock on the big screen when he did not hear the play-on call that led to him being stripped of the ball at a key moment of his side's one-point loss to the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.

North coach Brad Scott had earlier been bereft of answers about several contentious umpiring decisions during the loss, which was North's third in a row, all but ending their already slim finals hopes given they are 4-9 with nine rounds to play.

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Down for most of the night, and 26 points in arrears approaching the midway point of the final quarter, the Roos almost pulled a rabbit out of their hat, kicking four goals to cut the gap to just a single point before key forward Ben Brown looked to have put them in front, only for his third goal of the night to be disallowed because of blocking a free kick against teammate Mason Wood.

Higgins then snapped a behind to level the scores, but Bulldog Jake Stringer kicked the winning behind moments later to deliver the four points for his side.

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Higgins and Stringer had been involved in probably the most controversial decision of the night, a play-on call late in the third quarter in which the unknowing Higgins was run down from behind by his former Dogs teammate after his set shot time elapsed.

Higgins was lining up for a shot from about 50 metres out when he was called to play after his 30 seconds ran out. Higgins did not appear to hear the call, which was clearly audible to television viewers, but not to the Roo, given the call had been made by an umpire about 40 metres away, not the official closest to Higgins.

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There was no shot-clock countdown on the Etihad big screen as the kick was being taken in the last two minutes of the quarter, a rule brought in after Wood milked time late in a game against St Kilda last year.

"I didn't hear a lot, which was the issue," Higgins told Channel Seven's AFL Game Day on Sunday.

"I think most players now are programmed to look up and check the shot clock ... there was no shot clock there.

"I think Jake Stringer probably was the only one who could see the umpire call play-on.

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AFL Round 14 Western Bulldogs vs North Melbourne

"It goes more to the point of why not just have the shot clock the whole time?"

Bulldog Lachie Hunter said he was standing next to the man on the mark, and didn't hear the call either.

Those particular flashpoints, combined with a 16-4 half-time free kick count in the Dogs' favour, a tally which ended 26-13, meant the officials were going to be a major talking point.

Doubtless wary of the potential to again be fined for comments about the umpires, Scott was careful with his words. "We can talk about it," Scott said, before checking himself.

"Well, we can't talk about it. You can talk about it and I can just sit here and say 'I can't talk about it.'"

Asked specifically about the Higgins decision, Scott questioned whether the application of the rule was overly harsh. "We've just got to be a little bit smarter in terms of, it's easy for everyone at home to hear the umpires because they're mic'd up," he said.

"We have our bench screaming at our players from 10 metres away and they can't hear them. Just a little bit of common sense around [whether] the player [can] hear you or not.

"Our fans will demand answers, but unfortunately I can't give them to them. That's for others to talk about and to get some feedback. The AFL will look at it and tell them that they got it all right, and we move on."

Mindful of not drawing the ire of AFL football operations manager Simon Lethlean, Scott then pulled up slightly. "That's a joke Lethers," he said.

Scott insisted however that the umpiring hadn't been a focus at half-time, despite the lopsided count. "We didn't talk about it at all. We didn't mention it for a microsecond.

"I'm not telling you that you're not frustrated at certain times, obviously everyone associated with North Melbourne are frustrated at certain times in the first half in particular, but what are you going to do about it?"

Overall Scott said that there was much to be taken from his side's showing after lacklustre performances against Richmond and St Kilda either side of the mid-season bye.

"I'm more concerned about getting a bit of our identity back as a team, and I thought after the previous two games, where we didn't look anything we produced earlier in the year in terms of the way we want to play, and I thought tonight, particularly after half-time, it was much better," he said.

Scott also downplayed concerns about captain Jack Ziebell's shoulder, noting that Ziebell would not have returned to the field late in the game, as he did, if there had been risk of further injury after the midfielder received some medical attention during the second half.

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