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Collingwood legend Tony Shaw has called on Hawthorn to seek answers from the AFL on the way Jack Ginnivan is officiated.
Ginnivan was at the centre of the Hawks’ 36-point loss to the Cats on Easter Monday but across the match, several contentious high free kicks in favour of the 20-year-old went unpaid — conspicuously to footy pundits.
The forward developed a reputation for ducking into tackles and playing for free kicks during his three seasons with Collingwood before he was traded to Hawthorn in the off-season.
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While finishing the match with two scoring shots and 11 disposals, Ginnivan was taken high in several passages of play with no free kick awarded from the umpires.
As the tally mounted, Shaw implied that the umpires were refusing to award the forward free kicks for high tackles because of his previous imitations.
“I reckon there has to be something looked at with the Ginnivan thing,” Shaw told 3AW Football.
“He does duck sometimes and I don’t mind if they don’t pay that bit but there’s been a couple, probably two or three, genuine free kicks.”
While Matthew Richardson agreed commentator Anthony Hudson was not convinced that umpires were blatantly denying calls in Ginnivan’s favour.
“I agree he’s been hard done by today but because of the technique he uses, the umpires, they don’t really know whether to pay it or not so they err on the side of not paying it,” he said.
Shaw replied: “But if you’re standing up, and there’s be a couple where he has been standing up, but it’s still tackled around [the neck].”
“You’ve got to go around his hips, not his head.”
Hudson explained that the umpires could be refraining from blowing their whistle to avoid incorrect calls that benefit Ginnivan, at the expense of awarding him lawful free kicks.
“The rule is, if you contribute to it, you don’t get the free kick,” he said.
“So, I think they’re just not paying it. Which as you said, it’s not fair.”
During the broadcast, AFL great Brian Taylor also criticised the umpires for their “remarkable” treatment of Ginnivan.
“That’s twice he’s been clearly tackled around the head,” he said in commentary for Seven.
“I don’t think he bent at the knees until he was clearly tackled around the head. I reckon he’s deserved a couple today he hasn’t got.
“It’s been remarkable. There’d been at least three, possibly five today against Ginnivan they have not paid simply because of the history. He can consider himself very unlucky today.”
Hawthorn great Luke Hodge added: “Jack is pleading with the umpires at this stage. He just wants one”.
“I hope the umpires go through and have a look at a couple of those. Yes, he has faked those in the past but there’s been a decent number of legit ones they haven’t paid.”
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