A pair of VFL players are in hot water after both making significant contact with an umpire.
Essendon’s Tyler Sellers and St Kilda’s Joshua Clarke collided on the boundary line at Windy Hill on Sunday and inadvertently made collateral damage of a field umpire.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Umpire cops two accidental bumps in one second
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The ball was out of bounds and Sellers was heading back to his position with his head down when he accidentally ran straight into the umpire, who didn’t see the contact coming.
Clarke then compounded the incident by attempting to body check Sellers, only to push his him further into the umpire.
Clarke’s bump caught Sellers on the left side of his body and forced his hand into the face of the umpire.
Both players immediately apologised for the contact but, accidental or not, the AFL takes a dim view on any umpire contact.
It comes just one day after AFL umpire Nick Brown was caught in the crosshairs of a melee between Collingwood and Gold Coast.
It all started when Bailey Humphrey kicked a goal in the final minute of the second quarter after a questionable free kick.
It had started to kick off in the background between other players, including Nick Daicos and Noah Anderson, but things escalated when an unsuspecting Brayden Maynard was crunched by Ben Long after the goal.
Maynard had been fronting up to Humphrey and was caught completely unaware when Long came in from the side with a brutal hit to the ribs.
He took a while to get up as players came from all angles to remonstrate.
Things eventually diffused as the ball went back to the middle, but it all kicked off again as soon as the siren went for half-time.
Maynard, who had appeared to say “you are f*****”, charged towards Long. As he got close to his intended target, he appeared to push away umpire Brown, who was in the vicinity.
Maynard and Long did exchange words during the fiery confrontation before they were pulled away and players from everywhere came in.
“This is out of control. The umpires can’t do anything,” Anthony Hudson said in commentary.
