St Kilda coach Brett Ratten has called out the umpires after his side’s defeat to Geelong, questioning the lack of holding the ball calls in the match.
Ratten’s Saints dominated around the ground in the first half, but let themselves down in front of goal, allowing Geelong to run out 21-point winners.
While the free-kick count was relatively even throughout the contest (13-12 Geelong’s way), Ratten was left miffed after his side laid 87 tackles and received just three holding the ball decisions in their favour.
Following the match, a frustrated Ratten lamented the lack of reward for his players’ effort around the contest against a fierce Geelong side.
“To think you’d have (87) tackles, I thought we out-tackled them, and you get three free-kicks for the day?” he told reporters.
“I don’t know if it’s worth tackling, just set up behind the ball and flood back. I don’t think we got reward for our effort in the tackling component of the game.
“That was slightly disappointing, but the players’ effort and what they did was quite good, we just didn’t do what we wanted to and that was put it through the sticks.
“I feel for the players. To have (87) and get three holding the balls, it’d be interesting to have a look at how those balls got distributed. If that’s a handball, (then) jeepers.”
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