Let’s get loud – NOT!

The noise comes at you thick and fast at the footy these days.

They call it fan engagement and when the normal ebbs and flow of the game doesn’t engage the fans enough, that’s when the engagers get to work.

These days we are strongly encouraged, perhaps even implored, to cheer when our team runs out, something fans had been doing for 150 years without needing prompting.

We are urged to “MAKE SOME NOISE” at various stages during the game, forgetting that supporters have been savvy enough, again, for more than a century, to know when to barrack and when their team needs a gee-up.

Of course, go to the footy these days and there is sound – such as music after goals – coming at you when for so long there was not.

I blame Essendon. Playing ‘J-Lo’s’ Let’s Get Loud after every goal in their early days at Marvel Stadium started us down the slippery slope to the infernal football experience of 2023.

Now there’s ‘Kiss Cam’, ‘Dance Cam’ and the worst, ‘Oblivious Cam’.

Pity the poor bloke (it’s always a bloke) enjoying his half-time solitude, reading his AFL Record, checking the stats or even just playing Wordle … with 40,000 people waiting for him to notice himself on the scoreboard.

Running races against an LED figure, goalkicking competitions … the white noise at the footy never stops. Heaven forbid, there should a few minutes of quiet contemplation, or chat among yourselves between quarters. At the footy in 2023, there is always someone talking at you.

Except when they’re not. And when they should be.

In the dying moments of Saturday’s North Melbourne-Sydney clash at Marvel Stadium, umpire Nick Brown paused before a ball-up deep in Sydney’s forward line, took some instruction from the interchange bench and paid a free kick and a 50m penalty to Swan ruckman Hayden McLean for an interchange transgression by the Kangaroos.

As we know now, McLean kicked the goal to hand the Swans a most unlikely three-point win.

There was initial confusion among the players, which was cleared up once Brown turned to McLean and said: “Hayden. It’s your free kick for an interchange breach.” The viewers watching on TV got the full picture thanks to the umpire being mic’d up.

But the fans at the ground? They heard or knew nothing as to why the free kick was paid out of the blue. Those listening to the radio or scanning social media at the same time would soon have an inkling, but otherwise, there was no formal announcement.

Not for a minute do we condone the abuse and the throwing of debris that followed after the final siren, but the confusion and fury felt by North supporters was understandable.

And avoidable. Fans are given clear and concise explanations by the ARC following score reviews, so why not an explanation for a decision that came at the most critical juncture and that pretty much decided the game?

AFL footy moves at warp speed, so we cannot go down the path of, say, the NFL, whose stop-start nature affords the referee time to get on the mic and explain every decision to those at the game.

But what is noticeable while watching the current NBA playoffs is the microphone placed on the officials table at midcourt so that the referees can explain reviewable calls to everyone – in the stadium and watching around the world.

A simple explanation from the ARC would have turned the temperature down a notch or two at Marvel Stadium late Saturday afternoon.

It probably wouldn’t have appeased North fans, but at least they could have directed their venom where it was warranted –to their bench officials who failed to realise that the 75-interchange limit had been reached.

There is a time and place for fan engagement at the footy and that, precisely, is it.

@hashbrowne