Fans condemned for throwing bottles at umpires after prelim heartbreak

Ugly scenes erupted at the MCG on Saturday night as fans threw bottles onto the ground, narrowly missing umpires as they walked off the turf after a pulsating finish to the preliminary final between Hawthorn and Brisbane.

Dozens of water bottles and cans rained down on the ground after Brisbane’s nine-point victory, when Hawthorn fans booed the umpires and vented their fury to a series of high-stakes decisions in the match’s dying minutes.

Footage showed one field umpire, Jacob Mollison, reacting quickly to protect his colleague from a projectile that appeared to have been thrown from the second level of the stadium.

The ugly scenes triggered a blunt reaction from AFL figures: “They should not have things thrown at them. A bottle’s come down from the top tier,” said commentator Luke Hodge, who played for both Hawthorn and Brisbane.

The Lions clawed back the lead moments before the final siren when Hawks defender Jarman Impey was pinged for holding the ball and Lion Hugh McCluggage cooly slotted the resultant set-shot goal.

Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell said he understood the fans’ emotions, but condemned their behaviour.

“The emotion of sport, it’s why we love it so much,” he said in his post-match press conference. “All sports, but ours in particular – the beauty is the emotion it makes you feel. At the end of the game, part of me wanted to break down in tears. Part of me wanted to scream with rage. Part of me wanted to throw chairs.

“When you’re in the stands, you need to continue to feel that emotion, but we shouldn’t be throwing things on the field.

AFL Fans Association president Ron Issko said on Sunday the spectacle had left him stunned.

“I’ve never seen a collective doing what they did like that,” he told this masthead.

“It wasn’t just one or two or five people. It looked like it was a few hundred people around the entire ground throwing stuff onto the ground. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

Issko said the sheer number of fans participating in the ugly spectacle made the incident different to previous throwing incidents. Earlier this year, Hawks star Nick Watson claimed he had a Coke bottle thrown at him in a match against Sydney, while a fan who threw a lemon at Eagles player Reuben Ginbey was banned for five years.

“If we can find people that threw it, even though we’re not going to catch everyone, they should face consequences, that’s just not the fans that the AFL fans association represent,” he said.

“It’s just not on. If you want to do that to umpires, we won’t have umpires and we won’t have a game of footy.”