I HAVE two beefs to get off my chest this week.

The first one is about the outdated, antiquated procedure of umpires laying match-day reports.

Richmond’s Nick Vlastuin and Jacob Townsend, and Essen­don’s Patrick Ambrose were all reported over the weekend, but subsequently cleared when the match review panel had a closer look on Monday.

When we looked over the footage on Bounce on Sunday night, it was clear none of these players was in any strife.

Umpires have to stop ­reporting players on match days. It’s pointless. We have a match review panel for that job. There are more than a dozen cameras homing in from every angle of the ground. It’s not going to be missed by anyone. The panel’s job is to comb the footage. Gone are the days of one umpire and no vision.

I can tell you from experience that being reported can throw your whole game, it changes your mindset. You’re thinking about what is going to happen during the week, you’re thinking about how your teammates will react, you’re wondering if you’ll be suspended, and, as a result, you play poorly.

Then you find it was all a big mistake on Monday, that the umpire was a bit over-excited. Thought he saw something.

Reporting is pointless. They review the footage anyway, ­regardless of whether your number has been taken or not.

Now, I’m sure the umpires are going out with instructions to continue to report players, but that mandate needs to change. There will not be an incident that goes unnoticed.

media_camera You’re booked, buddy!

Just leave the umpires to umpire the game and leave the judicial stuff to the panel of people employed to do it.

My second beef: The outrageous over-reaction from some Geelong supporters after Sunday’s loss to Greater Western Sydney.

Yes, it was a bad loss, but fair dinkum, reading some of the comments in the opinion page of the Geelong Advertiser made me furious. Please, can we all stop complaining about who the Cats don’t have on their list and worry about who they do have?

No one is a bigger Stevie Johnson fan than myself, but he is no longer here, neither is James Kelly or Mathew Stokes, or even Gary Ablett for that matter. Move on.

Footy is a ruthless business. I was traded from North Melbourne as a 19-year-old three days after playing in a premiership. It’s the reality.

Geelong has some unbelievable young players: Cory Gregson, Lincoln McCarthy, Nakia Cockatoo, Darcy Lang. Would these players be getting the same game time if Johnson, Stokes and Kelly were given the chance to squeeze out one more season? Probably not.

These young players are the core of Geelong’s next prem­iership, whenever that may be. They need to be given games. They’re not going to be world beaters in game 10 or 20 but neither were Kelly or Johnson, were they?

Nothing surprises me anymore. I even saw some criticism of Patrick Dangerfield. Has the world gone mad?

No player in the history of the game gets 43 possessions every week. Is that now a pass mark? Dangerfield was far from Geelong’s worst player, so if you want to direct your anger, direct it at the midfield group collectively, as they were smashed around the ball.

That was the major problem for me, not the individuals Geelong did or didn’t have.