Mark Robinson and Jon Anderson say Stephen Milne was sucked in against Collingwood but the umpires didn't do him any favours

FIELD umpire Dean Margetts will retain his place this week despite the AFL umpires department ruling his game-saving free kick to Collingwood defender Harry O'Brien was a mistake.

Umpires director Jeff Gieschen said today it was an isolated mistake in an otherwise solid performance.

"He'll be umpiring again this week. In hindsight, with replays and slow-mos, we can see that the contact was so minimal that we wouldn't pay a free kick. But he has to make a call in the heat of battle,'' Gieschen said.

Margetts' whistle to pay the free kick to O'Brien for mark interference by St Kilda forward Stephen Milne stopped Saint David Armitage from kicking a goal from close range that would have tied the scores with only seconds left in Saturday night's game.

"We deemed it to be an unwarranted free kick to O'Brien. It was not a chop of the arms or interfering with the arms because there was no contact to the arms,'' Gieschen said.

"If anything, Milne did turn and run with the flight of the ball with his eyes on his opponent, but the contact he made was very minimal. There was not enough contact from the front to constitute a free kick.''

The umpires boss likened the judgment error to one by a player at a similarly crucial time of a game.

"Over the course of the game, we're talking about one 50-50 decision out of hundreds that the umpire would've made,'' Gieschen said.

"If there was a trend there or a pattern in making errors throughout the game, that would be different. But Dean umpired very well. You could liken it to a player, because he missed one set shot for goal from 15m out, are you going to drop him on that? Probably not.

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"In this case we deemed it to be unwarranted, but that's not to say he didn't have his reasons for paying that free kick.''

Gieschen said the umpires' review had backed the play-on call from Hawthorn forward Cyril Rioli's tackle on Geelong's Mitch Duncan in the frantic final minute of last Friday night's game.

"By the time he (Duncan) took the ball and took one step to turn to kick and another step to balance to kick, he was tackled by Rioli,'' he said.

"In that case we've deemed that he hadn't had a prior opportunity. Had he taken three or four paces, that would've been different. So, we're comfortable with the play-on call there.''