Lloyd said the first free kick paid against O’Connor “was not there at all”.
“He could be potentially fined for staging,” Lloyd said during the 3AW commentary. “O’Connor just gave him a little push in the back, he goes down, and sucked the umpire in.”
Match review officer Michael Christian will sit down today to review Friday night’s match.
Speaking on SEN on Saturday, former West Coast premiership coach Adam Simpson said Rayner “flopped” to win the free kick.
“It’s not normally in finals when … you never want to show any weakness, I suppose, so when you flop like that, it’s odd,” Simpson said.
“It wasn’t a great couple of minutes for the umpires, but also I was a bit surprised that Rayner flopped like he did.”
Cam Rayner is paid a second free kick in the goal square.Credit: Channel Seven
Geelong Brownlow medallist Jimmy Bartel said the field umpire should have put the whistle away after the initial O’Connor shove on Rayner.
“Two goals from decisions where the umpire should have just gone, ‘get up’. Let them know, ‘I’m watching, but get up, cut the rot’,” Bartel said.
“I get the second one being paid to Rayner for Guthrie coming in and being silly. That was just dumb.
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“[But] Rayner was always going to suck Guthrie in with that one. As soon as he felt contact, he was going to go down again. But it was a poor moment from the umpires.”
Minutes before the double free kick, Wallace had words with O’Connor about his close-checking on Rayner, which had continually frustrated the star Lion.
Earlier in the second term, Brisbane forward Kai Lohmann was paid a free kick and goaled in similar fashion. He was shoved from the front by defender Tom Stewart and fell backwards.
Geelong midfielder Tom Atkins did not see the Rayner incident, but said the Cats had to regroup after a “pretty costly two minutes”.
“We had to re-centre ourselves and get focused on the next contest,” Atkins told 3AW on Saturday.
“I think we’re able to do that after half-time. I feel like the way Mark O’Connor especially handled himself after the free kick was really symbolic of how we as a team want to be.
“He had every right to go back at Rayner after Rayner was getting in his face. So, yeah, that’s sort of the way we want to be. We want to be cold and aggressive.”
Bitter blow for Neale
Brisbane will be expecting the worst and hoping for the best when Lachie Neale undergoes scans on a troublesome calf that looks like wiping him out for the rest of the finals series.
Lachie Neale slumps to the ground after suffering a calf injury. Credit: AFL Photos
The loss for the injury-ravaged Lions is compounded by the realisation that roaming forward Eric Hipwood is unlikely to be available for next week’s second semi-final at the Gabba as he continues to battle with leg injuries.
Neale, a dual Brownlow medallist, hobbled of the ground late in the game against Geelong at the MCG on Friday night and looked despondent as he iced the injury on the bench.
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“Looks like he’s done [his] calf. So, that’s not a good thing,” coach Chris Fagan said after the game.
“He’s a pretty tough sort of guy, he can usually play through those, but he couldn’t [tonight], so I’m not expecting great news there.
“I don’t know the severity because you need to get a scan to find that out … I’d suspect it’s something significant.”
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