If exiled Sydney Swans full-forward Barry Hall was ever given the sort of soft free kick that came Jack Anthony's way in the final minute of Saturday night's game - thus setting up a famous, and fortunate, Collingwood victory - I reckon the big bloke would still be running around in the Blood-Stained Angel's No.1 guernsey and kicking plenty of goals.

That was the odd thought that struck me after seeing umpire Shane McInerney put the whistle to his mouth, signal an arm grab against Adelaide's Ben Rutten, and award Anthony the free kick that put the Pies through to the preliminary final.

How Hall must have been laughing in his living room as he watched that. LOL even. Yes, the infringement was there if you looked closely enough but that sort of grappling incident goes unpenalised 25 times a match. Why did the umpire feel the need to step in that one time? Normally, the umps put the whistle away when the match is in the balance like that - and leave it to the players to sort out the result.

Some have praised McInerney's courage in making the big call. I don't know about that. If the umpires penalised the full-back, or any other arm grabbers for that matter, consistently throughout the game, everyone would feel more comfortable with how this match ended. But that didn't happen. One holding decision was plucked one out indiscriminately at the 30-minute of the final quarter in a semi-final. That left a sour taste in the mouths of all who like to see a fair contest played out to its logical conclusion.

Hall had to put up with full-backs hanging off him, tweaking his ear, putting him in a sleeper hold and giving him the half-Nelson - often all at the same time. And still he'd be lucky to win a free kick every third match. No wonder his coach, the normally mild-mannered Paul Roos, was almost at his wit's end in trying to get some justice for the big bloke.

Consider this: in 14 seasons of AFL football, Hall never once received more free kicks than he gave away. His total tally after 250 AFL games - before he walked off into the sunset, shaking his head - was 180 for, 341 against.

His last three seasons at Sydney produced these figures: 2007 - 19 frees for, 41 against; 2008 - 13 for, 29 against; 2009 - 9 for, 24 against.

I should point out here I'm no Swans fan. On this score, I'm very much a neutral. But I can't stand it when some players are discriminated against only because of their reputation as a tough guy (Hall, Dermott Brereton, Dean Wallis, Wayne Carey etc), or a mug lair (Jason Akermanis, Steve Johnson, Buddy Franklin etc). All players should be judged by umpires only on what they do in the course of a match - not what they might do.

Already I can hear some people at the back of the room saying: but Hall's a trained boxer and a well-known thug, what does he expect from the men in white? An armchair ride?

But what came first: the chicken or the egg? Hall continually being denied free kicks - or the anger that resulted from being given no protection? When he eventually did take matters into his own hands - for which there can be no justification - Hall simply confirmed in the umpires' minds what they'd suspected all along: that he was a loose and dangerous cannon.

There's a final, ironic twist which neatly weaves the Anthony and Hall cases together. On the three-quarter time siren of Sydney's round-13 clash against Adelaide, Hall was reported for punching - guess who? - Ben Rutten in the face, an act of stupidity that later earned him a two-match suspension.

But maybe his arm was being grabbed by Rutten in the passage of play immediately preceding that, who's to say? A short time later, Hall announced his resignation as a Sydney player.

So, Jack Anthony and Collingwood, consider yourselves mighty lucky. Blessed even. One suspects if it was Barry Hall being held by Rutten near the Punt Rd 50-metre arc on Saturday night, we might have seen a quite different interpretation of the holding rule applied - and a quite different result.