Umpire farce - Getting worse by the minute!

[KnightersRevenge]

There's merit in the first two points, not sure where the whistle theory comes from though!

What exactly is this 'hard data' supposed to be proving? All that data shows is like every single statistical measure in the competition, there are teams who are better and teams that are worse at it. It says absolutely nothing about the level of umpiring whatsoever.

I would agree that this says nothing about umpiring standards if this table was of % frees paid and the edges were closer to the mean. But it is straight stats and the trend is running for 5 years. Just regression to the mean should see us float around and move back towards the middle over that time. We are not an "aggressive" side (as in we don't play dirty) so I don't accept that we infringe more than other teams and thus skew the stats that way. There is something else going on. Whether it is subconscious I don't know. But I think it worth pointing out. Publicly. It is crazy to me that the commentators don't mention it more. It is a very one-sided stat.

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

I feel for the umpires here because over the years they have copped a hiding for the 'soft' free kicks as well. Personally I don't mind the approach that leans more towards letting it flow a bit, and not paying the more incidental kicks.

Hence we receive much better treatment in finals where the ledger is almost square after 12 games. I'd like to think it's due to better, in-form umpires rather than different interpretations for finals.

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

An umpire's advocate might suggest it could also be because our players lift their standards in finals as well.

He might suggest it but I'd counter by suggesting players are more desperate and less "respectful" in finals.

 

[KnightersRevenge]

An umpire's advocate might suggest it could also be because our players lift their standards in finals as well.

They might. And I'd call *smile*. The biggest difference is having the top umpires available. The way they staff the umpires in finals proves they know some are better than others. That it's not a lottery should tell us something.

 

[DavidSSS]

I feel for the umpires here because over the years they have copped a hiding for the 'soft' free kicks as well. Personally I don't mind the approach that leans more towards letting it flow a bit, and not paying the more incidental kicks.

I tend towards enforcing the rules as written, and write them better if too many "soft" free kicks are given. In any case, define "soft" and use the word "consistent" in your definition.

I also think something often overlooked is when we watch the game on TV, and in most instances at the ground, we are looking at the game from a completely different perspective to the umpires, who tend to be inside looking out more often. Sometimes what we think is being ignored just isn't available to them as it is us.

We all know this happens, but some free kicks are bleedingly obvious and right next to the umpire yet not paid. There's 3 of them out there, if they need to position better then it comes back to the same thing - competence.

I always remember being at the footy back in the 1970s, at Kardinia Park, probably 1976 or later so would have been 2 umpires. A Geelong player did a fair dinkum rugby throw out of a pack. Crowd goes wild, but calmed down quickly - it was in a pack, the player was throwing towards the boundary, it was obvious the umpire was never going to see it. The criticism was of the Geelong player more than the umpire, although we all conceded he knew what he was doing. That sort of stuff has always been accepted, grudgingly and with a fair bit of pointing out what happened.

We understand that we are seeing things from the boundary and umpires will tend to be more in the corridor, but some of the frees not paid are truly astounding.

DS

 

[Streak]

And they get away with 8 metre kicks especially off Daniels boot.
Half his kicks struggle to go 10 metres.

Everything to scale though Zips. He is so small that a 10m kick to anyone else is a 25m bullet pass from Daniels.

 

[Dont Argue]

An umpire's advocate might suggest it could also be because our players lift their standards in finals as well.

You really are scraping the barrel of umpire defence now TBR.
You previously suggested that we’re a rough, sloppy, desperate outfit who plays a brand that warrants frees against and then somehow transforms into a team of highly skilled angels in finals?
You’re sounding rather desperate. Have you been learning debating skills from my wife?

 

[LeeToRainesToRoach]

You're all assuming I'm talking about when the ball is in play but I'm not. I don't have access to the stats anymore but we used to rank highly in the out of play stuff. There was at least 2 of those on Saturday in a differential of 7. My feeling is we tidy that stuff up in finals.

Not sure they're a large component of the free kick differential.

Do other teams infringe off the ball? I saw Ben Long punch Rioli in the head the other week but apparently nobody else did. Port Adelaide's defence seems to do an inordinate amount of blocking without penalty.

Some umpires just seem highly attuned to our transgressions, as if they see what they're expecting to see.

 

[ceehook2]

Deboy won a house in a rigged raffle.














OK, "rigged" might be my interpretation.

But here's some discussion on his past misdemeanours.

Is Curtis Deboy a cheat?

He was also responsible for this travesty.

https://twitter.com/x/status/868415088931119105

the enthusiasm which he shows when awarding a free kick against us is a real worry

 

[Ridley]

Have I missed the press release from the AFL stating that the umpire was incorrect when he awarded a free kick to Kosi after he elbowed Nigel in the throat unprovoked?

Or was it deemed a correct free kick and the elbow to the throat that should have drawn the free kick is all in my head?

 

[tigermouseau]

Jason McCartney charged $20K just to vent frustration over the flogs. Pathetic.

Nothing about it being suspended? Boy how does Scott get off with a suspended fine (was that for talking to the umpires?). And McCartney - no suspended fine. Also talk of the club paying McCartney’s fine - AFL want to change this to the individual having to pay. More and more control to the AFL and less and less to the clubs, players etc.

 

[Harry]

Have I missed the press release from the AFL stating that the umpire was incorrect when he awarded a free kick to Kosi after he elbowed Nigel in the throat unprovoked?

Or was it deemed a correct free kick and the elbow to the throat that should have drawn the free kick is all in my head?

All in your head mate.

 

[CarnTheTiges]

Have I missed the press release from the AFL stating that the umpire was incorrect when he awarded a free kick to Kosi after he elbowed Nigel in the throat unprovoked?

Or was it deemed a correct free kick and the elbow to the throat that should have drawn the free kick is all in my head?

That would admitting that the umpire made a mistake and they will never do that.

 

[TigerMasochist]

I feel for the umpires here because over the years they have copped a hiding for the 'soft' free kicks as well. Personally I don't mind the approach that leans more towards letting it flow a bit, and not paying the more incidental kicks.

I also think something often overlooked is when we watch the game on TV, and in most instances at the ground, we are looking at the game from a completely different perspective to the umpires, who tend to be inside looking out more often. Sometimes what we think is being ignored just isn't available to them as it is us.

Poor umpires, you're happy enough for them not to pay soft free kicks. But you can guarantee the bastards will let half a dozen blatantly obvious free kicks blow away on the breeze, then suddenly delve deep into their dates to pluck out the most innocuous insignificant free kick possible.

Maybe we need ten maggots out there every game so they can get a few more angles and a better perspective of the game. Or we could just get them to open their *smile* eyes n pay attention for a couple of hours.

 

[JamesTiger82]

There are some games where I honestly feel we could show up with the sole intention of winning the free kick count yet the only way we could do it would be to play so meekly that we could be accused of not trying or tanking. Now that's demoralising.

 

[zippadeee]

On fox tonight they showed the 93 preliminary final where Adelaide lost from 42 pts up.
Then one of the commentators said the free kick count is 32 to 16.
No wonder Essendon won the game

 

[MD Jazz]

I would hope the umps are ready to penalise the barrage of throws that will be released by the dogs tonight. I've even noticed commentators talking about it a bit. It's an epidemic, led by the bulldogs. I half think Treloar was targeted by them because of his expertise in this area.

 

[Harry]

I would hope the umps are ready to penalise the barrage of throws that will be released by the dogs tonight. I've even noticed commentators talking about it a bit. It's an epidemic, led by the bulldogs. I half think Treloar was targeted by them because of his expertise in this area.

yep - with our expected blitz to be applied tonight expect them throw and shovel the ball around and the umps will do FA about it.

 

[Smoking Aces]

Expecting this thread to get an almighty workout tonight.

 

[zippadeee]

We will absolutly get murdered tonight.
The throws, the ducks, the holding the ball and the 11 metre passes