You should go to confession and say 10 hail marys because you are telling pork pies. Very naughty boy.Just to make David the Cat feel better.
The umpires were downright lousy, with many "interpretations" changing depending on the time of the game, and/or the colour of the guernsey. They were also far removed from the season to date.
As happens every week, Franklin was consistently held, had his arms chopped, hit across the head, etc in contests. So was Bruest - indeed many of our players. Mitchell was held dozens of times around the contest. Pyke gave away the most blatant push in the back all season. Malceski looked for and dived at an opponent's legs. Franklin was pinged for high tackle despite never going above the bicep, Lewis was pinged for in the back and then reported despite laying a "perfect tackle" as his opponent threw himself into the turf.
Puopolo was tackled immediately on possession - and actually wasn't even spun the 360 despite most media claims - based on the flow of this game it was as likely to be a ball-up as holding the ball. A knee to the head will ALWAYS be paid, especially when to a 'prone' player. (You cannot possibly allow Malceski's dive onto a stationary leg to be paid, and criticize the Puopolo decision).
Before Burgoyne kicked downfield, the first touch after the free kick was paid was by a Swan. There were 4-5 players in the area, and none stopped playing the ball. The umpires decision was, whilst suprising, clearly reflective of the way the players in the immediate vacinity reacted.
The 17-4 free kick count at half time was completely and utterly reflective of the umpire's one-sidedness. The fact that when Hawthorn dominated to the same extent in the second half the count was only 8-8 is damning. Numbers mean little, but had the early calls been "fair", somewhere in the realms of 15-10 then there would be no argument on any of the other decisions.
I don't have the stats this time round, (looking forward to watching later this week) but McBurney has history, with previous >10 free kick differentials against Hawthorn in games against Geelong and Essendon.
