The umpires have jumped the shark

[Dacksaredown]

The AFL have made it hard for them though, as soon as you have rules that have interpretation as part of the rule it becomes cloudy. Rules were once black and white. In fact the rules were very simple and basic once.
No head high contact
No tripping
Push in the back
Holding the man
Holding the ball
Incorrect disposal
15m kicking rule
Play on to advantage from behind the mark.

That was basically it, they still made mistakes but the rules were simple and not grey as they are now.
All those rules still exist except now they have a list of 20 lines underneath them of what ifs.
That is where the afl went wrong.

Look at something like the hands in back rule, it is a stupid rule that was never needed. The umpire decides if a player has been pushed or not and this worked fine. So they change it to this silly hands in back rule and even without pushing its a free.
Make it simple as it once was for the umpires.

Watch any VFL game and the umpires still use the old standard. It's like stepping back in time.

In fairness to umpires, I think the biggest change over the years is the speed of the game, it just keeps getting faster and quicker. Sometimes when I watch a game I'm sure it's something but then in slow motion it's something else. On the other hand, In terms of the basic rules though, sometimes I have no idea how they work, even after watching footy for decades.

 

[Pessimistic]

I think it needs to get worse enough for fans to stop accepting it as part of the game.

Time for serious changes IMO, the umpiring department is an absolute mess!

Wayne Campbell is proving to be a terribly reactionary 'leader'. No wonder my club was so poor under his leadership here, he even somehow made the umpires worse. The umpires!

Schwab was the best and we did the game a great disservice by appointing him as hawthorn coach

 

[andrew coombs]

I think it needs to get worse enough for fans to stop accepting it as part of the game.

Time for serious changes IMO, the umpiring department is an absolute mess!

Wayne Campbell is proving to be a terribly reactionary 'leader'. No wonder my club was so poor under his leadership here, he even somehow made the umpires worse. The umpires!

It is not Wayne Campbell's fault. He serves at the pleasure of Mark Evans and the AFL. The AFL are a spineless prisoner to public opinion, which is driven by the media. A scary reality is that the likes of Robinson and Wilson by virtue of their prominent media positions have a direct influence on the manner in which the AFL drives he game.

 

[andrew coombs]

Schwab was the best and we did the game a great disservice by appointing him as hawthorn coach

And us.

 

[pure demon]

The worst ones in the Lions - Roos game were the ruck frees. There seemed to be a dozen of them and it was a complete lucky dip as to who got it each time. Neither ruck man knew if is was his and what it was for. They all just looked completely bewildered. All the players had clearly had enough of the umpires by the end.

The umpiring was so bad that it was impossible to even predict how particular incidents would be interpreted from moment to moment. Then, late in the game they started calling play on after players from both sides had clearly taken marks and we're moving back to take kicks.

There seemed to be a mentality among the umpires that after two or three stoppages close together - find a free, any free.

The it was the same in the ess/port match. The ruck free kicks were the worst, and so confusing. I think in one mckernan engaged with lobbe, as ruckman do, a port player came third man up, and a free kick was arwarded against mckernan for blocking! And then there was the one where mckernan held lobbe out with a hand in the chest, free kick against for sheparding! Was awful

 

[kaiserchief13]

Honest question here - is there a rule for not playing in the spirit of the game Eg like Martin spraying water on Spurr yesterday?

 

[krisholio14]

It is not Wayne Campbell's fault. He serves at the pleasure of Mark Evans and the AFL. The AFL are a spineless prisoner to public opinion, which is driven by the media. A scary reality is that the likes of Robinson and Wilson by virtue of their prominent media positions have a direct influence on the manner in which the AFL drives he game.

People need to keep this in mind when criticizing the league.

As the saying goes - be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.

 

[Skoob]

If they umpired to the rules there would be 100 free kicks a game.
The umps have made some mistakes this weekend but clearly paying free's for infringing the rules opens up the game.
They can't really win, one week everyone complains about stoppages, they try to address it and they are still wrong.
What they are trying to do now is what it should always be, pay the free kicks for infringement to the rules. Make the coaches and players adjust to playing to the rules.

Agree.
Clearly an instruction to see if congestion can be arrested. I am fine with any infringement being penalised, however it seemed they were instructed to "find" more frees rather than pay more frees. In the Lions/North game, there were so many that were 'nothing'frees, while other obvious high contact, and in the back were let go/missed. They don't need to create more frees, they just need to pay what's there.
As someone said, there will be a backlash from the "let it go" crowd because frees are being paid for squirting water and a bit of wrestling in ruck contests or asking umpires what they're doing.
There has to be some balance. I wonder if it was explained to the umpires why more free kicks should be paid, or if they were simply asked to find more. I suspect the latter.

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if it was a deliberate exercise in pissing people off. Many complain about umpiring, and there is a growing consideration that congestion could be resolved with the application of rules. This would mean that until now, they haven't been doing it right. Maybe this week's farcical display has been about saying "See what happens if we pay more frees".

You can't pay 4 free kicks for backchat, when you have completely ignored high contact, holding the ball and incorrect disposal.

 

[Andrew Mc]

First month or so was as good as I've seen. Why they strayed from it is anyone's guess. Holding the ball is now a complete lottery.

So much this - first few weeks I thought "they've figured it out" - it was like finals umpiring. Sadly, that changed.

 

[Dacksaredown]

I've never seen a free for spraying someone with a water bottle. How exactly does a free kick like that reduce stoppages when the ball wasn't even in play?

 

[Freoforever86]

Pike must be dreading playing today. Nic Nat might set a record for free kicks received

 

[The_Ru]

It is wrong, it's against the rules. That they've decided to introduce the enforcing of the rule mid season is a bit confusing but the rule has been in place for a few seasons now and we've seen suspensions. I'd rather see free kicks than suspensions. You can argue against it or you can start to get your head around it because I'm tipping the sling tackle rules will be here to stay.

Which rule?

 

[eth-dog]

Last night was the first time I've seen a stiff arm in a ruck contest get a free. What about the other 100 million times it's happened since I've started watching?

 

[Rack Watts]

I turned off during the last quarter as the umpiring completely ruined my interest.

Dangerous tackle. WTF?

If by dangerous he meant perfect?

 

[RobbieGray17]

This is bullshit and unjust to go changing the rules mid season.

Fremantle being strong at stoppage style games will be disadvantaged, and now we expect them to change their gameplan to suit mid season rule changes.

Last night, they paid more than 5 very debatable free kicks for htb. Guy has no prior, HTB! They were trigger happy on everything including 50m penalties. This is an obvious instruction from the AFL re: state of the game, they don't like stoppages. If you start penalizing HTB for everything you will have guys kicking the ball off the ground, and refusing to get down and pick it up.

The Collingwood Port game last week was the best umpiring I've seen in a long time.

 

[RobbieGray17]

Yep our game..... we had 32 free kicks, they had 21, those are huge numbers....

Its the fact that they do it mid season. And Kennedy said a few weeks ago on whistle blowers that they don't change the rules as the season goes on. Every single year you can see a clear point, where there is a lot of debate in the media about a situation. Then the following week s**t loads of frees are paid in that area. They have no idea what they're doing.

 

[RobbieGray17]

Is that guy still going? Has to be the worst ever.

He had the best bounce in the game. I think it was the only one that wasn't thrown up

 

[bkozican]

They have officially lost the plot

 

[boncer34]

They keep saying they want to clear congestion but then we get the umpires running 6 laps of a pack where the ball is never coming out before balling up.

Quicker ball ups. Done.

 

[The Karma Bus]

It's so obvious they've been told to pay more frees to keep the ball moving downfield and break up stoppage after stoppage from occurring.
And something tiny in the ruck? Pay it guys. It will stop the ball hitting the ground and everyone trying to stack on.

This is their short term fix for what they see as a huge problem at the moment.

 

[Topkent]

The AFL wonders why there was 99k at the soccer an no one at the footy

You know why? Because soccer is the same sport that its always been and theres been like 3-4 major rule changes in history

Our sport is a shadow of what it was 10 years ago, and unrecognizable to 20 years ago,
The media has taken all the characters out of the game by panning them, the clubs have gotten athletes instead of footballers to play a running game which almost needs no skill anymore to play, the AFL has taken all physicality and passion out of the games so they are all bland and the same and the fans are turning off

If it continues down this path AFL will be a minority sport, kids dont want to play a game were you run all day and cant be physical

 

[Angus Young]

this bald prick umpiring tonight's dons/ port game is something else

That bald prick always goes with the home crowd..In the last 6 weeks i've seen him single handily rape port twice, the crows and west coast.
The prick has no spine, he just loves to please the crowd.

Back to the main topic. They are paying frees because of the media complaining about the game being held up and stoppages etc...
It's a disgrace.

This is how umpires should be taught... and it's simple..and it makes the games the most enjoyable to watch:

PUT YOUR WHISTLES AWAY, LET THE PLAYERS PLAY AND ONLY PLAY OBVIOUS FREES.

That's it. every game that is umpired like that is a delight to watch. But when it happens u get some powerful media types who sook about ball ups, stoppages or something then it goes back to free for 'contact'. Does my head in.

 

[DERIBERATE]

The rucking contests between Essendon and Port, WTF?

Shaun McKernan. He just gets his arms all over his opponent every chance he gets. We spent 6 years trying to beat it out of the moron.
He gives away the free kicks because he CAN'T compete.

 

[The Karma Bus]

If they want a bit of a short term fix to the stoppage issue, clean up the holding the ball rule ffs.
Instead of going for a weak angle like just pay nothing contact frees to just keep the ball moving from areas.

It was great earlier in the year and it was a bit more like it used to be, now you can do what you like pretty well with no fear of being called HTB.

 

[Seadog]

Why can't we just be consistent? Tonight we had numerous free kicks for ruckmen using a 'stiff arm' (WTF do ruckman do then?), a free for a 'dangerous tackle' which was less dangerous than another deemed OK. Holding the ball despite no prior because of an 'illegal disposal'. So is there no such thing as prior opportunity now? Next week it'll be play on like it should be. I just don't understand what went on tonight.

I also like how if you have one arm pinned and can't dispose of the ball it always holding the ball, but if you have both arms pinned and can't dispose of the ball, more often than not it's a ball up.