“Be consistent you green maggot” - The Umpire Strikes Back

GenYBlue

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May 31, 2010
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Hahahahha, so you don't think extreme umpire abuse at senior and junior football levels reduces the amount of kids who become umpires? Is that genuinely your opinion? For real???????

Yes, there are many ways to improve umpiring. Having more umpires so the talent pool is bigger will also lead to significantly better umpires

You're straw-maning him.

He's not saying that at all.
He's saying it's a negligible effect compared to much deeper problems within the umpiring faculty itself.

And quite frankly, I agree with him.

I've been watching a lot of the NBA playoffs and the level of professionalism their umpires operate with is night and day compared to how ours continue to progressively get worse year-by-year.

A consistent ruleset and full-time pay would undoubtedly increase the draw to the profession, therefore the competition and therefore the standards.
Not only that but it would take a lot of pressure off the umpires, because they can just say "we officiated as per the rules".

This interpretation nonsense is the worst.

Curtailing the abuse?
Sure, I'll grant you it might draw some more prospective talent to the faculty, but not in the amount you're talking about.

Edit: Also is your username really Kappa?
Well that explains everything.
 

D-N-R

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The problem with this approach is that the focus is now on what was said rather than addressing the issue of umpiring and the rules.

Take the Richmond vs North game Friday.

Again we saw players stop because they thought a free kick for HTB was going to be paid.

If we look at the tackle on Cotchin where he appeared to try and break a tackle, was caught and didn't dispose of it correctly (play on). I don't have a problem with Umpires getting it wrong, that happens. My problem is that we can look at an incident like this and get different opinions from people who have watched the game for 30 or 40 years, or people who played the game at the highest level.

Some people say rugby union is a technical game and it can be hard to know what the ref has called a penalty for. However, when the commentators review the tape they can difinitively say what the free was for or difinitively say the ref got it wrong.

With AFL, commentators and fans are none the wiser. Some might argue that this is a failing on the part of fans and commentators, and you'd have a point.

My point is that if the rules are not clearly understood or easily understood by decades-long fans of the game, then this has to change. This is what causes the frustration and that's a failing by the AFL.
 
Sep 17, 2003
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My point is that if the rules are not clearly understood or easily understood by decades-long fans of the game, then this has to change. This is what causes the frustration and that's a failing by the AFL.

The problem is that the interpretation changes from week to week. Watching the first game of every week, you can tell by the end of it what the rule of the week is going to be.
 

richcogs

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The only way they will be able to properly police this is to install sound senses down each of the aisles and then clear out one of the corporate boxes to replace with drone pods. Once the senses detect "hate speech, unkind behaviour, swearing, racist remarks, LGBTQ related putdowns" then they relay that information back to the drone and it is sent out to put a light over the spectator that was the abuser. Blue light for a warning, red light for police intervention and ejection from the stadium.

Just imagine the hoards that would be ejected???
 
The problem is that the interpretation changes from week to week. Watching the first game of every week, you can tell by the end of it what the rule of the week is going to be.
It changes during the same game though.
 

Rusty Brookes

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Getting rid of the racist, homophobic, sexist stuff at the footy is fine and admirable.

Getting rid of acts that are not one of those things and part of the theatre of the game is not fine and admirable.
 

david addison

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Three games not watching Richmond. Is that punishment or reward? I'll just wait til there's 3 games I don't want to see. I think we have a couple at Marvel after the bye. That'll do. Instead of addressing the issues fans have with umpiring, Gil rearranges the window dressing by putting Sean Ryan and Razor on the radio. He thinks if the umps have a more public face, they'll be seen as human and the fans will back off. I like Gil. He's good for a laugh. He's right though. He knows that footy fans are easily manipulated and window dressing is all that's required.


Drapery-Window-Treatments_jpg.jpg
 

Spuddigger

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Exactly. The fact cheer squads are enforcing standards on behaviour should be welcomed by anybody who is part of a cheer squad or has family members part of a cheer squad (seriously, I have a younger cousin who used to be part of Richmond's cheer squad since her young teens, so this should be seen as a positive that kids are part of an environment with some standards). I hate censorship, but c'mon... it's a piddly three-game ban for someone who was likely ruining the mood for everyone else, so they were put on notice to clean it up.
I was at a footy game a few years back where one side was indigenous. ( A very good side).The umpire was a second gen Italian.His skin colour was on the dark side. He made a decision against the indigenous side and a non white woman yelled out and called him a black c---.Is that racism?
 
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I've been watching a lot of the NBA playoffs and the level of professionalism their umpires operate with is night and day compared to how ours continue to progressively get worse year-by-year.

A consistent ruleset and full-time pay would undoubtedly increase the draw to the profession, therefore the competition and therefore the standards.
Not only that but it would take a lot of pressure off the umpires, because they can just say "we officiated as per the rules".
It's also that AFL is probably the hardest game to umpire that I can possibly think of, for a few reasons:
  • It's a contact sport
  • 36 players on the field at once
  • Highly officiated (as opposed to the likes of rugby et al)
  • Rules are very grey and open to seasonal interpretation change
  • There's *three* of them in the one game.
That last bit is really important IMO. "Be consistent"? It's not even the same person making the decisions!
 

Spuddigger

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No. You're asking whether a black person called another black person a "black c***" is racist, that has nothing to do with calling an umpire a green maggot when that clearly has no reference to skin colour or racial origin?
Oh please yourself.
 
Ex-Detective of 20 years. So yes is the answer to your question. I’ve also been bitten, spat on, assaulted and stabbed with a syringe. A bit of verbal abuse by some hero is water off a ducks back.

I can relate.

As a police officer, I was religiously, sexually and racially vilified multiple times a week and it was water off a the proverbial ducks back. Peoples skins aren't as thick as they used to be.
 
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AFL’s biggest issue is the poor umpiring...but but it’s the fans fault. FMD
I couldn't agree more. Ever since I saw the goal umpire with a whistle on his fingers , I just thought this game is just not for me no more . All because of the absolutely disgraceful , incompetent umpiring from all three disciplines , my love of the game for 59 years is gone.
 
I can relate.

As a police officer, I was religiously, sexually and racially vilified multiple times a week and it was water off a the proverbial ducks back. Peoples skins aren't as thick as they used to be.

What if they called you a Port fan?
 
Jun 14, 2014
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You're straw-maning him.

He's not saying that at all.
He's saying it's a negligible effect compared to much deeper problems within the umpiring faculty itself.

And quite frankly, I agree with him.

I've been watching a lot of the NBA playoffs and the level of professionalism their umpires operate with is night and day compared to how ours continue to progressively get worse year-by-year.

A consistent ruleset and full-time pay would undoubtedly increase the draw to the profession, therefore the competition and therefore the standards.
Not only that but it would take a lot of pressure off the umpires, because they can just say "we officiated as per the rules".

This interpretation nonsense is the worst.

Curtailing the abuse?
Sure, I'll grant you it might draw some more prospective talent to the faculty, but not in the amount you're talking about.

Edit: Also is your username really Kappa?
Well that explains everything.
It really is our rules having 'grey areas' that make it more difficult than it needs to be to umpire the game. Look at taking out the knees vs high contact. Either can be called, so it's a grey area. It's also the AFL's habit of making changes to rules every year ad nausea, or having a 'rule of the week' type system where the umpires meet and talk about tightening up on X rule for that round. It creates inconsistency as a result.

I think the game would benefit from actually stripping back the amount of rules.

Chopping arms. Holding. Impeding the mark. Get rid of them. Stop dividing the umpire's concentration on so many little details that it's impossible to keep track of everything.
 

Bird Man

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Oct 4, 2010
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There is inconsistency in the umpiring as the rules have grey areas. The interpretation of the holding the ball rule changes every couple of weeks and during games.

Richmond isn't targeted they just play a style of football the AFL doesn't want. High intensity and tackle aren't rewarded anymore as it to the AFL it slows the game down. Richmond just needs to change its game plan and we know with AFL it takes years to do that.
 
Feb 17, 2010
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While the AFL is spending its time instead focusing on every political and social issue in Australia currently rather than focusing on fixing the issues in the actual game, including umpiring consistency, it will continue to take a back foot and never be a key focus for change.

The standards this year are so poor I hardely watch a full game per week now.

Change is only possible when you accept an issue needs changing. The AFL will never crisitise the current umpires for poor games so there will be no change. The only change is myself and many others turning off the tv instead
 
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