Autopsy AFL 2021 Round 4 - Swans v Bombers Thurs April 8th 7:20pm EST (SCG)

[legend166]

Second Hickey one was HTB obviously.

But then there was a plain as day high tackle on Gulden, 20m out, directly in front that wasn't paid.

 

[Cripps 'n' Blue Bloods]

How's when Aaron Francis spoils the ball, goes out of bounds, gets pinged for it. fu** me

Couldn't find one for Francis. He spoiled a few out of bounds and they were just thrown in.
There was one from Guelfi (I think it was him - had blond hair), where it was a boundary throw in and after the rucks tapped it he just belted it over his head to the boundary. That was called deliberate and it was clearly deliberate.

 

[Juddernaut08]

A few poor calls but at the end of the day Bombers need to suck it up. Only themselves to blame. Time to buy a mirror.

 

[Cripps 'n' Blue Bloods]

Surprised to see the free kick differential this morning when i looked at the stats. Hickey, could have been called holding the ball for sure. Lost of frees not given for both sides last night for holding the ball. Several Essendon tackles went high and frees not given.
Not a great umpiring display overall

I missed the 1st quarter last night, so can't comment on that, but I saw the rest and didn't think it was too bad. A few missed both ways, but nothing terrible.
I just rewatched the 2nd half of the 3rd and all of the 4th and my opinion hasn't changed much.
The Hickey one was 50/50. Could have gone either way. He took about 2 steps and it was barely 2 seconds from taking the ball and getting tackled. Not a lot of prior in that. Didn't have a problem with it not being called and probably wouldn't have bothered me if it was called.

The high ones you're talking about I think are the ones where the players raised their arm (Selwood style) and initiated the contact. There was a couple of those that got called as high (which I'm not a fan of) and maybe 3-4 that I saw that didn't get called. That was good umpiring IMO.

 

[Sinjin Smith]

If Essendon keep that up they wont be bottom four.

 

[Achy Blakey Heart]

Im not actually sure that's true tbh.

Ummm righto:

EFC v Swans....
-26 contested poss
-23 clearances
+19 clangers.
-8 scoring shots

There is your game.

 

[Cripps 'n' Blue Bloods]

his prior wasnt grabbing the ball, it was taking steps and attempting to dispose of the ball after he took it out of the ruck.

The WORST lopsided frees were deliberate OOB where 3 very questionable calls were paid against Essendon. One for spoiling the ball from Buddy's hands! Then in the last few minutes a swans player kicks 60m to touch in their half-forward flank where no one was standing and it's a ball in.

When was the Buddy spoil? Can't recall it and wouldn't mind going back to have a look.
The 60m one you're talking about I think was the one where Hickey was running full speed to try and get to it. Was looking questionable to start off with, but Hickey made a genuine attempt to run it down and ended up maybe 5m from it when it went over. I think that's what saved them. I thought that was OK. If Hickey had given up chase or ended up a good 10m behind, it probably would have gone the other way.

 

[Ambrosia]

I thought that was ordinary. Had barely taken the advantage and was pretty quick to put his hand up. 9 times out of 10 the umps will give a little leeway like that and call it back. You'd be spewing if it was the other way around and I'd be spewing if it was my team.

Maybe I’m being harsh but I don’t think you get the option to half play on and then take back your advantage. There was a clear delay between the whistle going and Papley picking up the ball

 

[Cripps 'n' Blue Bloods]

That should have been a free, but forwards in general get away with similar regularly. You can get away with more holding and throwing the player out of the way in a contest as a big forward than you can as a defender.

 

[Ambrosia]

Compare that to the free they gave to Papley for holding is just ludicrous.

 

[The Tilt]

Maybe I’m being harsh but I don’t think you get the option to half play on and then take back your advantage. There was a clear delay between the whistle going and Papley picking up the ball

By "clear delay" you mean less than a second. To be fair this is a grey area, but players are often given some leeway.

 

[momentbymoment]

I am 100% sure that Sydney got the rub of the green and the umps were a major factor in getting us over the line.

It happens ...
It happened to us against the bulldogs in a Grand Final.
It is incredibly annoying.

IMHO it is always wrong when the free kick count is dramatically skewed one way or the other, because most frees in AFL are subjective.

 

[momentbymoment]

Sydney gifted another game by the umpires. Nothing changes.

I know you are having a laugh but it is too soon. 2016 is still raw.

 

[Cripps 'n' Blue Bloods]

Here are some of the things that happened in the last two minutes of the quarter alone.



Considering how we were adjudicated for insufficient intent, that kick after Walla's tackle should have absolutely been deliberate.
And the Hickey one should have been HTB. That alone is two opportunities for us to control the ball and enter inside 50.

Speaking of Walla, he didn't receive any of the free kicks he should have received.
Francis was also pinged for insufficient intent when Buddy bumped him high before the spoil. Blakey decks Francis after receiving the free, which should have been overturned. The list goes on.

Anyway, the problem isn't this game in isolation. It's that it happens every time we play Sydney in Sydney. Every time and I'm sick of it. If we lost without ump interference, I'd be fine. We're a young squad and we played well. But they can't keep getting away with it.

First one: No prior. Ball comes out in the tackle
2nd one: Was gone for all money, but Hickey's chase saved it. Showed genuine intent to stop it going out and finished up maybe 5m off the ball when it goes over.
3rd one: 50/50 whether or not he had prior. Takes barely 2 steps and tackled barely 2secs after grabbing it. Also making enough arm movements to be seen as a genuine attempt to get rid of it.
4th one: Not even sure what we're looking at there??? High contact? If so, nothing in it.
Last one: Tried to fend off and was caught. Should have been HTB.

Be specific with the Tippa ones. I saw one play where he tackled Mills to the ground without Mills taking possession in Swans F50. Should've been holding the man and not paid.
Another where he dived forward with the ball and got hit high with the legs of a Swans player. Wasn't called high. Fine with that, as he led with the head. Commentators also mentioned this.
Saw quite a few tackles that didn't stick and/or he knocked the ball loose in the tackle. All play on. No issues there. Happy to try and find specific ones to look at.

Agree with the one where Blakey knocked Francis to the ground. Should have turned the free around.

 

[Halftimehero]

That should have been a free, but forwards in general get away with similar regularly. You can get away with more holding and throwing the player out of the way in a contest as a big forward than you can as a defender.

They usually pay the jumper grab though, or the arm over the shoulder even if you ignore the blatant push, that’s 3 clear free kicks in one contest that he got away with, all you get is though is “ooooohhhh Buddy what a great show of strength”

 

[Angus Young]

Try getting robbed in a Grand Final... Sydney (2016)

Sydney defo got a good run last night.
Sydney kick straight they win that by 5 or 6 goals.

Essendon are so close... I still can't write them off this year of a chance of sneaking into the 8.
Should of beaten us.

 

[MVille Swan]

View attachment 1097592

Only minus 516. Imagine what our differential would look like if we weren't so heavily favoured by the umps for all these years!
Thank god they are on our side.

 

[Roby]

You won though

Oh well.

 

[Roby]

Nuffies are nuffies.

FK differential was 28-14 against Sydney vs Adelaide 2 weeks ago. But you hear nothing.

FK differential was 25-12 towards Essendon vs Hawthorn round one. But you hear nothing.

Spell me Essendon fans.

I mentioned it and told them to eat it.

 

[Halftimehero]

Try getting robbed in a Grand Final... Sydney (2016)

Sydney defo got a good run last night.
Sydney kick straight they win that by 5 or 6 goals.

Essendon are so close... I still can't write them off this year of a chance of sneaking into the 8.
Should of beaten us.

Draper and Sheil play last night and we win, got monstered in the clearances, Shiel has been big in that area.

 

[Ari]

Second Hickey one was HTB obviously.

But then there was a plain as day high tackle on Gulden, 20m out, directly in front that wasn't paid.

Good point. Was clearly high and a Swans goal gone missing.

 

[Andrew Mc]

I meant us mate

90% of the time we get sh*t on at the SCG

Did Sydney get the better of it last night? Probably. But let's just check out this claim.

Since 2000 (seemed as good a timeframe as anything), Essendon have 45% more free kicks than Sydney when in Melbourne. In the same time frame, Sydney have 22% more free kicks when the games are played in Sydney. So there is a home ground bias.

21 of the 30 games have been played in Sydney (1 of those a final).

In that time Sydney have never "won" the free kick count in Melbourne. It was even once.

Essendon have "won" the free kick count 5 times in Sydney, its been even twice (so 33% of the time). If you want to break that down to just games at the SCG, Essendon have won or been even in terms of free kicks 6 times from 14 (43% of the time).

The total number of free kicks is Sydney 575 vs Essendon 559 over that period.

By yeah, you're so badly done by.

The finish up, the last time Sydney have done better with the umps against Essendon in Melbourne - I wouldn't be surprised if half the supporters here were even born - 1994. Before that, Windy Hill in 1985 (when it was 43 frees to 37).

Venue	Sydney frees	Essendon frees
Docklands	107​	157​
M.C.G.	34​	47​
S.C.G.	284​	243​
Stad. Aust.	150​	112​
Grand Total	575​	559​

 

[Ari]

Haha I agree that free kick counts don’t have to be equal but 16-1 is a huge statistical outlier.

It's a big enough outlier for a club to send the AFL a please explain.

If you said at the start of the round an umpire would call 16-1 against a club every person here would say it should be looked in to.

 

[Ambrosia]

It's a big enough outlier for a club to send the AFL a please explain.

If you said at the start of the round an umpire would call 16-1 against a club every person here would say it should be looked in to.

Yeah for sure. I’m not one of those people that think the AFL push an agenda onto umpires to influence games but it’s very likely that the umpire got caught up in the crowd noise or something like that.

 

[flyinghi64]

Must admit it did have an Earl Hickey feel about.
Seemed, particularly in the last qtr, when Sydney got a soft free or Essendon missed out on a free Sydney went down and kicked a point.