Hawk_francais
Cancelled
- Sep 20, 2015
- 3,509
- 7,041
- AFL Club
- Hawthorn
I live in Europe. Whenever I watch an AFL game with someone uninitiated, they always say
"Why does the whistle keep blowing every 5 seconds?"
My reply: "That's to signal a mark being paid. If you watch enough games you start to just tune it out."
Cool story, what's the point?
On trend from year 2000-2016 there has been an increase of approx +2000 free kicks paid per season.
In my view we have to diminish the presence of the umpire. I don't think players should 'play to the whistle', I think they should play to the rules. I wish that we did away with 'protected areas' and just gave players more responsibility to observe what is happening in the game. I hate seeing the umpires trying to organise players, telling them where to stand and when to go. They blow the whistle and call play on after every single mark and kick taken from it! I hate hearing them break up fights at quarter breaks, I hate how they become the Mum and Dad of the game with players arguing, trying to get in their ear and win favour etc.
What I'd propose:
If a player has caught the ball from a kick, then nobody can tackle him and the closest you can get to him is by standing on the spot where he marked it. How hard is that? For any other situation where there is dispute or confusion of any kind, then blow the whistle. Umps can still call "touched, play on".
If players are going to get paid better, then they can at least earn it. The amount of umpires time and energy that's wasted on crap like wrestling and saying "get up now", "let go of him", "give it back immediately", "hold there". The players know how to do all that stuff, but instead the league has made it the umps responsibility to tell them.
"Why does the whistle keep blowing every 5 seconds?"
My reply: "That's to signal a mark being paid. If you watch enough games you start to just tune it out."
Cool story, what's the point?
On trend from year 2000-2016 there has been an increase of approx +2000 free kicks paid per season.
In my view we have to diminish the presence of the umpire. I don't think players should 'play to the whistle', I think they should play to the rules. I wish that we did away with 'protected areas' and just gave players more responsibility to observe what is happening in the game. I hate seeing the umpires trying to organise players, telling them where to stand and when to go. They blow the whistle and call play on after every single mark and kick taken from it! I hate hearing them break up fights at quarter breaks, I hate how they become the Mum and Dad of the game with players arguing, trying to get in their ear and win favour etc.
What I'd propose:
If a player has caught the ball from a kick, then nobody can tackle him and the closest you can get to him is by standing on the spot where he marked it. How hard is that? For any other situation where there is dispute or confusion of any kind, then blow the whistle. Umps can still call "touched, play on".
If players are going to get paid better, then they can at least earn it. The amount of umpires time and energy that's wasted on crap like wrestling and saying "get up now", "let go of him", "give it back immediately", "hold there". The players know how to do all that stuff, but instead the league has made it the umps responsibility to tell them.
