Hello, the thread title doesn't quite say what I wanted it to but the other phrase was too long.
It should be something more like: how does/would a club boss go about ensuring their club wasn't disadvantaged by the umpiring and adjudication setup in the AFL?
I've been thinking for myself how I'd do it if I was in that position. I definitely wouldn't leave it go. I think you'd be doing a disservice by assuming the AFL would have it in hand, I mean, we talk everywhere else that our club administration should do what it takes to ensure its looking after its own interests. A lot wanted us not to bend over for the Tippett sanctions and stand our ground on other issues, so I don't see why umpiring would be any different.
Now, before I'm going any further, I'm not necessarily claiming the umpiring is against us, I'm more saying, that, if it was possible that any club could be disadvantaged, then what would that club do to protect against this.
So far my plan looks like this. Its a two prong approach. One, I would get someone from the umpiring fraternity, the SANFL is the obvious choice that is really into their craft and ideally not really a fan or hater of the club. The job of this person would be to review each weeks game and compile a report, looking at things like missed frees we should have received, missed frees the opposition should have relieved, frees that were legit for us (we received them and we deserved them) and legit for the opposition and frees given that we didn't deserve and frees given to the opposition that they didn't deserve. Our reviewer would also look at overall game things and technical things, like was the game umpired consistently compared to previous weeks, was one quarter consistent compared to the others, was a particular umpire poor, etc etc. Each week this reviewer would send off a report to the AFL but not to us (and the AFL is to be made aware of this). We are only to recieve a review of all the games after the close of the season. This way the AFL is made aware if the club thinks the umpiring was poor, without the club actually being involved, therefore a neutral is making the call, not a vested interest, so its likely to be more accurate. At the end of the season I'd have a look at the umpires reviews and compare them to the coaches and my own and see if they aligned. We thought we got ripped off in round 5, did our reviewer, yes he did, ahh, interesting, and then i'd have a review on it with the AFL and see what they did to arrest the issue and if it cropped back up again.
The second thing I'd do is hire a stats expert to look at the statistical side of things. I guess the first time you engaged them they'd have to do a bit of analysis on the story up til now. One thing they might do for example is look at the distribution of free kick counts in all the games in a season and using all teams bar us as a basis, how we stack up. They'd be able to compute things like what frequency would a lop sided game like the WB one from a couple of years back be. If that was a one in 45 year event, and then the next year we got another, not quite so bad one, say a 1 in 30 year event, then you'd start to question whether we're getting ripped off a bit. The same person could also look up umpiring histories, venue histories and even look at the stats for other clubs and see if for instance the WA clubs are helped by having they umpires train with them. I'd get a report off this person for the start of the season and forward whatever it found off to the AFL. Again, I'd get them to compile stuff through the season and maybe once a quarter send it off to the AFL but not to us and then again at the end of the year, get the reports, review ourselves and then meet with the AFL about it.
It should be something more like: how does/would a club boss go about ensuring their club wasn't disadvantaged by the umpiring and adjudication setup in the AFL?
I've been thinking for myself how I'd do it if I was in that position. I definitely wouldn't leave it go. I think you'd be doing a disservice by assuming the AFL would have it in hand, I mean, we talk everywhere else that our club administration should do what it takes to ensure its looking after its own interests. A lot wanted us not to bend over for the Tippett sanctions and stand our ground on other issues, so I don't see why umpiring would be any different.
Now, before I'm going any further, I'm not necessarily claiming the umpiring is against us, I'm more saying, that, if it was possible that any club could be disadvantaged, then what would that club do to protect against this.
So far my plan looks like this. Its a two prong approach. One, I would get someone from the umpiring fraternity, the SANFL is the obvious choice that is really into their craft and ideally not really a fan or hater of the club. The job of this person would be to review each weeks game and compile a report, looking at things like missed frees we should have received, missed frees the opposition should have relieved, frees that were legit for us (we received them and we deserved them) and legit for the opposition and frees given that we didn't deserve and frees given to the opposition that they didn't deserve. Our reviewer would also look at overall game things and technical things, like was the game umpired consistently compared to previous weeks, was one quarter consistent compared to the others, was a particular umpire poor, etc etc. Each week this reviewer would send off a report to the AFL but not to us (and the AFL is to be made aware of this). We are only to recieve a review of all the games after the close of the season. This way the AFL is made aware if the club thinks the umpiring was poor, without the club actually being involved, therefore a neutral is making the call, not a vested interest, so its likely to be more accurate. At the end of the season I'd have a look at the umpires reviews and compare them to the coaches and my own and see if they aligned. We thought we got ripped off in round 5, did our reviewer, yes he did, ahh, interesting, and then i'd have a review on it with the AFL and see what they did to arrest the issue and if it cropped back up again.
The second thing I'd do is hire a stats expert to look at the statistical side of things. I guess the first time you engaged them they'd have to do a bit of analysis on the story up til now. One thing they might do for example is look at the distribution of free kick counts in all the games in a season and using all teams bar us as a basis, how we stack up. They'd be able to compute things like what frequency would a lop sided game like the WB one from a couple of years back be. If that was a one in 45 year event, and then the next year we got another, not quite so bad one, say a 1 in 30 year event, then you'd start to question whether we're getting ripped off a bit. The same person could also look up umpiring histories, venue histories and even look at the stats for other clubs and see if for instance the WA clubs are helped by having they umpires train with them. I'd get a report off this person for the start of the season and forward whatever it found off to the AFL. Again, I'd get them to compile stuff through the season and maybe once a quarter send it off to the AFL but not to us and then again at the end of the year, get the reports, review ourselves and then meet with the AFL about it.
