umpires can only influence the game IF it's close and contested and the situation presents itself. i'd like to see the umpire get paid to rig the GF and actually pull of a win for west coast somehow.
It could happen. We could disagree for ever, the point is it could happen , it may be a silly argument, but you tell me any week you've watched your club and not been frustrated at some of the frees. For and against!!??
That's what I mean , a person who is compromised or crooked could easily interpret what he likes, to bend a game one way , and all it takes is a couple of frees in the right place.
That's what AFL is geared for with its grey rules and individual umpire interpretation style , brought in by the AFL, for political correctness to a degree, it is not only a bad bad look for the game , it has the underbelly of some rot setting into it, in the future.
I say the whole umpiring group should be over taken by athletic running women umpires, I trust them to not be taken in by the self importance of umpires at AFL level like some do. It is not a game about Razor Ray, or about in the past bloody Goldspink , its about football.
Women tend to not be so up themselves about how important they are , like some of our current prima donnas.
Women go about their business honestly. And so do our boys now! But its the near future with the rules the way they are that is concerning , after probably the worst year of umpiring standard I have ever seen.
If you don't think the rot could set in this way , I think its a dangerous future , where nobody believes it , but some mongrels with form are working it out right now.
Bring the rules back into understandable black and white. Where an incidental touch on the cheek is an incidental touch on the cheek , not a SHOT AT GOAL, or where a push (PUSH) in the back is actually a push in the back not a contested mark, some defenders may as well watch these days! You know where I'm coming from.
The AFL really has botched up the rule s interpretations , any one can rule anything in two or three different ways that's the point!