- Jun 5, 2004
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- AFL Club
- West Coast
Wouldn't it be better for HQ to make absolute clear cut definitions of what constitutes a free no ifs buts or maybes and just direct the umpires to be consistent (As possible)?
This has always been a bugbear of mine. People piss and moan about umpiring, but the rules give way too much onus on umpire interpretation.
Make the rules more black and white instead of grey would be a good start. Why we don't make the grounds with more lines of measurement for 15m passes and 50m penalties is beyond stupid. We don't even have a straight line at the top of the goalsquare extending to the boundary line to mark the area the man on the mark needs to be if someone is kicking from the back pocket area. It's all down to interpretation and best guess. That will always mean there are errors.
Make it easier for the umpires to do their jobs. They can only call it how they see it in a split second, so are always going to make mistakes. So make it easier for them to not make mistakes. But the AFL will just introduce more stupid reactionary rules instead of fixing the current set that are already ****ed.