Review Review of umpiring in West Coast game

[Saint Luke]

I mentioned I was going to do this in another post because I felt that the umpiring was awful, and some others didn't, and I wanted to go back and at least prove myself wrong if I was.

A few notes beforehand --
- Umpires are given an impossible task. The rules are convoluted, and left to discretion too often. The rules require umpires to look in about 4 different places at once at times. There are lots of players obstructing vision at times, and the view from the ground is not the same as a high camera angle where you can see everything.

- I am not someone who blames umpires for losses, or only notices missed/incorrect free kicks against us. I try my best to be as objective as possible, and I'm happy to admit I'm wrong.

- I wasn't able to get a 1080p copy of the game, so I had to use a 720p copy, so the quality is poor in a few spots. It also rendered poorly in a couple spots, so it looks worse than it should. I can't be ****ed fixing it. Highly recommend watching in 1080.

- I'm not doing this because I think it was the worst umpiring of all time or anything. I just thought it was very poor, and I have been wanting to do this for a while where I actually go back and look and see if I was crazy or not for my first impression. Anytime the AFL reviews a decision it was correct most of the time according to them. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I've been getting more into video editing so I was able to.

- There were other free kicks and non-decisions that you could make a technical case for, but I just wanted to use the examples that were pretty clear to me.


The final free kick count was 26 to WCE and 19 to STK. After this review, of the free kicks that were paid, 22% were incorrect. If you include missed calls, it's a 44% inaccuracy rate, which I think is absurdly high for a professional sport. That's getting near half of all decisions being incorrect, and there have been a lot of games umpired worse this season.


Here's the video:


It has explanations of each. If anyone disagrees with anything here, I'd be happy to hear it.

 

[saint66au]

So we didnt get one fortunate free for the entire game?

Also..you could make an 8 minute video on the lucky ones we got v Hawthorn yesterday. Look forward to seeing that

 

[Saint Luke]

So we didnt get one fortunate free for the entire game?

Also..you could make an 8 minute video on the lucky ones we got v Hawthorn yesterday. Look forward to seeing that

There's two in that video. Jai Culley gets pinged holding the ball even though he had no prior. I guess, maybe, at a stretch, you could say he dived on it somehow, but I don't think it was demonstrative or definitive enough to say he did.

The other is when Jai Culley is tackling Steele. Culley is on his knees, and tackles Steele and gets pinged for a dangerous tackle. There's no slinging motion, and it's a tackle from knee height, it's just not dangerous at all. Steele either tries to play for the free, or he tries to break out and dive towards the ground. It just isn't what we know to be a dangerous tackle.

Outside of that, I didn't find any egregious ones. Like I said, there were other calls that were marginal or close to 50/50 that I could have included if I wanted to belabor the point , and some calls for both teams fall in to that, but they weren't decisively wrong to my eyes. I'd be happy to be corrected, but I went through the whole game and watched everything as closely as possible.

 

[CaptainRisky]

I mentioned I was going to do this in another post because I felt that the umpiring was awful, and some others didn't, and I wanted to go back and at least prove myself wrong if I was.

A few notes beforehand --
- Umpires are given an impossible task. The rules are convoluted, and left to discretion too often. The rules require umpires to look in about 4 different places at once at times. There are lots of players obstructing vision at times, and the view from the ground is not the same as a high camera angle where you can see everything.

- I am not someone who blames umpires for losses, or only notices missed/incorrect free kicks against us. I try my best to be as objective as possible, and I'm happy to admit I'm wrong.

- I wasn't able to get a 1080p copy of the game, so I had to use a 720p copy, so the quality is poor in a few spots. It also rendered poorly in a couple spots, so it looks worse than it should. I can't be *ed fixing it. Highly recommend watching in 1080.

- I'm not doing this because I think it was the worst umpiring of all time or anything. I just thought it was very poor, and I have been wanting to do this for a while where I actually go back and look and see if I was crazy or not for my first impression. Anytime the AFL reviews a decision it was correct most of the time according to them. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I've been getting more into video editing so I was able to.

- There were other free kicks and non-decisions that you could make a technical case for, but I just wanted to use the examples that were pretty clear to me.


The final free kick count was 26 to WCE and 19 to STK. After this review, of the free kicks that were paid, 22% were incorrect. If you include missed calls, it's a 44% inaccuracy rate, which I think is absurdly high for a professional sport. That's getting near half of all decisions being incorrect, and there have been a lot of games umpired worse this season.


Here's the video:


It has explanations of each. If anyone disagrees with anything here, I'd be happy to hear it.

And you're 100% correct after being able to watch it over and over , OMG

 

[Saint Luke]

And you're 100% correct after being able to watch it over and over , OMG

I feel like you didn't read what I said. I'll just quote the relevant parts:

Umpires are given an impossible task. The rules are convoluted, and left to discretion too often. The rules require umpires to look in about 4 different places at once at times. There are lots of players obstructing vision at times, and the view from the ground is not the same as a high camera angle where you can see everything.

I'm not doing this because I think it was the worst umpiring of all time or anything. I just thought it was very poor, and I have been wanting to do this for a while where I actually go back and look and see if I was crazy or not for my first impression.

It was mostly an exercise for my own entertainment and information. The larger narrative you seem to think I'm pushing isn't there at all.

 

[Hubnester]

Interesting, I've always wanted there to be regular analysis of games done like this. If anything only to shine a light on issues and to see patterns around which calls are more often missed or incorrect. But we know the AFL media isn't going to touch the subject.

 

[MickG88]

The thing that stumps me is that all umpires run around with go pros on.
Umpires could get on the front foot and show everyone how hard it is by releasing a few snippets each week, I would love to have a look.

 

[George]

I mentioned I was going to do this in another post because I felt that the umpiring was awful, and some others didn't, and I wanted to go back and at least prove myself wrong if I was.

A few notes beforehand --
- Umpires are given an impossible task. The rules are convoluted, and left to discretion too often. The rules require umpires to look in about 4 different places at once at times. There are lots of players obstructing vision at times, and the view from the ground is not the same as a high camera angle where you can see everything.

- I am not someone who blames umpires for losses, or only notices missed/incorrect free kicks against us. I try my best to be as objective as possible, and I'm happy to admit I'm wrong.

- I wasn't able to get a 1080p copy of the game, so I had to use a 720p copy, so the quality is poor in a few spots. It also rendered poorly in a couple spots, so it looks worse than it should. I can't be *ed fixing it. Highly recommend watching in 1080.

- I'm not doing this because I think it was the worst umpiring of all time or anything. I just thought it was very poor, and I have been wanting to do this for a while where I actually go back and look and see if I was crazy or not for my first impression. Anytime the AFL reviews a decision it was correct most of the time according to them. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I've been getting more into video editing so I was able to.

- There were other free kicks and non-decisions that you could make a technical case for, but I just wanted to use the examples that were pretty clear to me.


The final free kick count was 26 to WCE and 19 to STK. After this review, of the free kicks that were paid, 22% were incorrect. If you include missed calls, it's a 44% inaccuracy rate, which I think is absurdly high for a professional sport. That's getting near half of all decisions being incorrect, and there have been a lot of games umpired worse this season.


Here's the video:


It has explanations of each. If anyone disagrees with anything here, I'd be happy to hear it.

Love the effort to put this together mate, keep it up

 

[StFly]

For 23, Butler effectively infringed on the marking attempt and could be deemed as blocking / shepherding that mark through jumping too early aka unrealisitic leap.

Screwed himself when he made no contact with the ball and simply took the man. Had to contest to avoid a 2v1 aerially.

Re the insufficient intent instances, the Eagles marking attempts are viable and poor execution, so the intent was to spotup that mark and the execution was over his head and OOB, so the intent was not to kick it OOB. With the one called against us, as you highlighted 2 in position, junked kick, however there was no intent shown to retain that ball in play from either Saint, the intent was quick kick out of D50 and 2 Saints happened to be outside.

The only attempt to intercept is from Roma, however ball is at his area laterally when he does and there is an Eagle goal side to him at that point, so reasonable to assume original intention is GTFO and ball went straight OOB after passing, so correct call.

 

[sauce_head]

I mentioned I was going to do this in another post because I felt that the umpiring was awful, and some others didn't, and I wanted to go back and at least prove myself wrong if I was.

A few notes beforehand --
- Umpires are given an impossible task. The rules are convoluted, and left to discretion too often. The rules require umpires to look in about 4 different places at once at times. There are lots of players obstructing vision at times, and the view from the ground is not the same as a high camera angle where you can see everything.

- I am not someone who blames umpires for losses, or only notices missed/incorrect free kicks against us. I try my best to be as objective as possible, and I'm happy to admit I'm wrong.

- I wasn't able to get a 1080p copy of the game, so I had to use a 720p copy, so the quality is poor in a few spots. It also rendered poorly in a couple spots, so it looks worse than it should. I can't be *ed fixing it. Highly recommend watching in 1080.

- I'm not doing this because I think it was the worst umpiring of all time or anything. I just thought it was very poor, and I have been wanting to do this for a while where I actually go back and look and see if I was crazy or not for my first impression. Anytime the AFL reviews a decision it was correct most of the time according to them. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I've been getting more into video editing so I was able to.

- There were other free kicks and non-decisions that you could make a technical case for, but I just wanted to use the examples that were pretty clear to me.


The final free kick count was 26 to WCE and 19 to STK. After this review, of the free kicks that were paid, 22% were incorrect. If you include missed calls, it's a 44% inaccuracy rate, which I think is absurdly high for a professional sport. That's getting near half of all decisions being incorrect, and there have been a lot of games umpired worse this season.


Here's the video:


It has explanations of each. If anyone disagrees with anything here, I'd be happy to hear it.

It’s an old problem:

AFL can't ignore West Coast Eagles free kicks says former umpires boss

Peter Schwab has spoken out about West Coast's favourable free kick count at home.

www.sen.com.au

 

[sauce_head]

I mentioned I was going to do this in another post because I felt that the umpiring was awful, and some others didn't, and I wanted to go back and at least prove myself wrong if I was.

A few notes beforehand --
- Umpires are given an impossible task. The rules are convoluted, and left to discretion too often. The rules require umpires to look in about 4 different places at once at times. There are lots of players obstructing vision at times, and the view from the ground is not the same as a high camera angle where you can see everything.

- I am not someone who blames umpires for losses, or only notices missed/incorrect free kicks against us. I try my best to be as objective as possible, and I'm happy to admit I'm wrong.

- I wasn't able to get a 1080p copy of the game, so I had to use a 720p copy, so the quality is poor in a few spots. It also rendered poorly in a couple spots, so it looks worse than it should. I can't be *ed fixing it. Highly recommend watching in 1080.

- I'm not doing this because I think it was the worst umpiring of all time or anything. I just thought it was very poor, and I have been wanting to do this for a while where I actually go back and look and see if I was crazy or not for my first impression. Anytime the AFL reviews a decision it was correct most of the time according to them. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I've been getting more into video editing so I was able to.

- There were other free kicks and non-decisions that you could make a technical case for, but I just wanted to use the examples that were pretty clear to me.


The final free kick count was 26 to WCE and 19 to STK. After this review, of the free kicks that were paid, 22% were incorrect. If you include missed calls, it's a 44% inaccuracy rate, which I think is absurdly high for a professional sport. That's getting near half of all decisions being incorrect, and there have been a lot of games umpired worse this season.


Here's the video:


It has explanations of each. If anyone disagrees with anything here, I'd be happy to hear it.

Good job. There were quite a few not given to us that you missed but point proven.

I’d just say that there is no need to stand still on the mark until the umpire says “stand” though. Sometimes they don’t bother. No idea why not.

 

[lethalsaints]

Have a look at the first half of the recent game against dockers. Could be the whole game, turned it off because I couldn't watch it anymore

 

[Joffaboy]

Good effort. You are correct umpires have a very difficult task made all the more difficult by the AFL's rule changes.

However my biggest criticism was the ducking, and leading with the head for frees, it was the final straw in making the game unwatchable.
The recent change is a welcomed relief and it was a good move to reinforce that ducking and head leading is cheating.