Standard of Umpiring - Suggestions for change

[Drought Break]

I believe their is a lot of “ unconscious bias” that comes when umpires officiate Collingwood games

It’s no secret that if you don’t support the Pies you more then likely have us as one of your most “ disliked “ sides. To think this doesn’t play a part in 50/50 decisions would be unlikely

Same with media. Flogs like Dunstall, Hudson etc openly hate us. You would think being in a professional role you could keep this in check. The same would apply to umpires

Maybe umpire should have to take a poll on their 3 most disliked sides at start of every season and they are not allowed to officiate games with those sides

Also remove the protection racket around them for their performances. A coach at a press conference should be able to politely point out blatant errors without the risk of fines.

Umpires should also have to watch a reply of the games they officiate with both coaches behind closed doors where decisions can be questioned

 

[manicpie]

It's going to be hard to change the umpiring with Gill giving them instructions. Last night was glaringly obvious

 

[76woodenspooners]

Bad umpiring is bad for business for the gaming companies.

It’s in their best interests that the punters believe the playing field is level. And given how much money they put into the competition, they’ve got clout to get things sorted out if needed (probably more clout than individual clubs)

And there is a whole department of people who have no other job but to ensure that the game is fair (or at least, any unfairness such as the fixture are fully declared)

Sure, we all know that the AFL will come out and say that the standard of umpiring last night was reviewed and they found issues, blah blah blah …

… but be assured that behind the scenes somebody will be taken out back and quietly shot.

 

[Dan Moody]

I don't normally have an issue with the umpiring but that was atrocious! 4 umpires and not one of them blew the whistle for Murph getting smashed front on in the face in a marking contest. EVERYONE else on the entire planet could see that was a blatant free kick except for the 4 guys being paid to officiate. It was bizarre!

If the AFL is serious about preventing head injuries they will send a strong message and all 4 of those umpires should be sent for a spell running around in the Central Highlands league.

I'd also like to highlight another disgraceful decision involving Murphy, one where he had a free kick and his headband was half hanging off his face. Before he took the kick, he removed his headband and went to throw it clear of his kicking line and the umpire called play-on. No doubt this umpire was the last picked at lunchtime when football was on in the playground

 

[Dan Moody]

Great.
12 total ******* morons to * up the game.
We need to start leaving their bodies on the fence to warn off other potential halfwits taking up the whistle.

Stick their heads on a pole, Ned Stark style

 

[barrackers]

Reckon we need to hear more from the umpire department post game, match day or round. Perhaps instead of a statement the head of umpiring department could hold press conference/s. If done the right way it would help increase understanding in terms of the rules & what they’re looking for and also how they react/train after a mistake.

It could also highlight some of the good decisions made and why.

 

[Professor Knowall]

Press/media have even reacted this time - the diabolical Murphy fiasco was a bridge to far -

https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/dead-set-cheat-afl-in-meltdown-after-umpiring-farce/news-story/c20533fc27839efe00b41267d551d3ad

 

[Maggie5]

Yes there is but it;s up to the umpires, The players kick it out to stop play, it;s free kick until the ups notice the bleeding player and realise what is going. Sure common sense should givern but umpires at not allowed that.

I don't understand why your defence/bias of umpires is so strong you can't admit to the three decisions I have pointed out to you and say, 'yes they were wrong and bad decisions'.

 

[ThePheonix]

I don't understand why your defence/bias of umpires is so strong you can't admit to the three decisions I have pointed out to you and say, 'yes they were wrong and bad decisions'.

It’s bizarre, even the Adelaide fans admit Collingwood were hard done by.

 

[sideswipe]

Tom Browne will win my undying affection if his first question to the new CEO is about the Murphy non-decision.

'Truly humbled': Andrew Dillon appointed new AFL CEO

Long-time executive Andrew Dillon will replace Gillon McLachlan as AFL CEO

www.afl.com.au

 

[CasuallyDressed]

It’s ruining the sport - if Collingwood decided to pull out of the league tomorrow, I’d never think of AFL again and that’s because of the officiating.

The non-free to Murphy was the most aggravated I’ve ever been over something in football… then the De Goey deliberate a second later, can’t stand it.

 

[Markfs]

I think one of the major problems is the parameters that umpires have to operate. They are limited in the number of free kicks they can give. They have to give free kicks for "key indicator" type frees such as tug of jumper and are required to officiate in ruck contests to make them look as the AFL wants them to look. It would appear that the AFL wants to get rid of the grey areas to make umpiring transparent, but we have ended up with umpires who sometimes lack a feel for the game. An example, to me, is the "push in the back" free kick which has been changed over the years and is largely ignored, except for when the umpire feels like giving it. It seems ridiculous to me that a player can clearly push an opponent in the back in a marking contest, but a tug of the jumper will end in a free.

 

[Scodog10]

I land somewhere in the middle on this one between making mistakes and it being a blight on the game or “dead set cheats” as Swanny put it. Like the DRS in cricket 4 umpires was brought in to eliminate the woeful non call and yesterday we were dudded 3 times because of 2 massive blunders (the JDG deliberate doesn’t happen if Murphy gets the free kick). The way my mind works is then to consider solutions and I always come back to the professional debate. I tell you though if I were a neutral serious punter and I did my dough on the back of that because Collingwood lost I would not be impressed.

 

[Hyakutake]

I think the only option left is to turn all yesterday's umpires into a soup-like homogenate.

I just need a bigger one of these.

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

While I thought the ANZAC Day game was actually umpired worse overall, the Last quarter of the Crows game was easily the worst quarter of umpiring in this season thus far.

Maybe over many years

Diabolical doesn't even begin to describe it. When you have commentators and even opposition supporters talking about how dudded we got, you know it had to be bad

 

[Magpie Since 1986]

Jordan "he has every right to contest the ball" Lewis. What a f***wit

Thank god for Brad Johnson

Brad Johnson

Age

47

Ht

182cm

Wt

87kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

19.7

5star

K

14.1

5star

HB

5.6

4star

M

5.9

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

1.5

5star

No current season stats available

D

12.8

4star

K

10.2

4star

HB

2.6

3star

M

2.2

3star

T

1.2

3star

G

0.6

3star

being the voice of reason.

 

[LuckyLee]

Just had a look at our for/against free-kick splits so far this year:

Rd1 v Geelong: 21 (us) - 24 (them)
Rd2 v Port: 34 - 15 !!!
Rd3 v Rich: 20 - 27
Rd4 v Bris: 22 - 19
Rd5 v St K: 15 - 10
Rd6 v Ess: 10 - 19
Rd7 v Adel: 18 - 28

Total so far is split pretty even 140 - 142 but last two weeks have been horrible. The massive discrepancy in our favour versus Port certainly stands out, too.

As usual it’s the frees not paid and inconsistencies that are more frustrating than the ones that are paid.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Jordan "he has every right to contest the ball" Lewis. What a f***wit.

Thank god for Brad Johnson being the voice of reason.

The sheer f**king stupidity of Lewis' comment is, he's right, he does have a right to contest the ball.

But how does that change the fact that it was a free kick? When you tackle someone and fall in their back, they pay push in the back. You have a right to tackle, but you still fell into their back so it's a push in the back (although I think that interpretation should be looked at personally, but that's another story)

 

[magpienato]

The game has to just go back to the original laws and rebuild it from the ground up again. When new rules and interpretations are brought in there's often no thought as to why those rules were established in the beginning. There was a philosophy behind the game and why the rules were as they were and while rules have been altered in the past, there was always a respect for the original philosophy.

The AFL Rules Committee have no idea why concepts such prior opportunity are so essential to the fabric of the game and will willfully override it just for their own vanity of thinking they are helping to 'clean up congestion' or whatever excuse they use to justify rule changes.

The four rules that need to be removed/reworked into their original form are;

• Stand on the mark
• Deliberate out of bounds
• Push in the back
• Holding the ball

List could be longer but this would go a long way to fixing the state of the game. On top of that, any rule changes should have to be approved by a majority of the club boards like any other professional league in the world does.

 

[TradeDraft]

Jordan "he has every right to contest the ball" Lewis. What a f***wit.

Thank god for Brad Johnson being the voice of reason.

Lewis was a Thug on the Footy Field

He would done same thing

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

The game has to just go back to the original laws and rebuild it from the ground up again. When new rules and interpretations are brought in there's often no thought as to why those rules were established in the beginning. There was a philosophy behind the game and why the rules were as they were and while rules have been altered in the past, there was always a respect for the original philosophy.

The AFL Rules Committee have no idea why concepts such prior opportunity are so essential to the fabric of the game and will willfully override it just for their own vanity of thinking they are helping to 'clean up congestion' or whatever excuse they use to justify rule changes.

The four rules that need to be removed/reworked into their original form are;

• Stand on the mark
• Deliberate out of bounds
• Push in the back
• Holding the ball

List could be longer but this would go a long way to fixing the state of the game. On top of that, any rule changes should have to be approved by a majority of the club boards like any other professional league in the world does.

Not sure how much I agree here.

I think the game is way easier to umpire than is made out in the media and the wider community. I'm not saying it's easy. I just think it's easier than is being made out. I think we just have terrible umpires and they need to be made full time.

As to your four rules, I think the ONLY one that needs serious attention is push in the back.

It's a farce.

The rule exists to make marking contests and contests around the ground fair. Players now can seemingly push (Collingwood) players in the back with reckless abandon and Tom Hawkins can push anyone in the back it seems. I could probably be a great full forward too at my 42 years of age if I was allowed to just push anyone in the back too.

Why the f**k do we now pay "falling in the back"? When did this even start? Why is it a thing? If you have the ball, and you're tackled, you're caught, what difference does it make which direction we fall in once you've been caught? How does it affect the contest? You were caught holding the ball. The direction we fall in is irrelevant.

 

[The Royal Sampler]

Jordan "he has every right to contest the ball" Lewis. What a f***wit.

Thank god for Brad Johnson

Brad Johnson

Age

47

Ht

182cm

Wt

87kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

19.7

5star

K

14.1

5star

HB

5.6

4star

M

5.9

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

1.5

5star

No current season stats available

D

12.8

4star

K

10.2

4star

HB

2.6

3star

M

2.2

3star

T

1.2

3star

G

0.6

3star

being the voice of reason.

He’s not wrong, he has a right to contest the ball. In doing so he made high contact to his opponent’s face. Free kick against, dem’s the breaks.

 

[Couch Coach]

The umps on the weekend were:
Alex Whetton (19): 75 matches
Simon Meredith (21): 441 matches (7 Grand Finals)
Nathan Williamson (22): 133 matches
Nathan Toner (25): 16 matches

Field Umpires

aflua.com.au

665 matches between them and dispite the number of umpires increasing from 3 to 4 to reduce fatigue they still get some basics wrong?

 

[sideswipe]

It's going to be hard to change the umpiring with Gill giving them instructions. Last night was glaringly obvious

Does Gil hang onto this part of his job for the rest of this year or is this one of the tasks that gets handed over to the new bloke sooner?

 

[legendstatus]

Jordan "he has every right to contest the ball" Lewis. What a f***kwit.

Thank god for Brad Johnson being the voice of reason.

Lewis still suffering from the shirt front he got from (Hardgrave) years ago hence why when he speaks, he always has a pause then starts again (anyone else notice that) either that or in the middle of some media training gone wrong?