The strategy that the AFL continues to push with respect to umpires continually bemuses and confuses me. Their objective, stated openly to protect the fraternity of umpires from any and all criticism. But over the past few weeks, especially since the Johnson/Baker debacle, the AFL, including Adrian Anderson, Andrew Demetriou and Jeff Gieschen, do, in my opinion, AFL umpires at all levels a disservice.
In any organisation that relies on high performance for success (and who can doubt that poor umpiring is a blight on our game) failure to recognise poor performance and a willingness to protect those who exhibit poor performance can only ever lead to failure and I cant understand whilst the AFL continues to exhibit this type of behaviour.
I understand their intent, but as someone who has spent many years developing strong performance cultures in more than one organisation, i cannot see how their actions support their intent. If they are concerned that the umpires at lower levels are leaving because of abuse by players, parents, spectators then lock down on those spectators, parents and players.
I fail to see how ignoring failures at the highest level, or an unwillingness to admit to mistakes upon the football field by the umpires protects those at junior footy level. if anything it creates even greater frustration for those fans of the apparent "best" the umpiring fraternity can turn out, and this frustration is only enhanced when the Spin Masters at the AFL fail to acknowledge what ever one else in the football world has unanimous opinion about.
Watching JG on One Week at a Time brought a little bit of vomit to the back of my throat. The absolute pigheadedness to refuse that the AFL and the umpires had decided to play tough on certain infringements following the Baker incident was absolutely laughable. Every single commentator across all of the major tv and radio networks commented on it. In every single interview with a player or a coach during and after the weekend the question was asked and the answer was the same. Following the Lions/Blues game, everyone knew they would be on notice. Can the 300-400 odd players, coaches and commentators all be wrong. Can all of the supporters be wrong who saw it happening and discussed at the games, at the pubs and with their mates? Jeff Gieschen vs the couple of hundred thousand ??? Jeff, get your hand off it...
He blindly defended all of the excessive/poor umpiring over the course of the interview on OWAAT even when Luke Darcy gave the AFL an absolute opportunity to try and explain why they do things. there are any number of justifiable reasons why the AFL and the umpires might want to focus on a particular area in any one week, whether it because of an evolving interpretation, a lack of focus on a particular area, or mistakes exhibited by too many umpires over too long a period. Did JG give ground... of course he didnt. instead he stated that the AFL dont focus on any one area and that umpiring mistakes arent widespread and the umpires decisions have been consistent throughout the year. In my mind absolute bollocks.
He was quizzed about why the emergency umpire didnt respond to the johnson and baker jabs and as the vision showed an umpire running towards Johnson and Baker he made a comment that no umpire saw anything that happened. Absolute Spin. No acknowledgement that an umpire did see and should have done something, not even an acknowledgement that the emergency umpire SHOULD have seen something, especially in the vision that was showed.
I would have far more patience for umpires and their performance if i saw improvement or a willingness to improve, much in the same way i forgive Murphy or Shoenmakers for mistakes, because you can see they are always trying, or Buddy for his bumps because of his attempts to get it out of his game. If the AFL was to come out and state "We need to work on this, or We Will Focus on this" then everyone would have a better chance of reducing the umpires impact on a game.
By not admitting to mistakes, or acknowledging the need for improvement the AFL creates the impression that the Umpires are above the game and above reproach. Such an attitude wont lead to better umpiring and wont lead to more umpires. Look at the World Game... FIFA acknowledges mistakes by referees and players are able to talk, discuss and vent their opinion to the referee on the ground. Is their a dearth of referees for soccer games across the world? no. Are referee standards on the decline?? No. Do umpiring mistakes occur, yes, but the important thing is that there is always an acknowledgement of mistakes and a statement about how it wont be repeated.
Dont judge this as a smack against the umpires. Its not. Its a smack against an ill defined strategy to protect umpires in our game. The intent might be a true one, but the execution is poor. Great umpiring makes for a great game and i just hope the AFL figures it out before it is too late.
In any organisation that relies on high performance for success (and who can doubt that poor umpiring is a blight on our game) failure to recognise poor performance and a willingness to protect those who exhibit poor performance can only ever lead to failure and I cant understand whilst the AFL continues to exhibit this type of behaviour.
I understand their intent, but as someone who has spent many years developing strong performance cultures in more than one organisation, i cannot see how their actions support their intent. If they are concerned that the umpires at lower levels are leaving because of abuse by players, parents, spectators then lock down on those spectators, parents and players.
I fail to see how ignoring failures at the highest level, or an unwillingness to admit to mistakes upon the football field by the umpires protects those at junior footy level. if anything it creates even greater frustration for those fans of the apparent "best" the umpiring fraternity can turn out, and this frustration is only enhanced when the Spin Masters at the AFL fail to acknowledge what ever one else in the football world has unanimous opinion about.
Watching JG on One Week at a Time brought a little bit of vomit to the back of my throat. The absolute pigheadedness to refuse that the AFL and the umpires had decided to play tough on certain infringements following the Baker incident was absolutely laughable. Every single commentator across all of the major tv and radio networks commented on it. In every single interview with a player or a coach during and after the weekend the question was asked and the answer was the same. Following the Lions/Blues game, everyone knew they would be on notice. Can the 300-400 odd players, coaches and commentators all be wrong. Can all of the supporters be wrong who saw it happening and discussed at the games, at the pubs and with their mates? Jeff Gieschen vs the couple of hundred thousand ??? Jeff, get your hand off it...
He blindly defended all of the excessive/poor umpiring over the course of the interview on OWAAT even when Luke Darcy gave the AFL an absolute opportunity to try and explain why they do things. there are any number of justifiable reasons why the AFL and the umpires might want to focus on a particular area in any one week, whether it because of an evolving interpretation, a lack of focus on a particular area, or mistakes exhibited by too many umpires over too long a period. Did JG give ground... of course he didnt. instead he stated that the AFL dont focus on any one area and that umpiring mistakes arent widespread and the umpires decisions have been consistent throughout the year. In my mind absolute bollocks.
He was quizzed about why the emergency umpire didnt respond to the johnson and baker jabs and as the vision showed an umpire running towards Johnson and Baker he made a comment that no umpire saw anything that happened. Absolute Spin. No acknowledgement that an umpire did see and should have done something, not even an acknowledgement that the emergency umpire SHOULD have seen something, especially in the vision that was showed.
I would have far more patience for umpires and their performance if i saw improvement or a willingness to improve, much in the same way i forgive Murphy or Shoenmakers for mistakes, because you can see they are always trying, or Buddy for his bumps because of his attempts to get it out of his game. If the AFL was to come out and state "We need to work on this, or We Will Focus on this" then everyone would have a better chance of reducing the umpires impact on a game.
By not admitting to mistakes, or acknowledging the need for improvement the AFL creates the impression that the Umpires are above the game and above reproach. Such an attitude wont lead to better umpiring and wont lead to more umpires. Look at the World Game... FIFA acknowledges mistakes by referees and players are able to talk, discuss and vent their opinion to the referee on the ground. Is their a dearth of referees for soccer games across the world? no. Are referee standards on the decline?? No. Do umpiring mistakes occur, yes, but the important thing is that there is always an acknowledgement of mistakes and a statement about how it wont be repeated.
Dont judge this as a smack against the umpires. Its not. Its a smack against an ill defined strategy to protect umpires in our game. The intent might be a true one, but the execution is poor. Great umpiring makes for a great game and i just hope the AFL figures it out before it is too late.
