The Golden Rule - the rule to fix the umpiring

[Beckers]

You may laugh but when people start leaving games infuriated because of some posturing umpires
stupid decision, forced upon him by ridiculus rules, made up by fools, like the AFL bosses making the game annoying instead of the mighty pleasure it should be, then the administrators will get a wake up call.
This game of ours is slowly becomming something other than Aussie rules,

You said lots, but i agree with this most of all

 

[borgsta2006]

You said lots, but i agree with this most of all

Quote:
Originally Posted by JoondalupJ
You may laugh but when people start leaving games infuriated because of some posturing umpires
stupid decision, forced upon him by ridiculus rules, made up by fools, like the AFL bosses making the game annoying instead of the mighty pleasure it should be, then the administrators will get a wake up call.
This game of ours is slowly becomming something other than Aussie rules,

You said lots, but i agree with this most of all

I'm exactly with this too!! Well written. The umpires are only doing what is told to them to do.

 

[JoondalupJ]

You said lots, but i agree with this most of all

Thanks. Sorry, I do rave on a bit don't I. When the game was simple, bagging the umpire was part of the fun, But you knew the free was on, even if it was against your team.
But now, every week, there is real anger and confusion, the game is being spoilt for reasons unknown.

 

[swiftdog]

I thought Collingwood and Essendon was the same. Saw some dives early (Thomas and Medhurst especially) that the umpires usually pay but the players soon realised there weren't going to get rewarded so got on with the game.

If the rest of the year is umpired like the Essendon/Collignwood game I'll be happy, except for one decision...

 

[Soul_Pie]

At the moment umpires seem to be asking themselves "Can I pay a free kick?" at every piece of play. They should be asking themselves "Do I have to pay a free kick?".

This is spot on, absolutely hit the nail on the head.

 

[Bob_vic]

This is exactly what's happening...

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Inspired by the following great recent articles from Richard Hinds

http://www.theage.com.au/news/rfnews/umpires-to-be-pedantic/2009/04/16/1239475000998.html

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/umpires-put-in-harms-way/2009/04/21/1240079671037.html

I think the insertion of a new rule could fix the current problems with the way umpires are ruining our game (I know, I know - not another friggen new rule )

"The Golden rule

Despite any other rule, an umpire will allow play to continue and will not award a free kick where an infringement is both:

(1) technical (in the sense that it is not a flagrant infringement); and

(2) trivial (in the sense that it has no significant impact on the outcome of a contest)."

Thoughts?

That rule already exists to a large degree. Its called the advantage rule. Its just that the umpires advised to either not call advantage unless its bleedingly obvious, or they are too stupid to do so.

The other thing the umpires should do is call free kicks that they know are there, but couldnt quite see clearly enough to make a call. For example push in the back. Often they let blatant pushes go because they were out of position and didnt actually see the push, even though with 90% certainty they know what happened.