Umpiring The State of Umpiring in the AFL

Feb 17, 2010
6,382
12,462
adelaide
AFL Club
Port Adelaide
The umpiring in the first half of our QF against Geelong was easily the worst I’ve seen this year.

Now obviously the free kick count does not need to be even or close when there is genuine infringements but going into half time down 20-8 in free kicks was a disgrace when you see what they were paid for and what we didn’t get.

They didn’t even try and hide their bias in the first half. A couple examples;

Rozee completely cleaned up front on and arm chopped basically in the goal square in the second, completely ignored and play on.

Robbie Gray in the midfield after a centre bounce in the second gets tackled and thrown to the ground by Danger when he doesn’t have the ball and a Cats player had possession and was running clear, play on. Robbie never had possession of the ball at any point during the passage of play.

First qtr that absolutely disgusting ‘dangerous tackle’ on I think Parfit? Luckily he missed the goal dead in front but an absolutely horrible free kick.

Henderson on the wing gets paid an arm chop In the second when Dixon sneezes on him. Ignoring every contest Dixon contests and gets scragged and pulled.

Duursma cleaned up by Cameron going for a mark which although he was contesting the ball, it was also a complete arm chop. Play on

Then the usual Selwood and Danger ducking into every tackle and paid high every time.

Now I don’t usually believe the idea that they are actually trying to manufacture a certain result but that first half it was hard to maintain that belief.

It was clear as day that they umpired with a different view after half time and I can only assume they might have been given a heads up from somewhere as it couldn’t have been more different after half time. The second half was actually umpired evenly suddenly.

When even the commentators are calling out how bad the umpiring has been at half time when they usually hold back their views, then you know it was bad.

That first half could easily have resulted in further setbacks and holted our momentum but we held strong but they should not be umpiring next week based on that display.
 

Bird Man

Premiership Player
Oct 4, 2010
4,532
4,837
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
76ers
no one in the media will ever speak out as the AFL rules to medias access to the game so we live i n cycle of the game not improving as there is no critisism of how the rules are adjudicated.

everry other major code no one wraps the umpires in cotton wool like the AFL. Thats why they cop abuse from the stands and thats why no one wants to be an umpire.
 

Lsta062

Brownlow Medallist
Jul 15, 2014
21,580
41,429
AFL Club
Richmond
Other Teams
Chelsea, LA Lakers, Western United
Too many incidences that can be interpreted in multiple ways when adjudicating the game, which is far from ideal in the way this game is set up.

The best umpired games to me are the ones where you don’t notice the umpires. That usually occurs when they only pay the most obvious frees and do not pay any of the 50/50 ones.
 

Keays2myBeamas

All Australian
Oct 5, 2014
659
1,236
Brisbane
AFL Club
Brisbane Lions
The whole sport needs a rethink. It’s not rational to be stopping the entire flowing game, pulling everybody up, confusing everyone in the crowd and everyone watching at home, and handing the ball to one player to have a free go at it, 50 times per game.

If you want any new fans to the sport at all, they’re not sticking around for tiggy touchwood atmosphere killers one way or the other.
 

Maddo11

Norm Smith Medallist
Apr 17, 2010
7,162
9,879
AFL Club
Sydney
I just wish it was close to consistent.

In each quarter of the game tonight HTB was wildly different.

Caleb Daniel taking 4 or 5 steps and then getting spun 360 and then getting taken to ground only to fumble out a "handball" to the ground 1m away, play on.

Some players getting tackled while they're picking the ball up and having it punched out after wrestling for one second, bad luck HTB.

Neale "dives on the ball" just before half time leading to a shot on goal, but with 60s left in the last quarter, a WB player try's to hatch the footy like an egg, ball up.

Be harsh, be lenient, which ever. Just make up your damn mind and * off all the grey area stuff
 

ClockworkOrange

Club Legend
Jan 30, 2016
1,504
2,190
AFL Club
GWS
‘A prophet is not recognised in his own land.’

Toby warned us all.

But did we listen?


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