Roast ... The Umpiring

[SonOfScray]

I'm not sure I see how acknowledging breast cancer awareness is selling out or compromising history for gimmicks.

Breast cancer awareness is already big business. I don't think we need to wear a gimmick jumper to participate. Our Club wear red, white and blue. I'd rather we kept it that way. The ochre jumper was a disgrace, a pink jumper would be disappointing.

 

[Fossie 32]

Nice 54th post Highlander

Fossie 32 will be proud

 

[Fossie 32]

Breast cancer awareness is already big business. I don't think we need to wear a gimmick jumper to participate. Our Club wear red, white and blue. I'd rather we kept it that way. The ochre jumper was a disgrace, a pink jumper would be disappointing.

In - deed! Maybe a pink armband.

 

[DognBones]

Using my amateur psychologist skills, I think this is what happened last night.

The game was umpired in a pro-Melbourne fashion for three quarters because : a) the Dee's were the underdog, b) by wearing pink they were the 'heroes' of the emotional event, c) they had probably 90% of the crowd screaming for them (most likely including neutrals there for the BCNA event), d) it would be a 'feel good story' if they had won.

I don't think it was at all deliberate or cheating, just that they umpired with the 'vibe' of the night in their sub conscious. Basically they had the whistle ready for any indiscretions against the Dee's but weren't as vigilant the other way.

And even though we were continually having frees missed our way, it wasn't noticeable to the umps because we didn't have sufficient crowd numbers to alert them to it. Imagine if it had been Essendon copping similar treatment. They would have started the "bullshit, bullshit" chant and it would have turned around quickly.

But it didn't because we couldn't pressure them into recognising what was going on. So it no doubt only became apparent when they were aware of the stats. (I don't believe for a minute that the umps don't have a quick look at the figures at breaks in the game).

So going into the last quarter, they realise that they must have missed a fair few Dogs frees. Now while they are not going to deliberately pick out frees that don't exist, what they are going to do is be ready to pay any free kicks to the Dogs that even 'may' be there. Hence the Crameri call. Now despite all the noise about it, the fact is he was propelled forward out of the contest. Free kick? No but you can see how they might get it wrong if they are basically 'scared' of missing more Bulldog frees.

Unfortunately umpires are incapable of being more clinical in their decision - making. They are human and get influenced by outside matters. Which is one of the reasons the 'home' team almost always gets a better deal.

Ideally we would have unemotional robots umpiring and we wouldn't be having these conversations

Very good assessment. On the issue of not having a vocal supporter base to alert the umpires, isn't the real issue here that we don't get enough of our own supporters to away games (in particular)? The red and blue seriously out-numbered the red, white and blue last night.

 

[DognBones]

For once I would like our forwards to be rewarded for being held. Happens to Jones every week and last night Williams and Crameri got held at every contest.

A perfect example of your point appears in the first few seconds of the Highlights package on the Bulldogs website. Watch how Garland has Williams left arm pinged before, during and after the contest.

 

[SonOfScray]

Williams and Jones need to get their feet moving to try demonstrate they are going to the football so the umpires can't assume they are engaged in a mutual wrestle for position. They should be getting the free kicks anyway, but the Umpires don't want to pay them there so you have to remove any opportunity for them to ignore it.

 

[ivan rassmussen]

Wow, it's grown up to be able to claim to ignore bad umpiring, but still come onto an internet forum and imply other people aren't as grown up because they discuss its implications.

Very funny...

 

[TBOW]

I haven't read the whole thread so don't know if these points have been made but -

1. There is no doubt the umpires fall into some kind of front runner syndrome, where teams like Geelong & Hawthorn get an increased benefit of the doubt because they are 'Geelong' & 'Hawthorn' and lowly teams like unfortunately us at the moment generally get a raw deal.
On the flipside, not so long ago when were the front running team I remember leaving games thinking we had been given an incredibly easy ride by the umpires.
So while I don't like the fact that this sort of thing happens, it doesn't worry me too much.

2. It seems to me this year that the umpires are keeping an eye on the free kick balance during the game and trying to square the ledger later in games.

I have noticed it in a couple of Dogs games as well as a couple of neural games.

While the Crameri call was a shocker, I think the umpires had put pressure on themselves by being too one sided earlier in the game leading to weak square up frees later on.

If that is actually going on it is incredibly concerning, because not only are the umpires not confident in their ability to have called a game fairly, but they are also trying to hide the statistical evidence of it.
Every umpire should be supremely confident in their skill to judge each contest or incident on it's own merits, & should not be looking at the game as a whole till the post game analysis.

 

[ivan rassmussen]

2. It seems to me this year that the umpires are keeping an eye on the free kick balance during the game and trying to square the ledger later in games.

Has been happening for years. Whenever I go with my mates (supporting other teams) to games and one side gets heaps of frees early, we always keep an eye on the count later in the game. Invariably ends up close to even.

I will point out one game in our favour though that bucked this trend.

1997 Optus Oval Bulldogs vs Melbourne.
My mate (Melbourne supporter) and I went. First quarter was 9-1 free kicks in our favour. Some frees, particularly a couple paid against Schwarz and Neitz in the first quarter, were embarrassing. At quarter time, we agreed they would even up during the game. How wrong we were!

Games end: 33-14 our way. The rest of the game didn't seem so bad, but it's one of the few times at a game that I felt guilty about frees we were getting - some of them were atrocious. Admittedly it was late in the season and we were in the 8 and they were near the bottom, but umpiring was shockingly bad - in our favour.

 

[Rocketsurgery]

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this, but one thing that frustrates me atm is when a player is tackled and clearly drops the ball, the umpires pay playon under the guise of it got knocked out. To me this a poxy interpretation that leads to confusion and controversy for everyone involved. As far as I'm concerned, if you get tackled and fail to dispose of the ball correctly and it spills out, it's dropping the ball everytime. The only exception should be when the tackler clearly try's to rip or punch the ball out of his hands.
Atm tacklers aren't being rewarded for great tackles. The number of times during that Melbourne game and others I've watched where a player clearly drops the ball without being penalized is ridiculous. It's becoming a real blight on this sport.

 

[King Harold]

Add Roos to the sook club, conveniently forgot about the BS free kicks reeled off one after another for 3quarters for them. He should have listened to Maccas response about " that decision " ,it was brilliant .

 

[Hrovat24]

If you are ten goals up , the umpiring don't matter

 

[immortalmike]

If you are ten goals up , the umpiring don't matter

It does when the umpiring is a good reason for your ten goal lead.

 

[Mingo]

Paul Roos is still complaining about the Crameri in the back free kick. Show some professionalism and leadership mate and let it go. If you're so obsessive about the umpires evaluate the armchair ride you got for the first three quarters.

 

[grassman75]

I have lost a lot of respect for Paul Roos in the last week. He is carrying on like a spoilt brat. Watch the game again in its entirety and see all the piss weak shit frees that Melbourne got u flog. Just remember Paul, you are not the messiah even if everyone is blowing smoke up your arse and telling you how good you are. Take your overinflated opinion of yourself and f@@@ off. My blood boiled when he asked the journalists today to put their hands up if they thought it was a free

Saturday nights game was the first time in a long time that I got totally pissed off with the free kicks being paid to the demons when it was clear that our players were also being impeded off the ball. My wife even commented and told me to calm down which is unusual. Normally when watching a game, I will dispute a decision, but after watching it again, can accept that I was wrong and the ump was correct. This wasn't the case on Saturday night

 

[Testekill]

I have lost a lot of respect for Paul Roos in the last week. He is carrying on like a spoilt brat. Watch the game again in its entirety and see all the piss weak shit frees that Melbourne got u flog. Just remember Paul, you are not the messiah even if everyone is blowing smoke up your arse and telling you how good you are. Take your overinflated opinion of yourself and f@@@ off. My blood boiled when he asked the journalists today to put their hands up if they thought it was a free

That's why I loved Maccas reaction to it. He just turned to our statistician and asked him what the frees for and against were looking like. It's hard to be sympathetic when, by that point, they have had ten more frees then you with even more frees for your team being ignored.

 

[timtamWB]

Just read the "If you don't mind Umpire" article from the HUN, and as usual when reading that paper I lost some brain cells.

Two of the points were about Melbourne frees against or frees that didn't happen, in the Crameri free kick and no free kick from the Jones bump. Nobody's arguing that Crameri actually deserved that free kick, but for Roos to carry on about it is just being a spoilt brat. It's an old adage in footy, but you shouldn't blame the loss on the umpiring, because you shouldn't be in a position where the umpiring causes you to lose the game.

And the fact that apart from one free kick, nearly every 50/50 went the Dees way and there were so many free kicks that we should have got that were missed, it rubs me the wrong way. And it's become a trend over the past few weeks, and we can't even use the "umpires are favouring higher profile teams" argument because it happened against Adelaide. I don't know what we've done to the umps but they seem to be against us for the past few weeks.

 

[immortalmike]

Just read the "If you don't mind Umpire" article from the HUN, and as usual when reading that paper I lost some brain cells.

Two of the points were about Melbourne frees against or frees that didn't happen, in the Crameri free kick and no free kick from the Jones bump. Nobody's arguing that Crameri actually deserved that free kick, but for Roos to carry on about it is just being a spoilt brat. It's an old adage in footy, but you shouldn't blame the loss on the umpiring, because you shouldn't be in a position where the umpiring causes you to lose the game.

And the fact that apart from one free kick, nearly every 50/50 went the Dees way and there were so many free kicks that we should have got that were missed, it rubs me the wrong way. And it's become a trend over the past few weeks, and we can't even use the "umpires are favouring higher profile teams" argument because it happened against Adelaide. I don't know what we've done to the umps but they seem to be against us for the past few weeks.

Their coach is Wayne Campbell...

 

[TheHoneyBadger]

Their coach is Wayne Campbell...

Beat me to it
What exactly did we do to Campbell? I've heard his name muttered in the crowd and it pops up every now and then on here when a decision goes against us.

 

[immortalmike]

Beat me to it
What exactly did we do to Campbell? I've heard his name muttered in the crowd and it pops up every now and then on here when a decision goes against us.

Firstly, Libba the senior smacked Matty Knights behind play (with good reason). Campbell then broke the players code by being a dibby dobbing Libba in to the tribunal, giving evidence on an incident he admitted to not even seeing. He was rightly ridiculed and jeered for the rest of his career games by our players and supporters.

Then he became one of our assisstant coaches under Eade, a position he did not hold for long.
Basically most of us tend to believe he is a bit of a sissy pants moron. Judging by this year's umpiring, it is an assessment that doesn't seem too far off the mark.

 

[TheHoneyBadger]

Firstly, Libba the senior smacked Matty Knights behind play (with good reason). Campbell then broke the players code by being a dibby dobbing Libba in to the tribunal, giving evidence on an incident he admitted to not even seeing. He was rightly ridiculed and jeered for the rest of his career games by our players and supporters.

Then he became one of our assisstant coaches under Eade, a position he did not hold for long.
Basically most of us tend to believe he is a bit of a sissy pants moron. Judging by this year's umpiring, it is an assessment that doesn't seem too far off the mark.

I thought it might've had something to do with the Knights incident. Heard talk he could've been our new football boss at the end of last season and didn't quite understand the massively negative reaction Also, I'll be henceforth referring to him as a 'sissy pants moron.'

 

[timtamWB]

I thought it might've had something to do with the Knights incident. Heard talk he could've been our new football boss at the end of last season and didn't quite understand the massively negative reaction Also, I'll be henceforth referring to him as a 'sissy pants moron.'

I personally am going to adopt this as my own personal insult.

 

[immortalmike]

I thought it might've had something to do with the Knights incident. Heard talk he could've been our new football boss at the end of last season and didn't quite understand the massively negative reaction Also, I'll be henceforth referring to him as a 'sissy pants moron.'

I personally am going to adopt this as my own personal insult.

Glad to be of service.
Also great use of the word henceforth Nathan, the word is not used often enough for my liking.

 

[TheHoneyBadger]

Glad to be of service.
Also great use of the word henceforth Nathan, the word is not used often enough for my liking.

Alas, my vocabularic (word?) capacity knows no satiety.

 

[stmookeyj]

Don't worry, for as bad as the umpiring was in the game at the MCG at the weekend (Crameri should shout us all lotto tickets after that free), you should have seen the umpires at our local game that afternoon. One umpire in particular whom we had never had officiate in our league prior to this season (yet apparently had experience elsewhere) was so abysmal the safety of the players could have come under scrutiny.


And I have umpired Under 13's games EVERY week this season up here (4 weeks, actually looking forward to just playing this week), and I know I miss a number of frees that I could pay yet don't because I believe in NOT paying technical frees.