Remove this Banner Ad

Analysis Umpires

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

OldBlueFan said:
Nah, you've got to be the only one who touches it from kicking player's boot to completion (in the opinion of the umpire) of the mark.

But it's one they get wrong so often that you hardly ever see the play-on call.

To be fair though, I think it's one that they mostly apply a "benefit of the doubt" to, especially when there's 3 or 4 pairs of hands involved and only one player comes down with the ball.

From Laws of Aust Football 2019:
Click to expand...
interesting, cheers.
 
Interesting stat someone posted on Reddit

In 4 games on Saturday, 207 free kicks were paid. That's an average of 51.75 free kicks per game. That's one free kick every 92.75 seconds of gametime.​

 

Log in to remove this Banner Ad

Stamos said:
Wow. I thought they were terrible.
They completely ignored holding-the-ball and throws.
Click to expand...
Didn't lose the game because of it but the umpiring was very poor. But it wasn't just our game. Watched a few games fully this round and the umpiring reached new levels of horror
 
Wickzki said:
Kudos to the umpiring today.

A couple of iffy decisions but nothing outlandish from a live perspective.

Genuinely thought it was a great performance by them today.
Click to expand...
Stamos said:
Wow. I thought they were terrible.
They completely ignored holding-the-ball and throws.
Click to expand...
Apart from some of those HTB decisions and the obvious missed throws, I did think it was reasonably well umpired.
My frustration comes from the inconsistency of some of the calls. They seem to have completely abandoned the HTB rules from the first few weeks. If you're going to make something a focus for the year and interpret it stricter, do it for more than just a couple weeks (I don't know, the whole year maybe). Quite a number of our tackles in this game would have rewarded for HTB last week or the week before.
And the insufficient intent one is just way too erratic. A player can very obviously find the boundary and it gets thrown in. Kick a rushed, clearing ball under pressure from D50 and it goes out after bouncing with 2-3 players near it, and it gets called.
SOS got dragged out of a ruck contest by the neck (stopping him from contesting the hitout) and got nothing and then others get called high for minimal contact that doesn't actually effect the play.
 
Could someone explain the advantage rule to me? Because I'm genuinely struggling to see how, after we've established a clear advantage, an umpire can then call it all the way back to the wing after we've taken a mark inside forward 50 about 20m out on a slight angle. Or after Jack has soccered after a whistle and it's gone straight to a loose player further afield - as in, straight to him, on the chest, the only ball we didn't fumble all day - and he's kicked it deep for McKay to mark, only for the umpire to drag the ball alllllll the way back to almost the back flank to take their free.

Was a case study for why teams give away professional frees.

I thought the general intent of the preseason rule changes was to prevent teams from slowing their opposition down. Why did the umpires yesterday seem to think in order to get advantage meant you kept playing even after the whistle blew and risked the 50 going the other way?
 
Gethelred said:
Could someone explain the advantage rule to me? Because I'm genuinely struggling to see how, after we've established a clear advantage, an umpire can then call it all the way back to the wing after we've taken a mark inside forward 50 about 20m out on a slight angle. Or after Jack has soccered after a whistle and it's gone straight to a loose player further afield - as in, straight to him, on the chest, the only ball we didn't fumble all day - and he's kicked it deep for McKay to mark, only for the umpire to drag the ball alllllll the way back to almost the back flank to take their free.

Was a case study for why teams give away professional frees.

I thought the general intent of the preseason rule changes was to prevent teams from slowing their opposition down. Why did the umpires yesterday seem to think in order to get advantage meant you kept playing even after the whistle blew and risked the 50 going the other way?
Click to expand...
Yes I was surprised by this as well. Happened twice as you say. Seems like they make up what is advantage as they go
 
thylacine60 said:
That's your default stance though. This thread is better used by people who actually have the potential to see quality umpiring and acknowledge it accordingly.
Click to expand...
It's not my default stance at all.
Usually I'll be critical of poor decisions that effect the scoreboard and therefore the outcome of the game. This week was very different, were the general standard of umpiring in the game was really poor.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

thylacine60 said:
How would you do it? Stop the game first?
Click to expand...
I have a bit of an issue with the advantage rule anyway because I think it is unfair to call advantage after players have stopped (not knowing which way the free kick is going). But the two incidents yesterday were continuations of the play so after paying the free kick it should have been advantage - which they do every game
 
One of the advantage calls discussed in this thread happened almost directly in front of me.

Yes, we tried to play advantage. Yes, we may have thought that there was advantage. However, the umpire was calling that back as the ball was being moved forward and the players at the origin - both sides - were practically waiting for it to come back as play was happening.

I do believe that the rule requires greater clarity on what will be and what isn't going to be paid advantage.

Insofar as the HTB rule is concerned, I do know that a number of high profile players (and clubs) had complained about how strict they were on it earlier in the season. When enough players/clubs complain the weight of averages suggests the umpires will look into what they pay. Unfortunately, I think they've gone too far back the other way and we came out second best yesterday.

By and large, however, there weren't many, if any, decisions yesterday that changed the momentum of the game or killed it for either side.

The key stat that I consistently look for (and this is the pro basketball scout in me) is frees involved in scoring chains (particularly goal scoring chains). Yesterday was a good day on that front with the umpires really only paying the obvious ones.
 
thylacine60 said:
How would you do it? Stop the game first?
Click to expand...
The only thing I can think of is to drop the advantage rule completely, and get even tighter around the 50's from time wasting. As in, none of this "Get off him, get off him" nonsense; the second you don't think there's an adequate attempt to get on with it or get off a player tackled, pay the 50.

Would it be subject to someone taking advantage (pardon the pun)? Probably, but it's the team with the ball anyway. If you (the collective you) don't like it, don't break the rules.
 
Wickzki said:
The key stat that I consistently look for (and this is the pro basketball scout in me) is frees involved in scoring chains (particularly goal scoring chains). Yesterday was a good day on that front with the umpires really only paying the obvious ones.
Click to expand...
I don't think this stat would involve the frees not paid that are involved in scoring chains, which are just as important.

And generally I would agree, it's the decisions that influence the scoring that determine if he umps have done a good job, and that wasn't so much of an issue yesterday, but it was just a really poorly umpired game.
 

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

bluebaggerjuls said:
The new umpire ‘abuse’ rule has been an absolute disaster for the AFL. All it’s done is generate a lot more negativity towards umpiring in the AFL
Click to expand...
R.d23fb3073d8e01d7a3e0e9c2f1bd7b8a


Absolutely Right. It has to be changed to swearing/abuse against umpires not just a question asked in a non threatening way.

I also think they need to rethink the stand/protected area 50m penalties seems a big penalty to pay for slightly moving or accidently running into the protected area but that's for a different discussion.
 
bluebaggerjuls said:
The new umpire ‘abuse’ rule has been an absolute disaster for the AFL. All it’s done is generate a lot more negativity towards umpiring in the AFL
Click to expand...
I don't agree.

The intent isn't 'felt' - for want of a better word - at AFL level, but a few tiers down. The AFL have a huge umpiring problem at lower levels; they can't get nearly enough umpires to umpire games. If this prevents even some of the backchat or abuse, it's absolutely worth it.

And it'd be nigh impossible to generate more negativity towards umpires than what came before.
 

Remove this Banner Ad

Analysis Umpires

🥰 Love BigFooty? Join now for free.

Back
Top