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Roast Umpiring: Corruption or Incompetence, or both

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I could have sworn that Georgiades was called to play on from the boundary line when he was lining up for a set shot and hadn't started moving yet.
That one was the umpire making a "judgement call" that it was outside of his range for a shot. Which he never should've been making. Although it was probably right at the edge of his range.
 
I could have sworn that Georgiades was called to play on from the boundary line when he was lining up for a set shot and hadn't started moving yet.

I think he might have glanced to his left. That's always been play on.

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The vibe at the ground was horrible. The crowd was very angry. Normally you get some angst about some decisions and forget it quickly when cheering for the next good thing, but this felt like constant rage. It wasn’t a good experience.
And one day when there's a UK style riot, they'll wonder why...
 
Umpire Nicholls has to be close to worst in the AFL at the moment.

The Sydney derby is about to get out of control. The Swans audience is booing…. So watch out, angry fists next.
 
For those who are big fans of the vagaries of umpiring, watch the first half of the second quarter and watch the umpires take the game out of our hands. I think it was 6 free kicks in a row.

The first quarter was a pretty good, strong, tight affair. We were a touch in front.

In the second quarter, Ed Richards kicks a great goal from the pocket from a stoppage clearance. He played a great game.
Lorenz gives a free kick to Bont who kicks a point.
A spoiling free kick in the marking contest in the centre on O'Donnell by Georgiades. From that, the next player pumps it in to Khamis who is spoiled by Aliir but is given another free kick. He converts.
A bewildered free kick by Rozee to Sanders for a free kick and a goal. Event the commentators thought it was stiff.
The next centre clearance is won by Treloar who pumps it in and gets hit [dunno if it was a legit hit as they didn't go back to it] and the free kick is paid down the ground. Naughton kicks a point.
Naughton gets a Joe the Goose goal. Perhaps the free kicks are getting to the players.
In our F50, Rioli picks up the ball and is instantly tackled by Bont for holding the ball free kick.
The Dogs play keepings off and Cleary kicks a nice goal.

And that is the game.
 
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Its time for the players to strike if they dont improve

Inconsistent/incompetent umpiring for both sides would be an improvement on the current situation, where we feel one class of side faces structural bias - an integrity of the game scandal. The AFL need GC type entities (like us) for 'content' and also clearly could not care if none of them ever won another flag. Why would broad - probably unconscious - umpiring bias ever get focus for improvement when it's business as usual, unless players or clubs called it out?

Players can engineer a move to a VFL side if they did get sick of feeling their current side is doomed to more of the raw end of the pineapple, it impacts their value in the system too. So never mind strikes. And players don't see the whole ground nor are they passively focused on or close to many decisions not impacting them, they have other things to do (!!) and are competitive humans trained to focus on their actions over 'externals'.

The appointed heads of controlled franchises won't be calling the integrity of the game into question publicly. Even if they ever went as far as privately showing AFL House analysis of an egregiously umpired game or two, with stats, side-by-side vids... meh, dismissed as one umpire's bad day, an anomaly, etc. Flood the zone with you-know-what Roger Stone style. Imagine the work to make the case across multiple games/seasons/clubs to 'turn' an exec or two who could nevertheless be sacked - likely with NDA attached - for whistleblowing even in private.
 

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When one team gets all the time and liberty to dispose anyway possible, the other gets one millisecond, it's got to effect the players ability to get the ball with confidence.
 
For those who are big fans of the vagaries of umpiring, watch the first half of the second quarter and watch the umpires take the game out of our hands. I think it was 6 free kicks in a row.

The first quarter was a pretty good, strong, tight affair. We were a touch in front.

In the second quarter, Ed Richards kicks a great goal from the pocket from a stoppage clearance. He played a great game.
Lorenz gives a free kick to Bont who kicks a point.
A spoiling free kick in the marking contest in the centre on O'Donnell by Georgiades. From that, the next player pumps it in to Khamis who is spoiled by Aliir but is given another free kick. He converts.
A bewildered free kick by Rozee to Sanders for a free kick and a goal. Event the commentators thought it was stiff.
The next centre clearance is won by Treloar who pumps it in and gets hit [dunno if it was a legit hit as they didn't go back to it] and the free kick is paid down the ground. Naughton kicks a point.
Naughton gets a Joe the Goose goal. Perhaps the free kicks are getting to the players.
In our F50, Rioli picks up the ball and is instantly tackled by Bont for holding the ball free kick.
The Dogs play keepings off and Cleary kicks a nice goal.

And that is the game.
It was at this point i stopped watching, I’d had enough. We were crap but gee whiz the dogs had the red carpet rolled out for them.
 
It was at this point i stopped watching, I’d had enough. We were crap but gee whiz the dogs had the red carpet rolled out for them.
They only needed 6 or so in a row and the game blows out.

The Bulldogs didn't win on merit and we didn't lose because we played badly.

The umpires lost us that game. Sure, we should be able to come back but confidence is lost in the integrity of the game itself.

It would be a bit different if the free kicks were blatantly obvious but there just seems to be times when we are given a $hit sandwich of free kicks against [yes, that is the collective noun] and gives the opposition scoreboard pressure and massive confidence and the team against loses all confidence.

Sweet hasn't been that bad. It is really the free kicks against him for tussles that happen throughout the entire game. He actually a free kick given to him on the weekend and he kicked a goal and was probably dumbfounded but this time because he got a non-existent free kick in front of goals.

Basically free kicks and the ticky touch umpiring is ruining the game. As a few people have noted, this poor umpiring has come in once the betting agency money flooeded the AFL. What do you do?
 
I hate the umpiring just as much as anyone including the 2 rule book play for and against us. The AFL does have an agenda on who should make finals and they are tired of Port stinking it up. However that doesn't excuse our incipient performance on Saturday. Our young players are struggling to find form and energy. Part of that is to do with our poor fitness department.
 

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I hate the umpiring just as much as anyone including the 2 rule book play for and against us. The AFL does have an agenda on who should make finals and they are tired of Port stinking it up. However that doesn't excuse our incipient performance on Saturday. Our young players are struggling to find form and energy. Part of that is to do with our poor fitness department.
I'm with you about no excuses.

shit umpiring or not we roll over way too easy. its the Hinkley way. we cant be losing by 90 points when the going gets tough.
 
I'm with you about no excuses.

shit umpiring or not we roll over way too easy. its the Hinkley way. we cant be losing by 90 points when the going gets tough.
It's definitely the Hinkley way. His mantra of "it's a tough competition and someone has to lose" has instilled in the players the mindset that when things start going against you, such as a run of bad umpiring decisions, it's OK to give up.

Hinkley had this brilliant insight in his post game presser, “when it has gone against us it’s been hard to arrest the momentum". Maybe there's a "learning" somewhere in there for you Kenny.
 
Or just laying one of their blokes out.

Yep, when the umpires decide they are paying the soft free kicks there is no point holding back as they're still going to ping you for any false step.

Instead smash in even harder within the spirit of the game. Worst that happens is you give a free kick away, no need to worry about next week's game, just win today. Grind grind grind.

Umpires and the vfl will start shitting themselves if they see the ticky touch ones result in players going in harder at the contests.
 
It's definitely the Hinkley way. His mantra of "it's a tough competition and someone has to lose" has instilled in the players the mindset that when things start going against you, such as a run of bad umpiring decisions, it's OK to give up.

Hinkley had this brilliant insight in his post game presser, “when it has gone against us it’s been hard to arrest the momentum". Maybe there's a "learning" somewhere in there for you Kenny.
would have loved a journo to say yep we know that ken, why is it happening?, what are you doing about it?, have you lost the players?, are the players weak minded?, why do they rollover? is it cause you give them a soft out? thats 3 smashings in 10 games? why ken why?

just a few follow questions so the prick can earn his 800k
 

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Roast Umpiring: Corruption or Incompetence, or both

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