Roast Umpiring: Corruption or Incompetence, or both

[Snake_Baker]

I listened to Dennis Commetti call a match (who has fairly and accurately called more football matches than I've had hot dinners) a couple of weeks ago. Within about 10 minutes he called about 3 free kicks that all went the opposite way, and he had absolutely no explanation for why that had happened. If he's confused what hope do the rest of us have.

This is probably why he's not on air that much these days. He's honest.

 

[Janey]

This is probably why he's not on air that much these days. He's honest.

And we're all the poorer for the loss.

 

[Duckimus Prime]

My personal favourite was the incorrect disposal paid against Ladhams, last quarter in the forward pocket. The controlling umpire could clearly be heard saying “knocked out in the tackle, play on” before an out of zone umpire intervened.

What hope do we have in understanding the rules when 2 umpires interpret the same incident entirely differently?

The thing is, thats not two umpires interpretting the same incident different, it one umpire who actually had a view of what happened making a call. And then the out of zone umpire, who would've had no vision of what actually occured, deciding that he's more senior and Geelong deserves a free kick against the evil Port Adelaide who had said a mean thing to him earlier when he gave a free kick against them.

 

[dirty2]

Maybe the answer is to go back to one umpire.

 

[Snake_Baker]

Maybe the answer is to go back to one umpire.

Slow the game down. Speed is the problem.

 

[backtozero]

The thing is, thats not two umpires interpretting the same incident different, it one umpire who actually had a view of what happened making a call. And then the out of zone umpire, who would've had no vision of what actually occured, deciding that he's more senior and Geelong deserves a free kick against the evil Port Adelaide who had said a mean thing to him earlier when he gave a free kick against them.

I wonder how the umpires feel about this actually, having their decisions undermined by a co-worker that thinks they know better. Surely they're not always on the same page.

 

[Frank Hansen II]

Bonner htb worse call ever ..
Sellwood ducking Into legs no call
That's w***er leading in with his head gets a free Stewart I believe..
Dix getting f’ed in our goal square and the resulting 50 screams little man syndrome from the umps..

Multitude of throws not paid and high fend offs..

And their ruck every ******* bull up literally just jumped in ladhams or held him ..

Gill has f’ed the AFL

Jonas HTB call in the 4th was probably as bad or worse than Bonner's. The umpire calls "you didn't make an effort". Where was that kind of judgement for the Geelong players throughout the night?

 

[Frank Hansen II]

It's a hollow victory.

It's no coincidence that the 2 sides in last years grand final were the best throwers of the ball, and all because the AFL thinks that speed is the best thing for the game.

The so called "guardians of the game" have been committing incest.

I reckon the bulldogs are still number one for throwing the ball but Geelong and Richmond can be tied 2nd.

 

[Snake_Baker]

I reckon the bulldogs are still number one for throwing the ball but Geelong and Richmond can be tied 2nd.

All in the name of speed, speed, speed...............which just happens to be the underlying source for the majority of contemporary AFL problems.

 

[MrMeaner]

There is a new Twitter account on this topic. They have a couple of incidents from our game.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The umpires paid the following frees Port first
Q1 8 v 7
Q2 7 v7
Q3 8 v 6
Q4 3 v 5
Tot 26 v 25.

They put the whistle away in the last quarter after over umpiring with lots of techincal frees in the first half.

 

[Jason K]

I've given up any hope Port will ever get a fair crack from the umpires, but if you ever needed proof they are one sided, replay the Rozee 50m. He kicks it anyway but the free was paid 70m from goal, Sydney handball it away, then kick it away and the umpire paying the free was not going to pay 50. Another umpire (on TV was obvious) starts yelling NO, NO, NO it's 50m. The original umpire begrudgingly takes Rozee to 40m out.

Pure and simple, the umpire was trying to cheat. I can't see how it can be seen any other way (but I am severely one eyed)

 

[It Just Is]

The last 2 weeks have felt like a noticeable uptick in free kicks across the league.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

The last 2 weeks have felt like a noticeable uptick in free kicks across the league.

When the game was more attacking in the 1980's and 1990's 60 to 80 free kicks a game was the norm.

Its when the 3rd umpire came in that frees dropped way down. One game against St Kilda think in 2004 there was a total of only 12 or 14 free kicks

I dont have a problem with lots of frees, provided they pay the ones that are there and not lots of technical ones where they see a little bit of a jumper being held onto and they pay that free. Plus the ****in stupid ruck frees.

I reckon if the umpiring department had the guts to publish missed frees stats, they would be in the 20 to 30 range. They used to do it in the early noughties, then the media and fans paid a lot of attention and because the AFL is such a PR spin and controlling body, they stopped publishing the missed frees stats.

 

[Freak Dodgeball Accident]

Can we have these umps every game? Sure, they paid a lot more than I'd like to see, but I honestly can't recall any howlers (besides the Jonas below the knees, would have been hard for the ump to notice the push). I'm just glad that they were actually looking for any contact to Dixon in the marking contest.

 

[robbo1981]

BOTH

 

[Ford Fairlane]

The umpiring in the Melbourne v Essendon game was awful. Essendon fans were losing their shit but both teams were copping bizarre decisions.

 

[Shaucob_Burjan]

The umpiring in the Melbourne v Essendon game was awful. Essendon fans were losing their sh*t but both teams were copping bizarre decisions.

This ruck infringement miss made me mad. I get AFL umpiring is hard and that the ump bouncing the ball probably didn't see it, but there's no excuse for the other two field umpires to miss this imo.

 

[Fizzler]

I've given up any hope Port will ever get a fair crack from the umpires, but if you ever needed proof they are one sided, replay the Rozee 50m. He kicks it anyway but the free was paid 70m from goal, Sydney handball it away, then kick it away and the umpire paying the free was not going to pay 50. Another umpire (on TV was obvious) starts yelling NO, NO, NO it's 50m. The original umpire begrudgingly takes Rozee to 40m out.

Pure and simple, the umpire was trying to cheat. I can't see how it can be seen any other way (but I am severely one eyed)

Glad you picked up on that, it did seem like a short "50"

 

[Harlott]

What’s the deal with “head high contact“? My question refers to a couple of incidents yesterday. I would have thought there’s basically no room for interpretation. You touch the head with your hand then it’s a free kick or a reversal (which happened to us a few weeks ago.)
Jonas has a free paid against him yesterday where he “rested“ his forearm on the Sydney player’s face/neck whilst that player was on the ground. Fair enough. But then a Sydney player came in to remonstrate after the free kick was paid and pushed Jonas in the head. No reversal.
Also after Franklin catches Jonas HTB in the last qtr, he pushes his head slightly into the ground. No reversal.

 

[TeeKray]

What’s the deal with “head high contact“? My question refers to a couple of incidents yesterday. I would have thought there’s basically no room for interpretation. You touch the head with your hand then it’s a free kick or a reversal (which happened to us a few weeks ago.)
Jonas has a free paid against him yesterday where he “rested“ his forearm on the Sydney player’s face/neck whilst that player was on the ground. Fair enough. But then a Sydney player came in to remonstrate after the free kick was paid and pushed Jonas in the head. No reversal.
Also after Franklin catches Jonas HTB in the last qtr, he pushes his head slightly into the ground. No reversal.

It's just like every other rule. You can't touch the head except when you can.

 

[The Hobo]

There was a decision in the first half against Sydney, where the closest umpire called a free kick to Port - and then the other umpire came in and gave it to Sydney and I believe was a shot on goal to them.

This is the second time we've had two umpires contradict each other in the past few weeks, and both times the decision ended up going against us.

Surely if they can't agree, it's a ball up?

 

[OneGreatClub]

Did good bloke Buddy get any sanction from our game?

 

[Garibaldi Red]

Did good bloke Buddy get any sanction from our game?

Fined I think

 

[Garibaldi Red]

Cant believe Flogarty didn't get cited for his crash into Weiterings back