Roast Umpiring in the AFL: A dangerous precedent.

[Sanders]

hayden kennedy came down to explain to the club all the things our players were doing wrong, because it was our fault for doing stupid things and the umpires were right. they are always right.

then suddenly our players have changed the way they play, and they have gone instantly from playing dumb to playing smart and deserving a big freee count in their favour.

next week we will go back to playing the wrong way.

this is the official line, and it's about dishonest and ridiculous as its possible to be. the umpiring is all over the place.

 

[SydCrow]

I thought the umpiring was OK last night apart from the deliberates. Was I one eyed?

 

[Sanders]

I thought the umpiring was OK last night apart from the deliberates. Was I one eyed?

yes.

 

[Damp Squarie]

I haven't watched the replay yet but thought the free kicks we got were all warranted.
The 3 we didn't get in the last quarter brought a few expletives...they were basically after Seedsman missed the momentum changer.
Were we not paid those 3 frees because the maggots were trying to even up the count in the last of were they just missed? Who knows.
Geelong were not paid a few either that I thought were high too (throughout the game)

 

[adelaidecrows]

Last week the club rightly asked for a please explain from the AFL regarding the blatant bias shown by umpire Troy Pannell.

While it's one thing to sweep something under the rug publicly, I had quietly hoped that behind the scenes they would have taken some steps towards ironing out these issues to avoid being found out again - but how wrong could I be.

Last night we were clearly favoured in many instances which was reflected in the drastically uneven free kick count. This for me is the classic AFL directed "square up", much like the cheapies they hand out in the junk time of a match where you've been hard done by.

This sets/reenforces a SHOCKING precedent by pandering to the idea that any team is likely to get the rub of the green at their home ground, which will no doubt come back to haunt many teams, certainly not just us.

Just so unhappy with the AFL right now.

I agree, I thought the same watching the match. It's clear we have reached a stage now that the umpiring department is at such a level of inadequacy the AFL need to drastically do something. I have always maintained that the AFL's secretive society approach to the umpiring department was always bound to create problems. Mark Evans is so out of touch if he thinks umpires do not support teams. Of course they do. Like everyone else, I am sure one of their favourite past times is sitting on the couch with a few bevies watching their team play. He obviously holds contempt for the footy public if he thinks we would believe tripe like that. The AFL need to allow coaches to come out and have a public view on the standard of umpiring at some point after a match. I don't mean personally attack an umpire or individually single someone out. I think later in the week once all anger is gone and the match review has taken place, the clubs can come out and talk about the umpiring in a public forum. I am not happy with the AFL sending an ex umpire out in a PR exercise to publicly protect his mates and colleagues. The AFL desperately need to get the clubs and the umpires to see eye to eye, at present I think the relationship is as strained as ever.

 

[Drugs Are Bad Mackay?]

I don't think the umpires are coached very well. There are three major bug bears of mine.

1) The interpretation of the rules are too fluid

For instance, Hayden Kennedy was pleased with that Isaac Smith holding the ball decision because - wait for it - it showed the umpire had a good feel for the stage of the game. Ie we don't want games decided by an umpiring decision, so put the whistles away. Huh? So the rules become more/less stringent depending on the score, the time and where it is on the field.

Put the whistle away for finals too. No ticky touchwood frees in big games. So the rules change again.

A free kick should be a free kick no matter where it is on the field, no matter what stage of the game it is and what the score is. Umpires should be working towards a consistent standard of free kicks that do/don't get paid in every quarter of every game of every single game of the season.

1a) The Friday night 'tweak' of the rules has to go too. Eg where there is a crackdown on 15m kicks like there was the other week, when it is obvious the umpires have highlighted a rule to tighten up on. No crackdowns, no rules of the week. Instead strive to be the same.

2) Lack of honesty

There's a sheer desperation to publicly declare that every single decision is correct. They hedge their bets. The holding the ball against Isaac Smith could be construed as the correct decision and the umpiring department would have argued vehemently it was the right call had it been paid. It doesn't get paid and it's also the right decision because of good feel for the stage of the game.

No mater what the decision, they swear that it was correct until they're blue in the face. Completely immune to any criticism. There is absolute denial of any problem or inconsistency which is why it can never be fixed.

3) Acknowledgement of factors that can influence decision making

Tricky one because we're all human. 50,000 fans booing has to have an impact. Personalities of the players (abusive, respected, whingers) has to have an impact. Growing up a Crows/Bulldogs fan has to have an impact.

Umpires can get unduly influenced by the crowd. We saw it last night. I remember reading that the number of deliberate out of bounds paid when it was a lopsided crowd compared to when it is a 50/50 crowd are off the chart.

The umpires need to recognise this danger and learn to take the crowd out of the equation. Similarly the umpiring department has to guard against getting caught up in the excitement of watching your fave team run around or of paying frees on reputation (for Selwood, against Franklin) rather than on what they see

First step for the umpires is they need to recognise these can be factors rather than deny they exist or wailing that it is questioning the integrity of the umpires.

 

[brucetiki]

You do realise this has been happening for decades - we got reamed by the umps in the 1998 semi final, we complained, the AFL dropped 2 of the 3 umpires for the rest of the finals, and we got an armchair ride from the umps in the 1998 prelim final.

Nothing new here.

 

[1990crow]

Ducking your head and/or diving and/or dropping at the knees should be prior opportunity

Exactly. Selwoods career would be over so i approve.

 

[TexFactor]

And when the bulldogs predictably lose the free kick count today for the 1st time this season that will all be a coincidence too.

 

[CrowsB4hoes]

hayden kennedy came down to explain to the club all the things our players were doing wrong, because it was our fault for doing stupid things and the umpires were right. they are always right.

then suddenly our players have changed the way they play, and they have gone instantly from playing dumb to playing smart and deserving a big freee count in their favour.

next week we will go back to playing the wrong way.

this is the official line, and it's about dishonest and ridiculous as its possible to be. the umpiring is all over the place.

And this is the dangerous precedent. Scott said after our game that he wanted to get the umpires down to have the same discussions we'd had.

Next you'll see every coach wanting that done.

It's a disgrace that clubs are being encouraged to play for frees, but this is what the AFL have created.

We certainly played differently. Lots of head ducking when tackled.

 

[Anzacpaul]

Easiest way to fix the deliberate rule is to do what the SANFL are doing. Last kick/handball out is a free to the opposition. If it's smothered out or comes out in a contest (marking, ruck or ground ball) then it's a throw in.

So simple, takes 99% of the umpiring out of it and in my view makes the game more enjoyable to watch.

The less the umpires have to think the better.

I hate the idea, giving the opposition a 50m advantage because the ball went out off of you?

 

[JP Sauce]

I hate the idea, giving the opposition a 50m advantage because the ball went out off of you?

A 50m advantage?

And it's not a "last touch" rule, it's a "last clean disposal" rule.

The rule is simple. Don't kick it or handball it out of bounds.

 

[Iron]

Port got reamed in a performance quite like our match with the bulldogs.

Just saying.

 

[baldandbroke]

A 50m advantage?

And it's not a "last touch" rule, it's a "last clean disposal" rule.

The rule is simple. Don't kick it or handball it out of bounds.

I think I'd prefer that. Does it include just walking over the boundary - ie not being tackled or pushed?

 

[JP Sauce]

I think I'd prefer that. Does it include just walking over the boundary - ie not being tackled or pushed?

From what I can tell those situations are still up to umpires to interpret, although they're definitely a lot tougher on them.

 

[Golumless]

Port got reamed in a performance quite like our match with the bulldogs.

Just saying.

Must be "Home team umpires have unashamed bias against travelling away team" week.

 

[Cockwomble]

Just watched the replay
Does anyone else think it was a bit weird when the Seed missed the sitter what the umpire was doing on the mark. . It would have put me off. No excuses I guess but..

 

[FR0GGY]

Just watched the replay
Does anyone else think it was a bit weird when the Seed missed the sitter what the umpire was doing on the mark. . It would have put me off. No excuses I guess but..

What was he doing?

 

[Cap]

And no one is allowed to criticize the umpires, because those poor darlings may have their feelings hurt.

Critiscm maybe. But the outright abuse that happens these days is not on.

We need to build a culture of respect so that people don't feel it's their right to cut sick at every 50/50 that doesn't go their way.

 

[Golumless]

Critiscm maybe. But the outright abuse that happens these days is not on.

We need to build a culture of respect so that people don't feel it's their right to cut sick at every 50/50 that doesn't go their way.

I do agree there is a fine line that needs to be tread, that said though, going the full 180 from the point of umpire abuse, where we're at the point anyone involved with umpiring has decided to ignore any ways to improve it is equally bad, if not worse than the aforementioned culture.

We need to build a culture of accountability beyond anything.

 

[thebeedee]

What was he doing?

From memory I recall he was waving play on. Shot clock violation? (******* stupid afl)

 

[Huntercrow]

We should have a 5 year moratorium on rule changes. It's confusing enough without new rules and interpretations gumming up the works.

 

[cmndstab]

We don't need a change of rules, no disgraceful last-touch-out-of-bounds free kick rule, no tweaking of head high frees, nothing.

We just need full time umpires whose performance dictates whether they continue to umpire matches at the top level, with a base salary heavily supplemented by bonuses for each match umpired.

I guarantee that 99% of umpiring problems would go away within 12 months. This bullshit about "how are we going to convince people to be umpires" goes away when you pay them big cash to do it. And the whole stigma about shitty umpires disappears when they're all good at their job. People at state level want to be umpires because there's a pathway to potentially earning good money at AFL level, and it filters down.

If you make the umpires responsible for their performance, they'll either step it up, or if they're unable to do so, they will get moved on in favour of those who can.

For what is literally a billion dollar industry, it border on insanity that this hasn't already happened. The umpiring association must have one heck of a good union.

In what has been a season of ridiculous calls so far, the quote from (I think) Hayden Kennedy saying that you wouldn't want full time umpires because it would lead to worse decisions because they'd be thinking of umpiring 24/7 is actually the dumbest statement of them all.

 

[cmndstab]

We should have a 5 year moratorium on rule changes. It's confusing enough without new rules and interpretations gumming up the works.

Hell, I'd just settle for the AFL saying "once we are introducing the third rule change in a row to fix the problems introduced by the previous one, we agree to just give up and revert back to where we started, and preferably then go outside and shoot ourselves."

 

[baldandbroke]

I agree on the full-time umpire position, it is crazy. We should also have two goal umpires at each end and get rid of the goal review.

But ... I don't mind the changing of rules - I think the game evolves with it, and as a result our game grows and improves.

All sports change, I don't look back at the 70s and 80s and think - WOW, that was when footy was great. I was there. It wasn't.