Pick any decision after half time in the 06 grand final
The worst decision in the 2006 GF was during the 3rd qtr, when Barry Hall was tackled at CHF at the Punt Rd End. He saw the tackle coming, grabbed the ball and ducked his head. The umpire who was controlling play was onto it. I was watching him. He gave Hall every chance to dispose of the ball, then he bent down as if he was about to pay "holding the ball".
Meanwhile, before he could signal, the umpire controlling the centre of the ground, blew his whistle, ran in from 50m away and signalled "too high". He'd been completely sucked in by Hall's ducking head.
The controlling umpire was about to do the "holding the ball" hand signal, heard the other whistle, then bailed out of his decision. He knew it was holding the ball, but deferred to an umpire who was 50m away from the action. If he'd been quicker to pay his own decision, the other umpire probably wouldn't have intervened.
Why does it take so long for umpires to signal "holding the ball" ?
Fair enough, give the guy every opportunity to get rid of the ball, but why take so long to signal, once you've made up your mind.
Look at how quick are they are to signal "too high". Bang!
Compare it to the "holding the ball" signal where they squat down like a ballerina doing her warm-ups, then pause for effect and do the signal slowly to milk the roars from the crowd. Less ego please, umpires. We're not here to watch you. Get on with it!