They also hang their hat on an article which reliable Sydney based AFL rag The Australian posted which included this ridiculous line: "The league were embarrassed to the point that then-acting AFL general manager of football operations Mark Evans rang Sydney chief executive Andrew Ireland on the Tuesday after the match to apologise for the umpires costing the Swans four goals." No quoted source, and this wasn't repeated anywhere but that single article. Coincidently 4 goals was just the margin of the game, meaning the Swans were obviously robbed of a certain victory.Yea, the Swans supporters I know all keep banging on about it but when i ask them for specific details of what decisions they are talking about they have nothing. The only thing they keep repeating is 'free kick count'... as if every team has a right to exactly the same amount of free kicks.
The thing is that the game wasn't decided by a kick, it was a comfortable 22 points in the end. So if it came down to one contentious decision in front of goal that wasn't paid that would have won it for them then its understandable but that didn't happen. In fact JJ's touched goal decision was the most contentious one that day and we still steam-rolled them.
Anyone with half an idea of how football works (ie not most Sydney fans) knows how bullshit this is given you can't directly link an umpiring decision with a goal, particularly when the few decisions which were probably poor and in our favour occured further up the ground rather than directly in front of goal.
Long may they continue to bleat about it.