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BigFooty Forum
After Saturday's 23-6 free kick count in our favour there's been bit of talk (including on the Hawthorn board) that we get a charmed run with the umps, especially in Perth. Unless every decision and possible decision is analysed (by my estimate anywhere between 4,000 and 10,000 over the course of the season) it's too difficult to proclaim with any certainty that we get it good in the free kick stakes.
What are the facts we do know? West Coast received the 5th most frees for in 2015, 405, with Richmond number one at 487 frees for, followed by North (439), Gold Coast (418) and Brisbane (411). That alone doesn't suggest anything sinister. But we did have the fewest frees paid against (328). Making up the top 5 were Collingwood (354), Adelaide (356), Hawthorn (364) and the Dogs (367). This gave us the 2nd best fee kick differential at a positive 67, just behind Richmond at +76. Worst was St Kilda with a negative 64 differential (Saturday's game wouldn't have helped).
If you ignore the unlikely possibility that the umpires are biased in our favour what other reasons could there be for our relatively good, though not stellar, performance?
Most obvious would be that we won a lot of games, which generally means you have the ball more than the opposition and less chance to give frees away. Add to that we had 12 victories of 50 points or more. You'd expect more frees in those situations. But it doesn't always work that way. We beat Gold Coast by 92 points in round 7, yet lost the free kick count 8-19. Next week we beat the Saints by 53 points with a 12-20 free count against us. Not a great fortnight for the umpires' pets. Another odditity was round 16, a 31 point win over the Pies, but an 8-28 free count.
Ferocious home fans influencing umpires could be another reason. We won the free kick count in 8 of our 11 home games. Winning 9 of 11 home games, most by large margins, makes that unremarkable.
We don't play a hard tag style game, so that might eliminate a few fees against. Tackling is a likely area to give away frees, but we're 15th for total tackles. I don't think that's an indicator of us being poor tacklers per se, more that we have the ball more than the opposition. That we try to play a free flowing style as opposed to a lock down battle should assist us in the free kick stakes.
Overall there's nothing in the stats that suggests our free kick for and against tallies are suspicious and the fact that there's been lopsided counts against us on a few occasions further dissipates the theory we get an privileged run from the umpires.
Source: Footy wire statistics
What are the facts we do know? West Coast received the 5th most frees for in 2015, 405, with Richmond number one at 487 frees for, followed by North (439), Gold Coast (418) and Brisbane (411). That alone doesn't suggest anything sinister. But we did have the fewest frees paid against (328). Making up the top 5 were Collingwood (354), Adelaide (356), Hawthorn (364) and the Dogs (367). This gave us the 2nd best fee kick differential at a positive 67, just behind Richmond at +76. Worst was St Kilda with a negative 64 differential (Saturday's game wouldn't have helped).
If you ignore the unlikely possibility that the umpires are biased in our favour what other reasons could there be for our relatively good, though not stellar, performance?
Most obvious would be that we won a lot of games, which generally means you have the ball more than the opposition and less chance to give frees away. Add to that we had 12 victories of 50 points or more. You'd expect more frees in those situations. But it doesn't always work that way. We beat Gold Coast by 92 points in round 7, yet lost the free kick count 8-19. Next week we beat the Saints by 53 points with a 12-20 free count against us. Not a great fortnight for the umpires' pets. Another odditity was round 16, a 31 point win over the Pies, but an 8-28 free count.
Ferocious home fans influencing umpires could be another reason. We won the free kick count in 8 of our 11 home games. Winning 9 of 11 home games, most by large margins, makes that unremarkable.
We don't play a hard tag style game, so that might eliminate a few fees against. Tackling is a likely area to give away frees, but we're 15th for total tackles. I don't think that's an indicator of us being poor tacklers per se, more that we have the ball more than the opposition. That we try to play a free flowing style as opposed to a lock down battle should assist us in the free kick stakes.
Overall there's nothing in the stats that suggests our free kick for and against tallies are suspicious and the fact that there's been lopsided counts against us on a few occasions further dissipates the theory we get an privileged run from the umpires.
Source: Footy wire statistics
