Umpires were dirty cheating a**holes

[Podpicken]

I'm on my eighth can and still isn't getting any better. Stuff blaming the umpires, ya can get stuffed. they flogged us, plain and simple. eight goals and they have 25 players available on their list?? so would it make it better if five or six of those decisions went our way and we lost by a couple of goals? Excuse me, I need another can.

[OEP]

A very poor umpiring display.
My favorite decision was the fifty paid against Travis for, and I quote, "you pointed your finger at me, that's fifty" That's what was clearly heard over the TV.
At the end of the day the Pies were soundly beaten, but at least if the umpiring is good it can make the loss a little (only a little) easier to swallow.

[stui magpie]

[Northern Pie]

What gets me is the nature of the umpiring...early in the third qtr we had swung the game and had gotten to within 2 points when within a 5 minute period the Umpires gave Essendon 5 free kicks, 3 directly in front of goal and the others were inside the attacking half for the bummers which resulted in goals...AND with the free kicks they just decided to overlook, the umpires swung the momentum back to the bummers...I honestly think they are ruining a great game...the standard of umpiring in a lot of games this year has been so poor that it almost makes me want to just start following the local footy and forget about the AFL all together!

Cheers

[Breadcrawl]

If you honestly don't think we could have won that game if the umpiring had been impartial, fair and accurate, you don't understand the nature of momentum anywhere near as well as those cheating pricks do.

Twice we came back at them, and twice our flow was interrupted by consecutive terrible decisions that took the ball off us in our attacking 50 and delivered the ball into their hands in front of goal.

It was not simply bad umpiring, it was cheating. 24 free kicks to 12 the last time i saw it on the big screen. Last week it was 9-1 in the first quarter, favouring the Roos.

No doubt we did plenty of stupid things today, but so did the Dons and they got away with it because they were being propped up by dirty cheating bastards

[cobood]

[jack_spain]

[John Wren]

25 to 12 frankie. if i had not have watched last night's game i'd be convinced the umpires solely targetted us. they were equaly atrocious.

[rocketronnie]

I thought a lot of the frees against us came from obvious indiscipline, as did the fifties. Every man and his dog knows arguing with umps gets a fifty but still we did it (and do it week in , week out). Someone needs to gag Heath Shaw and Cloke because they are both serial offenders. Essendon got away with a bit but then the team in front at the ball usually do. That bloody push in the back rule has been in long enough for players to have worked it out but still some of them persist in doing blatantly - (Heath Shaw again).

The umpiring was inconsistent and over technical (the two reports were both jokes) but we need to be smarter in how we play the man in contests. A lot of our problems are stemming from our own indiscipline.

We need to get smarter quick to stop giving the umpires excuses to pay inconsistent and over technical free kicks and fifty metre penalties.

[Steve86]

they kicked us in the balls that for sure, I don't know, when i was watching i just feel like our team doesn't lift unless we go in as under dogs, seriously i no its a stupid thing to say but they look so casual and get repeatably beatn by sides like this

[~Madness~]

A couple of them baffled me. Once when the wankers took it out of the ruck after a bounce, were caught and no holding the ball called.

O'Bree's shepherd within 5 metres of the ball which was given a free against. Two decisions which really had me speechless.

We did not get one free kick in the last quarter. It was 22-12 at 3/4 time and can't recall their amount, but we were still 12 at the end.

[mel_kay39]

Yes the umpiring was abysmal. And yes, Heath Shaw and Cloke are serial offenders, particularly with the hands in the back rule, which I thought was bullshit when it came in, but unfortunately it stuck and players have had enough time to get used to it. I will stand up for Shaw however when i say that one of his frees against for hands in the back was utter BS cos he was using a forearm, and it was one of the few incidents channel ten actually chose to replay, so everyone would have seen it wasn't hands in the back. Last I heard, forearms were allowed.
The thing that pissed me off was like someone else said - every single time we seemed to get a run on; when we had gotten to within a few points, the umpires stopped the Pies momentum in it's tracks and gave the Bummers the ball. It really got me angry, and I even switched off for a few minutes in the third quarter. Couldn't handle not knowing the outcome though, and turned the TV back on. Now I wish I hadn't. Over this game. Bring on next week. We play the Hawks, so we'll be underdogs. The boys might actually come to play.

[stui magpie]

[rocketronnie]

[Zakal]

The problem with umpiring is getting worse, and i dont think its just a perception. Here's my theory:

In the last 5 years or so, the AFL has used the umpires to "crack down" on so many different things. The result has a much stricter level of umpiring. Now thats all well and good, except the umpires are human...they make mistakes.


You cannot try and enforce a machine-like code of umpiring and not end up over-officiating the game.

...as a result, you notice when mistakes are made.

If they relaxed a bit and let the game flow a bit more...and yes, this means a winding back of the strict interpretations of a LOT of the rules. Hands in the back, arm chopping and the like. In addition, Head High Contact needs to be HEAD HIGH...not 'over the shoulder.' I dont know of a single player who has had his collar bone broken by an opponents arm making contact with his shoulder in a marking contest.


RELAX!


We always say...well these are the rules, how long have you had to learn them? Thats all well and good, but seriously, how many free kicks do we think there SHOULD be per game if everyone knew the rules? None? Well no, Holding the Ball is the only "positive" free kick there is, as its a reward for a positive act by a player, not a penalty for a negative act. The Tackler is rewarded for locking up the opponent. So thats not an infringement per se.

So except for holding the ball...there should be NO infringements.
Can this happen under our present system? No.

It can't happen because the rules in place are at logger-heads with the very nature of league footy. Accidents happen, people ARE going to get hurt. Fair enough cut out the DELIBERATE infringements like punching someone in the head, or headlocks and shit like that. Its probably not unreasonable to penalise the stupidly reckless acts too...like trying to kick a footy that three players have their hands on. Youre probably not deliberately trying to hurt them, but you're being stupid. Free kick.


But shit, Tarkyn Lockyer's head high contact free was a joke. The ball bounced funny (as oval balls tend to do) and he stuck his arm out CLEARLY to gather it as it bounced....Essendon player ran straight into his arm....Free kick. Piss off. It was an accident, there was no force to it...that should NOT be a free kick.


Ditto the free on Pendlebury that resulted in 50 at the very start. He grabbed oldmates shoulder from behind (his arm was resting across oldmates shoulder) and pulled him off the ball. Again, thats a free kick under the current rules, but it shoudlnt be. Absolutely no danger in that, just the interpretation of the rule getting confused with the spirit of the rule.


If they insist on maintaining this Draconian style of umpiring, they simply must open up umpires stats to public discussion and criticism. You cannot hide the mistakes they make and pretend they dont exist.

They need to get a lot smarter about they way they are handling this.