Fans getting warnings and booted for being too loud

[Woods Of Ypres]

The AFL member situation is a bit weird, had a row of around 12 Sri lankans in front and a Spanish family behind, was going off my head at the umpires, the poor kids in front got scared. I did apologise at half time and tried to explain the footy culture, they were nice people, but no idea where they got the tickets from, maybe AFL gives them to tourist operators

[think positive]

or maybe they live in Australia, and have some kind of membership!

i sit an aisle from the cheer squad, its a rainbow of people, ive never given thought to where they might be "holidaying"from!

the only ones who piss me off are the ones not in Collingwood gear, oh and the droning radio caller directly behind me who talks a load of crap and occasionally smacks my seat with his thighs!.

i try to rein it in when there is kids around, but a kid who was with a reserved seat member a few weeks back, maybe 12 or so, was just getting so upset just at any yelling, the mother said she has never heard bad language before! so shes either in a cult or maybe has a disability. so we did try, but yeah, it was one of those games and we all lost it a bit! As a parent i would remove my kid from the situation, it really wasnt over the top language or yelling.

the umpire thing kills me i admit, as i have zero respect for AFL umpires right now, they are simply not good enough, considering they are full time paid umpires. they are far too inconsistent. the real holwer near our goal line this week, the ump was coping it and he just looked at them and laughed, which really didnt help! the cops walked down the ailse and someone made a joke about behaving and the cops laughed! i mean were they really going to throw about 10,000 of us out?

[eddiesmith]

They are not full time

[Pies4shaw]

I'm not a full-time supporter, either - but I never abuse an umpire incorrectly.

[eddiesmith]

The thing with umpiring, is yes they are pretty bad at the moment and I lose my shit at them plenty, even coming from an umpires perspective but, people talk about them being paid etc. They earn less than a 1st year player, the umpires who do the grand final may end up with about the same as a 1st-2nd year player in the end but that's just the best of the best.

Now, how many mistakes does that first year player make? Hell, how many mistakes does your $600,000+, AA superstar make a game? How many mistakes did the reigning rising star make on the weekend?


Its a very weird world we live in where we can forget the hundreds of errors our players make it every single week, but cannot forgive a couple of errors by umpires. Why are they expected to be perfect? Why is an umpire disgraceful for missing a head high tackle but its ok for full time footballers to miss a set shot from 30m out, directly in front, time and time again?

[Raw Hammer]

That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read in a while. Not even worth explaining why.

One has a clear (not so clear any more) set of rules to adjudicate with two helpers for assistance, where common sense rarely prevails in a league governed by a lot grey areas.

The other has scope to be as creative or clinical as possible with ball in hand while being physically targeted by adult males from all angles while 50-100 thousand people scream at them.

[eddiesmith]

If you seriously think adjudicating on the many possible infringements in a split second with 100,000 people yelling at you in any contest is easier than going back and taking 30 seconds to kick a relatively straight forward set shot which you are paid a lot of money to do and spend your entire time practicing for, then you're right, its not worth explaining

[Abdul The Bull]

This whole situation has me concerned. The ejection process is the least democratic process there is. Who makes the complaint? Who assess the validity of the complaint? Is there an explanation to the ejected person as to why they've been ejected? Is there an opportunity for the ejected to learn from their "indiscretion"? Is there a right of reply or appeal? It's all very Orwellian.

[Woods Of Ypres]

Eddiesmith that is nonsense, umpires get a base salary of around 70K plus about 5K for each game. Technically not full time but Stevic etc would be on 150K

[eddiesmith]

Yeah, they are on less than a first year player who starts at about 90k!

Stephenson last year would have earnt more than the AFL GF umpires, so no its not nonsense

[tbaker]

^ And just like politicians, would paying them more obtain better quality stock? I think not. How is making them full-time going to make them pay the free kicks they don't currently see or to umpire more consistently? These are split second decisions they make that paying them more won't fix. Having them full-time means they may end up fitter - that's all - I don't see how it can improve eye-to-brain-to-voice coordination.

[tbaker]

From an Age article several years ago:
The AFLUA and AFL are also discussing a potential move towards full-time umpires, although Howe (AFL umpires association chief executive) said there was debate as to whether decision-making would improve enough to make it worthwhile.

[eddiesmith]

[piedys]

[eddiesmith]