5 minutes ago, FireInTheBelly said:

Dear Hayden, please try again.

I still can't believe Hayden's response, I mean even that is up for interpretation haha

5 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Positive 0.1%. Great home advantage

I said in an earlier post that we are last in that category and was actually referring to our overall free kick tally. 

1 minute ago, SFebey said:

I still can't believe Hayden's response, I mean even that is up for interpretation haha

It's fairly clear they think the vast majority of footy fans are dumb as dogs you know what. They're getting away with it, so it looks like they are correct in that assessment.

15 hours ago, Umpire Please said:

 

 

Just now, FireInTheBelly said:

It's fairly clear they think the vast majority of footy fans are dumb as dogs you know what. They're getting away with it, so it looks like they are correct in that assessment.

But the AFL will be happy, close games, great season and all that BS. The whole comp is a mess from umpiring through to drafts and MRP. This effort from Kennedy is like he spoke after way too many bongs, it's probably a prerequisite before going to umpire too.

It's over-officiated now. Players can hardly bump into one another without a free for a "block" being in question. Just stick to pushes and head high contact, anything else should be legal physicality 

The more I look at it the worse it gets. You should be able to protect your body if someone charges and jumps on you. 

I do hope that there's no 'interpretation' that allows the AFL to fine club supporters 20-100k for commenting on incorrect and undocumented rule of the week reamings by umpires.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-08-18/watch-the-umpire-commentary-afl-warns-clubs

7 minutes ago, Trisul said:

I do hope that there's no 'interpretation' that allows the AFL to fine club supporters 20-100k for commenting on incorrect and undocumented rule of the week reamings by umpires.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-08-18/watch-the-umpire-commentary-afl-warns-clubs

The AFL are officially the Gestapo. As if Coaches and players should not have the right to make fair and balanced observations about the standard of umpiring.

The AFL throw their support behind drug cheats and are seeking to control the media. Do they have a special relationship with Putin or just look up to him?

On 15/08/2017 at 7:39 PM, SFebey said:

I've had a quick look, can only find two reference to the word "straight" in there and they don't relate to this rule even! I will have a better look tomorrow. This was obviously premeditated towards Max, due to clubs apparently complaining about him. It's all BS, even Kennedy and his explanation. Makes me sick.

 

On 15/08/2017 at 7:52 PM, FireInTheBelly said:

Well this is the question for mine. If they've created a whole new interpretation just to screw over one particular player, have they A) Gone into the game watching for this action (i.e. watched some video and determined this is the best way to ping him), or B) Gone into the game with a directive to shut him down and it was all up to Haydos to sort them out after the fact with some crazy made-up rubbish?

Either way it's a pretty ordinary look for the game, yet they're getting away with it. Can't wait to see all the extra centre bounce free kicks from now on. Tell your rucks, if the bounce is sitting on the oppo rucks head, jump into him and he'll automatically protect himself and be pinged.

Is it maybe still ongoing maggot pay back for Max making them look inept (not that he needed to: they do a good job in that regard themselves, without assistance) when he whacked the ball away after yet another crappy bounce last year. 

 

2 hours ago, monoccular said:

 

Is it maybe still ongoing maggot pay back for Max making them look inept (not that he needed to: they do a good job in that regard themselves, without assistance) when he whacked the ball away after yet another crappy bounce last year. 

 

Possibly. He poked the wrong bear there me thinks.

On 8/15/2017 at 10:49 PM, jnrmac said:

 

Sydney got screwed tonight by a home town crowd. No guesses for no 28 Troy Pannell.

28 frees to 14. Some appalling blunders

 

On 15/08/2017 at 4:40 PM, PaulRB said:

Be interesting to cross correlate it on crowd figures i.e crowd size and crowd ratios No# us :No# them.

Umpires, being human and all, will be influenced by large highly vocal crowds... 

 

what's your source on umpires being human?

What do we expect, the game has been hijacked by big business and the politically correct.The umpiring soft [censored] are just a byproduct of the touchyfeely brigade that is running the [censored] show.

42 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Sydney got screwed tonight by a home town crowd. No guesses for no 28 Troy Pannell.

28 frees to 14. Some appalling blunders

 

Agree Jr, bloody disgraceful, umps did everything for a Crows win.

On 14/08/2017 at 9:24 AM, Mazer Rackham said:

Here is the problem in a nutshell.

Read the rules. They are so badly worded that "interpretations" are required to fill in the gaps.

Not just the media, even the umpires department (!) have bought into the idea that there are "interpretations" and even that the "interpretations" can change over time.

It doesn't seem to occur to them that "interpretations" of rules are a bad thing (leading to all the things being complained about in this thread) and highlight the slackness and carelessness of the AFL in this area.

(Example: they are quick to bring in "blurcam" on the goalposts when there's a bad goal ump call and someone cries out that "this could cost someone a premiership!!!" But turn a blind eye to the larger and more endemic problem that may have already cost several flags over the journey, most recent example: last year.)

How about .... blueskying here ... rewrite the rules so they are clear and unambiguous? I realise that's not 100% possible but hey AFL .... give it a try? Maybe improve on the permanent shambles that you currently have, and which is getting worse?

There are rules that "everyone knows" but are not actually in the rule book.

There are rules in the rule book that get ignored.

The "guidelines" on how rules will be "interpreted" that the AFL put out before each season has a useful lifetime that doesn't stretch much past the pre season comp.

Not to mention the "rule of the week", "rule of the quarter", or even "rule of umpire no. XYZ".

 

The AFL see all this and happily buy into it. Their lack of action shows that they don't have a problem with any of it.

For all their big noting, they are a joke.

 

If not for the MFC and countless hours of hope and dreams foolishly invested in them over many years, I would have given up on AFL altogether.

Exactly. The umpiring/officiating is extremely poor but I don't think it's more than that. I can't see there being any kind of corruption involved otherwise the Pies would be playing finals. Richmond gets a tough end of the stick in the umpiring department as well which would happen if the AFL were trying to manufacture outcomes.

Every single supporter base thinks the umps have it in for them. That's because of the issues you've highlighted above, where every week, every team will see some blatant frees go unrewarded and some genuine headscratchers go the other way. Look at last night's game. Crows got a tonne of frees where everyone said it was home town bias. Then Sydney gets a very iffy 50 to get them back into the game with minutes left. So who were the umps trying to get over the line?

9 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Sydney got screwed tonight by a home town crowd. No guesses for no 28 Troy Pannell.

28 frees to 14. Some appalling blunders

 

Was 25-9 at one stage.

3 hours ago, Hell Bent said:

Was 25-9 at one stage.

Was 23-6 at another.

It would be great to see free kick stats for every team over home & away for last 10 years, to check the % in favour of the home teams across that time!

Umpires always say the crowd don't influence them, but it is hard to believe when you see the stats from games like last night.

19 hours ago, 64" said:

What do we expect, the game has been hijacked by big business and the politically correct.The umpiring soft [censored] are just a byproduct of the touchyfeely brigade that is running the [censored] show.

Strange bedfellows. Any affect they might have on the game probably cancels each other out.

I would think, in consideration of the flack floating around this weekend, about the general ineptitude of  AFL Umpiring there will be a big increase in the number of Free Kicks being awarded.
Of course, i think this will have a couple of immediate effects, firstly in the pace of the game overall, and secondly in the frenzy that has become the last Five Minutes.

I wonder what things will look like if this happens?

Yes agreed. History tells us when we criticise umpiring, rather than correct their issues they'll be out to make a statement. Something akin to 'back in your box'. Having said that, we have none of 'the big 3' for this game so I have more confidence of it being a fair encounter.

In the corresponding game last year, season on the line, we were paid a total of 5 free kicks in the entire game, while the blues received 20. If that happens again we'll need to be a 10 goal better team to win. 

How many holding the balls are we not going to get paid!!!??

Clearly we can be tackled without the ball. Especially in the forward line. Both Pedo and Garlett clear as day in 30 seconds of play, neither paid