2 hours ago, Little Goffy said:

Sorry guys, but to me this just looks like pre-emptive sooking. Deciding in advance that the umpires are biased so that then every time any unfavourable decision looks soft or questionable you can have a moan and say 'see I told you so'.

Hawthorn and Melbourne have close to identical free kick tallies for the season overall, and there is no evidence, at all, of a free kick bias in our games against Hawthorn going back quite some years.

Rnd 4 2018 - Hawks 27 Demons 24

Rnd 7 2017 - Hawks 10 Demons 15

Rnd 20 2016 - Hawks 19 Demons 16

Rnd 11 2016 - Hawks 19 Demons 21

Rnd 7 2015 - Hawks 14 Demons 14

Rnd 20 2014 - Hawks 15 Demons 15

 

Some people need to pull their heads in because this is just shameful loser behaviour. I mean really, working up some baseless conspiracy theories, getting ready in advance lining up people to blame... just embarrassing.

Best thing to do to stay sane and enjoy the game is make a point of not knowing who the umpires are and not overdoing the second-guessing every time there's a decision.

 

Sorry cowboy, but have you ever watched Nicholls umpire against us?

2 hours ago, spalding said:

Is it just me, or do we seem to be getting a better run (razor ray as an example) now we are relevant, have bigger and noisier crowds, and are no longer looked down upon by the media?

the port game was the last time I thought we were truly butchered by the little green men - even the Adelaide and West Coast games seemed reasonably fair. 

The St Kilda game was, which followed Port. We got done over there too.

Now we are in the finals, I think the AFL will want us to thrive. Nicholls should make no difference to the result if we turn up to play again.

2 hours ago, Mazer Rackham said:

Imagine how satisfying it will feel on Monday morning knowing we blew our best chance for a flag in many years by forfeiting a game.

Regrettably, the only other course of action open to us is to try to win the match regardless.

I know you are correct.

3 hours ago, Little Goffy said:

Sorry guys, but to me this just looks like pre-emptive sooking. Deciding in advance that the umpires are biased so that then every time any unfavourable decision looks soft or questionable you can have a moan and say 'see I told you so'.

 

3 hours ago, Jibroni said:

Just spoke to a colleague of mine at Champion Data and asked about Nicholls. Apparently the last game he umpired was the Swans game he actually gave Melbourne more frees than Sydney. He couldn't comment on other games.

 

Unless he is a Hawthorn Supporter he might as bad as we think?

 

3 hours ago, daisycutter said:

whatever. he is still a shyte umpire and sucks out the enjoyment of a good game with his bad decisions

Agree with 'daisy'.

It's not a matter of bias or him having it in for us, I just think he's (Nichols) a pretty crook umpire...

Friday night footy, Nichols and Carlton are a bad mix.

Surely they can do better.

1 hour ago, Undeeterred said:

Sorry cowboy, but have you ever watched Nicholls umpire against us?

I look forward to being pointed towards a variety of vaguely soft or questionable decisions and being told 'I told you so'.

But in a good mood because we're going to win anyway, despite the evil conspiracy.

Well, there’s only one thing left to do... get your BOOOOOOOs ready!

we will win this regardless of the umpires.

15 hours ago, Little Goffy said:

I look forward to being pointed towards a variety of vaguely soft or questionable decisions and being told 'I told you so'.

But in a good mood because we're going to win anyway, despite the evil conspiracy.

Oh don't worry, I'm not remotely concerned about losing.

But Nicholls is either one of the most incompetent people to ever umpire, or unafraid to hide his biases and willing to flagrantly display them.

Umpires like everybody else are good or bad at their jobs in varying degree.  If it is really true that every club's biased supporters single Nichols out as the worst, then he must be doing something wrong, missing obvious frees, awarding dubious ones, more often than the average umpire does.

No doubt, that umpiring early in the final quarter had my blood boiling. That was appalling stuff.

 

Nicholls needs a long walk off a short pier. 

Umpiring tonight was appalling both ways to be honest. 

Some bizarre decisions, especially early in the last quarter. Thankfully they put the whistles (partially) away in the second half. 

Edited September 14, 20186 yr by Ethan Tremblay

8 minutes ago, Jaded said:

Nicholls needs a long walk off a short pier. 

Umpiring tonight was appalling both ways to be honest. 

Totally agree Jaded. Umpiring was abysmal for both teams. There were times where the Dorks got the raw end of the stick (the Viney play on call after he was tackled and put the ball to ground), but there was some [censored] decisions our way too.

I give em a 4/10 and that's because their ineptitude affected both teams equally.

Blah blah blah ...... the AFL rave in about the head being sacrosanct yet Brayshaw goes for the ball, gets his head kicked in, and not only no free to him but a free against him!!

FMD.

Hypocrites. 

The early decision against Jetta was a joke 

The umpiring was terrible.  If selection for next week is performance based, then none of these clowns will get a look in

On 9/12/2018 at 3:48 PM, Clintosaurus said:

 

 

This no doubt has cost Max 10 Brownlow votes this season so put your money on him to be top 3

SOMe mind boggling decisions against us tonight 

 

The Ministry of Truth one’s were

Neville Jetta in the first quarter “holding the ball “ (!!!!) (that resulted in a goal ) 

Brayshaw and Lewis both trying to injure Hawthorn players’ knees with their brains 

 

Umpires who produce adjudications like these are a clear and present danger to the survival of players -  but only of certain teams  -  for example Melbourne Football Club even if no others.

Probably our Workcover premiums are higher than other clubs because it’s recognised that we are fair game and at higher risk because duty of care just doesn’t apply to MFC as far as the game’s umpires are concerned.

 

Thought the umpiring in general was reasonable. That bald [censored]-head finally showed us some respect. Complaints about the obvious errors I think can be forwarded directly to AFL HQ. 

The game was awfully over umpired early.

Jetta free was yuck.

Picking free kicks off the ball for slight holds or contact after the ball was gone but then Clarry is getting belted in the chest and hung on to and gets nothing for the best part of 3/4's.

Slide rules are mostly there, although the Brayshaw one was silly. The Lewis one was his fault. Crap rule.

Messy umpiring didn't help a messy game.

The problem with the sliding rule is that is often paid when the offending player did not slide, but merely bent over to pick up the ball.  That should not be a free.  But sliding in as a tactic to knock over the oppo and then picking up the ball was dangerous and did need stopping.  As usual there is a grey area between bending and sliding which needs a sensible umpire to adjudicate.  Not much sign of that last night sadly.

Seems strange to say, but I hope we get Razor Ray and none of those contemptible maggots from last night 

what a lot of crap, our coach and players are saying they were ok with the free. They were just trying to be nice and not [censored] the powers to be off. the rules were wrongly interpreted and when has someones leg been more important than someones head. Angas got hit high and the umpires called it wrong. needs to clarify this to the men in white that if a player is already on the ground and opposition players trips over him it should not be a free. 

Don't worry about it. 

There was a big outcry in the media

https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-finals-2018-hawthorn-v-melbourne-contact-below-the-knees-sliding-rule-slammed/news-story/aad4610d15ccf7bddff3e09c92445e83

No need for us to add to the noise. 

We won regardless of the umpires.  Our leaders are being humble and contained.  They know bagging umpires gets you nowhere.  Let the football do the talking!

 

Edit:  This probably belongs in the Post Game or the Umpires thread.

Edited September 15, 20186 yr by Lucifer's Hero