24 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

First two rounds I would agree. Since then it's deteriorated to be as bad as the last two years, which were an all time low for this long time watcher.

The first two round were 100% superior.

You can always tell when the umpires have been told somethings a focus for the week by their superiors, ie; the 15m mark rule and the quickening of play on interpretation 

I wouldn't be too hard on Hayden Kennedy.  Being the Head of Umpires, I think he has little choice but to support umpires in an interview.  As it is he has resigned and next week will be his last game. umpires-coach-hayden-kennedy-leaves-afl-suddenly

There seems to be a bit of friction between how the AFL (Hocking) wants rules interpreted (HTB) is discussed in the article. 

I feel for umpires:  if they pay the HTB/throwing etc the AFL cans them for slowing the game;  if they don't pay them the media and fans can them for letting them go.  A no win situation. 

In the meantime some clubs take advantage of the laxness.  Soon the skill of Hand-ball will be a novelty of the game.

43 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

The head is sacrosanct. Gil said that once, possibly talking about the craft beer getting pulled for him at the Portsea ponies.

But, of course, some heads are more sacrosanct (Selwood) than others (Max).

40 minutes ago, FritschyBusiness said:

You can always tell when the umpires have been told somethings a focus for the week by their superiors, ie; the 15m mark rule and the quickening of play on interpretation 

Example today late in Hawks game.

Kicked backwards, early call of "no-15", by my judgement it travelled 25 and missed the target by 10m over his head

The desire to make early call was part of it,  but clearly they've been told to crackdown

 

20 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

I feel for umpires:  if they pay the HTB/throwing etc the AFL cans them for slowing the game;  if they don't pay them the media and fans can them for letting them go.  A no win situation. 

I think that's the problem.
The AFL directive is to not pay legit free kicks for HTB/Throwing to keep the ball moving.
So the umpires are directed to ignore some actual rules of the game sometimes.

It be like if the NBA ref's were told to ignore fouls to keep the game moving and reduce free throws.

Bizarre  stuff

Whinging at the umpires is as much of the game as the high mark. It will never be fixed. 

This game is a classic example of bias decisions.

Tigers favored by a mile.

49 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

This game is a classic example of bias decisions.

Tigers favored by a mile.

And Geelong and West Coast (at home). Sydney to some degree.

Shaun Higgins had a shot for goal last night, from well outside fifty. No chance. Allowed to take his time. Runs in, spears around inside the mark, gets to the fifty, at least 2 metres inside the man on the mark, and kicks. No play on call 

15 hours ago, bush demon said:

Also, milking a free by gripping the player's hand so he can't get rid of it. Sometimes dangerous and not in the spirit of the code. What year did this abysmal practice start?

I think our small forwards are particularly good at this - so nothing to see here. Play on!

15 hours ago, bush demon said:

Also, milking a free by gripping the player's hand so he can't get rid of it. Sometimes dangerous and not in the spirit of the code. What year did this abysmal practice start?

Restricting the player by not being able to handball so they are forced to attempt to drop the ball onto their foot for a low % kick or risk being caught holding the ball?

You mean the perfect tackle?

19 hours ago, monoccular said:

One of my huge  bugbears in umpiring is when a player who has the ball gets incorrectly tackled or buried under a pile gets pinged for holding the ball.

IMO the prime umping duty of care should be to encourage the player to get the ball, and protect him, and ONLY if correctly tackled AND doesn't correctly dispose should he be penalised.

All too often we see one ridden into the ground under 3 or 4 players and unable to get rid of it - HTB!!!  Even though he has been the subject of "in the back" and often "high tackle / around the neck"!  This only encourages the vultures of the game, and discourages the brave ball getter.

Sorry I tend to strongly disagree. The ball getters are manipulating the rules and getting way to many free kicks be it for ducking or dropping and diving forward to draw in the back. Frees should be paid if the tackle is dangerously in the back or dangerously high not if guy gets brushed over the shoulder. My biggest biggest hate is when a player gets done stone cold holding the ball and the umpire judges it in the back. Last night their was a great example of umpires being reactive in their decision making . Naughton gets tackled, bangs his head into the ground, umpire sees he puts his hand near his head like he is hurt, blows for free kick. No sling action, no in the back but dangerous tackle, how ? Leave the dangerous tackles for the AFL and the MRO. 

 

The state of umpiring in the game right now is appalling. That's not necessarily the umpires' fault, but for various reasons it is the AFL's fault.

There's no bias for or against any particular side. There's just wholesale inconsistency within and between games. And that's largely because of ever-changing rules which are incredibly subjective.

The HTB rule is very difficult to umpire with consistency. But there are a number of other rules that need to be improved. The deliberate out of bounds rule is becoming a farce. Holding the man takes on a completely different complexion if you're a key defender as compared to a midfielder at a stoppage. 

Even the stand rule is being bent: Dougal Howard stepped all around the mark at one point on Friday night but wasn't penalised.

For what it’s worth I had this happen recently...

A friend of mine is from Argentina and we watched a game together as she had never actually watched an AFL game.

Trying to explain the rules turned into a farce. 
 

Perfect example was holding the ball. I explained the rules and then she would continuously ask as we were watching ‘isn’t that holding the ball???’ To which I had some reason to explain why it isn’t... but even listening to myself was nauseating. 

It showed me how ridiculous of a game this is to try and umpire and that; something is a free kick one week but not the next was ridiculous to my friend.

And I learned I don’t actually know what the rules are now as so many free kicks just aren’t paid and others are. And I’ve been watching footy for 30 years now.

 

Edited May 16, 20214 yr by BoBo