There’s no point to this. A please explain and an admission of error isn’t going to change the result or make any of us feel any better. Best that the club looks forward - and try and figure out why we haven’t put 4 full quarters together since ANZAC Eve.

7 minutes ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

Wah wah wah the umps suck wah wah wah

We lost to a garbage team, the umpires are irrelevant

You do struggle with nuance, don't you.

I could not get over the ease with which Walker took the subsequent mark, after the missed HTB.  Very un-May like.  But as others have said on this thread, a failure of our 'leaders' to stand up and set up properly, was the greatest disappointment that I took out of last night.  Thank goodness for Clarrie.

In terms of the umps, it is not the number of frees for and against that matters most to me, it is when and where the frees are given (or not given).  We only ask for consistency.  For mine, to many umps seem to be want to be media performers, rather than adjudicators who have an innate feel for just how footy is played.

I'm still gutted that we lost the way we did.

We're not far away from having a game a week decided by a terrible umpiring decision in the last minute.

As fans of the game we should be demand a massive increase in resources for umpiring - my initial expectation just to get the ball rolling would be a doubling.

We should also be demanding a culture change from executives who tinker at random or put the 'rule of the week' pressure on which makes umpiring so much more difficult than it should be.  But that is of course fantasy.

Looked like Anb was going to get the kick if it was awarded. On his left I’d say most likely outcome is a point. So a draw. 
 

a horrible weak call no doubt. The umps gave us plenty of dodgy free kicks throughout the game. We should have won this game regardless if this call

9 minutes ago, Little Goffy said:

We're not far away from having a game a week decided by a terrible umpiring decision in the last minute.

As fans of the game we should be demand a massive increase in resources for umpiring - my initial expectation just to get the ball rolling would be a doubling.

We should also be demanding a culture change from executives who tinker at random or put the 'rule of the week' pressure on which makes umpiring so much more difficult than it should be.  But that is of course fantasy.

its been 3 games this year

28 minutes ago, wackojacko said:

Not deliberate . Saw another angle this morning. Spargo touched it on the way through

Sorry, unless the touch greatly affected the ball's direction of motion, it s still deliberate,.

3 minutes ago, sue said:

Sorry, unless the touch greatly affected the ball's direction of motion, it s still deliberate,.

It did 

25 minutes ago, WERRIDEE said:

What about Spargo's deliberate?

Yeah forgot about that one, but I was about 10 pints deep to be fair.  The Crows one at the death was at least one million times more deliberate than both of our calls.

10 minutes ago, wackojacko said:

It did 

Looked like it was always heading to the boundary, deflection or not.

2 hours ago, Webber said:

Actually it WAS why we lost. And that’s ok, on a long enough time-line it all evens out. The bigger point is that there’s no reconciling the abominable contradictions in last night’s umpiring that gifted the Crows the win, because it reflects what is the greatest blight on our game - the quality of umpiring. Not forgetting that the size of ground, speed of play and multi-directional nature of our game makes it difficult, it just has to get better. Ignoring the ‘out of bounds’ shambles for a bit, the adjudication of the ‘tackle rule’ - the essence of the game’s physical contact - is a complete shambles, an utter 50/50 mess in any given situation. The home-crowd influence factor is equally egregious, and it was on sparkling display last night. How and why the umpires can’t be specifically coached in how not to fall prey to this baffles me. They’ve corrected it to a large extent in Perth over the last couple of years, but last night was an embarrassment to the game. Bad/unbalanced umpiring determined last night’s result. It’s that simple, and it shouldn’t happen. 

We let umpires off with the argument that players make mistakes in games so umpires should be afforded that privilege as well. Well how about standing up in the big moments? We want our players to be able to perform under pressure. I want our umpires to do the same and do their job to the nest of their ability under immense pressure. Lately it seems like they tighten up under pressure or the home crowd influence. 

Getting a please explain from the umpires won’t change a thing, but I think it’s important for the club to stand up and ask the question. 

People said Hardwick was whinging but at least he’s being honest and not copping it. I just think not asking the question makes us look like a club that just accepts poor treatment from the AFL.

3 hours ago, sue said:

Don't expect an apology quickly from the AFL. They don't even seem to have a text report on the match on their website.

The AFL will be thrilled with the match. Solid crowd, thriller, upset result, viewers glued to TV right to the last minute, and lots of ads goals. If a few purists wet themselves at the inconsistency of a rather peripheral part of the entertainment experience, well it takes all types, doesn't it?  I mean, when you think about it, "umpiring" simply interrupts the spectacle, and is as outdated as LP records or typewriters.

3 hours ago, Mickey said:

What's a please explain going to change? It hasn't changed anything so far this year, and it doesn't change the result.

Let's focus on fixing our issues so we aren't in that position, rather than expending energy with something that will have absolutely no effect

 

True but at least we can all acknowledge a clear bias for interstate clubs at their home ground and name the maggots not up to the job.

Edited May 23, 20214 yr by leave it to deever

51 minutes ago, Little Goffy said:

We're not far away from having a game a week decided by a terrible umpiring decision in the last minute.

Shocking: I dunno ... it sounds pretty good. But there's some part of me ... maybe something to do with my playing past ... that senses that ... I dunno, I can't articulate. Just some sixth sense. Crazy, I know.

Gil: the fans go crazy after games like that. I mean, literally crazy. If we can think of a way to monetise that, we're sitting on a gold mine. Those umpires are ****ing it up all the time anyway. Might as well make them do it properly. See to it.

Shocking: right you are, boss.

3 hours ago, BigFez said:

I'd love to see a side by side of Lever's deliberate in the second quarter and that one.

Can't blame the umps for the loss but that's as bad a decision as you'll see.  Credit to the Crows, they just wouldn't go away.

I actually think Lever was hardly done by. His intention was to handball further to his left towards (I think) Petty, but his left arm got shifted in the tackle which caused him to miss hit the ball with his right fist, sending the ball straight towards the boundary.

Quote

But up-and-coming South Australian umpire [name redacted]

 

Edited May 23, 20214 yr by david_neitz_is_my_dad

After that decision how HIGH was the ball thrown in the air by the same umpire at the last ball up before the finish.I think you will find that it hardly was thrown up high at all, preventing anyone from knocking it through for even a point. 

While usually loath to blame a loss on umpires, this is an exception. The umpires are human, we get that. But throw in a crowd that have honed booing to the point that it’s an art form and the result can be (and was) gutting. 

Geelong are 8 points closer to us than they should be. 8 points.

I understand people saying, we should have been better and if we blame umps for our inability to win the game we are delusional. I also believe that good sides overcome bad umpiring and I remember when we were a poor team and a few frees against and we were out of the contest.

But in an era when almost every sport that has had umpiring issues has evolved and improved their adjudication by technology and ,third umpires etc, to the point where there are very few games decided in the wrong, we are left in the past where our umpiring is not unlike boxing. A joke. 

1 hour ago, Left Foot Snap said:

Of course they will. Full time or not they get paid well to do what they do and should be held accountable for the money they earn. If they went full time, even more so. All I want is accountability,  being dropped would also have the same effect and I don't see why that isn't done more often.

Agree. Don’t think you can fine umpires as others have mentioned but accountability should shown through getting selected to umpire the following week - which in part would be a $’s disincentive. 

I just don’t understand that they need to think if they should pay a free - if you see it call it and if you don’t - play on!!!

The above should also eliminate the home ground favoritism seen across the country - doesn’t matter the colour of jumper or who the player is (another issue a la buddy who wasn’t penalised either)

I think Roffey/Pert need to take it up with AFL House and umpiring department publicly. Make them accountable to appease the fans and admit to the errors.  Yes nothing will change - too late try and snap a goal (nothing says we’d kick it too) - but will put both dept’s on notice that incompetencies will not be accepted by the MFC and hopefully we can avoid getting riled up reliving the decisions on a Sunday morning again

 

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

We're not far away from having a game a week decided by a terrible umpiring decision in the last minute.

As fans of the game we should be demand a massive increase in resources for umpiring - my initial expectation just to get the ball rolling would be a doubling.

We should also be demanding a culture change from executives who tinker at random or put the 'rule of the week' pressure on which makes umpiring so much more difficult than it should be.  But that is of course fantasy.

We have got to be kidding ourselves that more resources will solve this problem. It may improve it but it will not resolve it. 
I think we need to look at some type of technology integration. 

Simple example is expanding the use of a fourth (fifth?) umpire in the arc by introducing  the use of more slow motion capture cameras. Not the old 24 frames per second which are useless on the goal line.

Other ideas are rewinding of play back to a missed free or an incorrect call. I believe you could do that without interrupting the play as the arc umpire can examine footage and communicate to the onfield umpire when an intervention is warranted. 

As an aside I wonder what the betting agencies think of this. Lost a fair bit of dough last night I would have thought. Wonder if they’d pick up the phone to Gil and ask for a please explain?

Edited May 23, 20214 yr by CYB

The reason we lost is we conceded 15 goals.  Simple.  Let’s face it, we treated Adelaide like a player development exercise and it showed. 40% of Adelaide’s scoring goes through Tex, and we don’t send May to him at the start. That was our mindset and it cost us a win.

an explanation/admission from the AFL doesn’t mean  much, really. 
 

I am more interested in understanding their strategy for umpiring games in Perth and Adelaide. Do they send the most experienced umpires to those games who would have the best chance of blocking the crowd out and umpiring with courage or is it just a raffle every week when they assign umpires to matches?

28 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

While usually loath to blame a loss on umpires, this is an exception. The umpires are human, we get that. But throw in a crowd that have honed booing to the point that it’s an art form and the result can be (and was) gutting. 

True but now its done and dusted let the crows boo all the way to when  they miss the finals.

Its the only way they can win influencing easily swayed umps and why not....it works.