Eddie’s Bold Plan to Revamp Umpiring

[Demonland 73,161]

 

[Bitter but optimistic 22,247]

Eddies after a headline. 

Without knowing the fine detail , I see a Swiss cheese.

 

[BDA 22,890]

Too many cooks in the kitchen. a recipe for confusion

I agree with him as regards paying them though

[Supermercado 2,802]

If the plan's not bold or radical, Eddie's not interested. And this isn't even going into his mad idea to give the winner of the old pre-season cup a bye into the finals, or his bold plan for theatre marketing.

Edited April 20, 2022 by Supermercado

[drysdale demon 4,837]

I'm Eddie I am still here, can everyone hear me.

Hello, hello do you hear me........please answer, hello.

[Supreme_Demon 3,899]

Nothing wrong with looking at various ideas.

The problem is Eddie just wants attention as usual. 🙄

It's all about him and his ego and not what is overall good for Australian Rules Football.

 

My recommendation is just make umpiring a full-time profession and pay them more. Have a proper school for umpires and recruit from former players.

 

In the end the AFL needs to invest in umpiring to eventually increase the quality of decision-making by umpires.

[Demonland 73,161]

1 hour ago, Supermercado said:

If the plan's not bold or radical, Eddie's not interested. And this isn't even going into his mad idea to give the winner of the old pre-season cup a bye into the finals, or his bold plan for theatre marketing.

[daisycutter 29,743]

eddie is becoming a parody of eddie

[Queanbeyan Demon 6,869]

The reason I clicked on this thread is because I thought . . . Eddie Betts's thoughts would be worth reading. Instead . . . I've puked all over a perfectly good Apple Mac keyboard. 

[Go the Biff 3,442]

Looks to be based roughly on the NFL model of officials in designated areas. They also work in crews (teams).

I can see where he's coming from but it seems like overkill to me (much like the dissent rule).

Good luck getting 8 umpires per game at local and junior level although I doubt that the flow on effects entered Ed's mind

[Rod Grinter Riot Squad 5,654]

I have for years called for umpires to operate as a team, match those who read the game similar. I have done sports umpiring and if doing with same umpire you learn their interpretation and umpire same way - it leads to consistency.

 

On the topic of umpiring I still shake my head in disbelief at how badly we adjudicate the advantage rule, why can’t we do what works in other sports, raise an arm for a free, give it 5-10 seconds, see if the advantage is there, if so lower arm, if not blow whistle and give free

[whatwhat say what 22,948]

my god, it's bad enough with three decision makers on the field at once!

make them professional, use two on field umpires every game, controlling their 'half' of the ground

 

[Wodjathefirst 2,653]

 

1 hour ago, drysdale demon said:

I'm Eddie I am still here, can everyone hear me.

Hello, hello do you hear me........please answer, hello.

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much she knows
Ground Control to Major Eddie
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Eddie?
Can you hear me, Major Eddie?
Can you hear me, Major Eddie?
Can you "Here am I floating 'round my tin can
Far above the moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do"

[Wizard of Koz 1,128]

I think it is a good idea. Don't really like the buffoon but the idea sounds good to me first up.

[Ben 222]

The point of umpire fatigue affecting decision making is a good one. Goal and boundary umpires could be used to make calls on free kicks if they're in a better position. Eddie's rule changing suggestions like a goal for hitting the post if it goes through and a goal for a touched ball are crazy. Click bait to maintain relevance.

[Gawndy the Great 9,011]

The 300k pa will solve the 6000 umpire shortage if development pathways were to exist. Let the cream float to the top. Better way to attract umpires than the arms up nonsense 

Not sold on the idea of umpiring zones but not against it either. I think the solution is still missing some form of technology in the game. Just need to look at how Tennis evolved overnight with linesman and Hawkeye tech. 

[MT64 1,144]

4 hours ago, Ben said:

The point of umpire fatigue affecting decision making is a good one. Goal and boundary umpires could be used to make calls on free kicks if they're in a better position. Eddie's rule changing suggestions like a goal for hitting the post if it goes through and a goal for a touched ball are crazy. Click bait to maintain relevance.

I have been advocating that boundary umpires be able to signal for frees as they see what we see from the stands, where teams like Footscray,  throw the ball (not seen by umpire in central/bad position) which upsets the livin bjesus in me. Also may help stop "ducking the head" as well. One can only hope.

[Mazer Rackham 14,971]

3 hours ago, MT64 said:

I have been advocating that boundary umpires be able to signal for frees as they see what we see from the stands, where teams like Footscray,  throw the ball (not seen by umpire in central/bad position) which upsets the livin bjesus in me.

Good idea. The central umps often defer to goal umps in terms of "what happened". They get input from the goal ump then make their decision.

The boundary ump could indicate when there's been a throw. Central ump makes the call but the boundary ump can give hints.

[Mazer Rackham 14,971]

9 hours ago, Wodjathefirst said:

 

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles
I'm feeling very still
And I think my spaceship knows which way to go
Tell my wife I love her very much she knows
Ground Control to Major Eddie
Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Eddie?
Can you hear me, Major Eddie?
Can you hear me, Major Eddie?
Can you "Here am I floating 'round my tin can
Far above the moon
Planet Earth is blue
And there's nothing I can do"

I'm an agitator ♪
I'm a Maggie prezzie talking to you
I'm airwaves invader
I'll be unscratchable itch for you
Won't keep my mouth shut
I'm squawking like a black and white bird ♫
And I'm talking over all to get the last word

Keep your camera lens on me
Keep your eyes upon my head ♪
Press, you keep me in your papers
Geek out on my fever daydream, oh yeah

[Demonland 73,161]

 

[layzie 34,013]

I watched this and I thought he started very well before everything turned into pure hyperbole. I like the idea of having umpires in teams who would know each other's game, but I think it should be a team of field umpires and nothing else. Having field umpires rotate through to goal umpiring and vice versa is absurd to me as they are specialist skills. As for getting rid of boundary throw ins, the bounce, touched off the boot, hit the post well sure. Let's take everything unique about our great game and jam it fairly and squarely in the hard rubbish bin.

I appreciate his concern and trying to make the game easier to umpire, but we can do this by fixing general in play rules and interpretations. It's hard to see how the two or three score reviews for touched off the boot or boundary throw ins contribute that  to the stress of being an umpire as much as is being made out. If any umpires out there disagree then I welcome that but he's looking at the wrong things here and grabbed a nice headline for it. 

[Fat Tony 5,270]

For the AFL, having 9 umpires on the field and only 3 being able to pay free kicks is stupid. So Eddie's idea to spread the umpires and allow them to all pay free kicks makes sense. How often do players throw the ball when facing towards the boundary line?

While I don't completely agree with Eddie's proposed rule changes, I think the principle of the rules having less room for interpretation. I hate the way that the deliberate out of bounds and behinds rules are today - it leads to hometown bias as we suffered in the Adelaide game last year. And so I liked the hands in the back interpretation for push in the back because it was clear cut.

I also agree that bouncing the ball in the centre is also unnecessary and does not add anything really to the game.

[Demonland 73,161]

I’m not sure the interpretation on the rules of the game are ever going to be able to be fixed. Different people see an incident in different ways. Some incidents are missed by some and seen by others. You’re never going to be able to get uniform decisions for the same or similar incidents such is the nature of our game. I think the AFL realise this and for that reason are barring any dissent because it’s the umpires call whether right or wrong and if you disagree verbally or non verbally you’ll be penalised. 

[DeeSpencer 26,082]

Goal umpires should be able to pay push in the back free kicks and other marking infringements.

Boundary umpires should be able to pay throws.

Start with that, work your way towards more decisions.

I can’t see boundary, goal and field umpires being interchangeable. They are different skills. But using the existing pairs of eyes should help when they are caught out of position.

It’s nearly impossible with the speed of ball movement as it is now to triangulate the play as designed.

As for pay: the question is whether the money will be worth making it a career. I think that requires not just a greater top end wage but also long term contracts and a decent semi pro back up leagues. Personally I still suspect it’s still better as a lucrative second gig. 

 

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,909]

Now that he hasn't got a role at Collingwood Eddie's using his footy knowledge (sic) for the good of the whole competition. It seems that Collingwood's loss is the AFL's gain loss.