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23 - 9


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8 hours ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Quite frankly, a Royal Commission does not nearly go far enough. I would have thought a fully parliamentary inquiry with very broad terms of reference is required. Stan from Stradbroke Island should chair, as he has all the relevant statistics at hand. At the completion of the said inquiry, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission should be established, where former and current Demons are given the opportunity to tell their story. First called to the stand should be Roger Ellingworth, Peter Giles, Stephen Smith, Max Gawn and a representative of the Flower family. In witness protection should be Leigh Matthews and Razor Ray.

what a top get QB - did the Family Club pin-up hypocrite go after Robbie and Tom?  We know the Family Club's "6-99" Brownlow Medallist put Robbiie out of the 87 PF. 

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I watched the replay after reading about these umpiring decisions so watched a bit more carefully. This is my take.

Mitch Brown - a clear and obvious mistake. The umpires seem to have been instructed to look at the eyes and automatically assume that if eyes are not on the ball then something illegal is about to happen. Displays a compete ignorance of the needs of contested footy at boundary throw ins. Of course Brown has to check where his oppo is to prepare for the contest.

Clarry - even more obvious than the miss on Kozzie in the GF. What game are they watching?

May - high tackle against the texan. After several rewinds it is clear that May's tackle was OK but another crow's arm was visible over texan's shoulder. May's tackle was righteous.

Brayshaw? - dragging the ball in. The replay clearly shows that a crow tapped the ball in with his foot and Angus did nothing wrong.

The umpires often use the excuse for missed free kicks that they were blindsided by the multitude of players around the ball but taking guesses when they are not sure is even worse. If not sure, then ball it up or play on.

No matter how the frees are analysed, there is no escaping the fact that a 23-9 count is seriously unbalanced and should not happen in our great game.  It is a sign of poor coaching and application of the rules by the umpires and perhaps, more significantly, a poor understanding of the game.

 

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23 minutes ago, tiers said:

I watched the replay after reading about these umpiring decisions so watched a bit more carefully. This is my take.

Mitch Brown - a clear and obvious mistake. The umpires seem to have been instructed to look at the eyes and automatically assume that if eyes are not on the ball then something illegal is about to happen. Displays a compete ignorance of the needs of contested footy at boundary throw ins. Of course Brown has to check where his oppo is to prepare for the contest.

Clarry - even more obvious than the miss on Kozzie in the GF. What game are they watching?

May - high tackle against the texan. After several rewinds it is clear that May's tackle was OK but another crow's arm was visible over texan's shoulder. May's tackle was righteous.

Brayshaw? - dragging the ball in. The replay clearly shows that a crow tapped the ball in with his foot and Angus did nothing wrong.

The umpires often use the excuse for missed free kicks that they were blindsided by the multitude of players around the ball but taking guesses when they are not sure is even worse. If not sure, then ball it up or play on.

No matter how the frees are analysed, there is no escaping the fact that a 23-9 count is seriously unbalanced and should not happen in our great game.  It is a sign of poor coaching and application of the rules by the umpires and perhaps, more significantly, a poor understanding of the game.

 

Picked out four of the worst and we didn’t get any 50/50 freed.

Unfortunately when you play interstate and the crowd is 95-5% or at Geelong, the home team will get the rub of the green 90% of games. This is frustrating but seems to happen whatever the sport - part of home ground advantage.

what is annoying is the Dogs who seem to get preferential treatment, they are a high possession team so possibly related. On the other end of the scale is the Tigers and I think that is explained as they are the dirtiest team in the league.

 

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I thought the umpiring was poor but in no way do I believe there was any cheating or deliberate bias. Just bad decision making.

However, what is worth commenting on is the player's restraint. The crackdown on dissent means there were a lot of opportunities for our players to complain which would have lead to 50m penalties. That we didn't complain and just got on with the game shows great leadership and probably coaching. 

The other side to that coin, though, is that behind the scenes when the umpiring is as poor as it was, clubs affected by it must have a proper avenue to air their grievances privately to the AFL.

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The umpiring was so bad that my wife was screaming at the TV. For the first time in history

She never raises a voice and is normally the one saying to me "you really need to calm down watching the footy, it's just a game"

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On 7/3/2022 at 10:25 AM, Clintosaurus said:

Luke Darcy calls Bulldogs games. Is also a Dogs board member. No conflicts of interest in the media.

Pass that on to most SEN staff, Whately especially,  w.r.t AFL criticism.

Never bite the hand that feeds you is on Hutchy's office wall I suspect.

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There was a big conversation going on between Tex and another player who I don't remember after his first goal I think. I'm not a lip reader but there seemed to be a reason to smile that was not just for getting the free kick. It seemed to be more about how to interpret broader game tactics  on the day..

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2 hours ago, jnrmac said:

The umpiring was so bad that my wife was screaming at the TV. For the first time in history

She never raises a voice and is normally the one saying to me "you really need to calm down watching the footy, it's just a game"

We were at the main pub in Airlie Beach and I was almost homicidal.

A group of actors and film crew around us on the [censored] making sure they didn't make eye contact. I was raging.

(And the Vikings actor was seriously eyeing off my missus too, although she was shouting at the T.V also. Maybe he thought we were a bit mental)

 

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4 minutes ago, Bystander said:

Don't disagree with comments, but surely the hardest sport in the world to umpire. So much interpretation.

The hardest thing is seemingly awarding a free kick to the travelling team.

Others have said it, but I'll repeat. The AFLs answer to to ban people from talking about just how atrocious the standard is.

Won't be much different down at Cat Park this week.

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You think Adelaide was bad you just wait till 29,500 hicks from hill billy town get the umpires on their side for Thursday nights clash.

Only 500 of our supporters are going to be let in to that hell hole, now that's a disgrace.

Get use to it people we have a massive target on our backs.

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A few points.

  1. The umpires had a poor game on Saturday. People have rightly pointed out their mistakes.
  2. Umpires have been having poor games since 1897.
  3. The umpires on Saturday will be penalised in terms of finals chances and even demotion for next week.
  4. Can someone point me out to the rule that states that the free kick count has to be even?
  5. The umpiring had no material effect on the  result  on Saturday.
  6. The umpiring had a material effect on the  result in last year's round 10 game at Adelaide Oval.
  7. Can't quite understand the heavy reaction to the umpiring from last weekend. It was bad, but "let's move on" bad I would've thought.
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4 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:
  1. Can someone point me out to the rule that states that the free kick count has to be even?
  2. Can't quite understand the heavy reaction to the umpiring from last weekend. It was bad, but "let's move on" bad I would've thought.

1. Of course there is no rule that the free kick count has to be even but in any contest between two reasonably even teams it is not an unreasonable expectation that the free kick count will be less unbalanced.  23 to 9 is a margin of 150%, far too high for any two party contest.

2. The heavy reaction is to hopefully alert the umpiring coaches that there is a problem with their coaching and interpretation of the game. I accept that this will be an unlikely and forlorn hope but so what? It needs to be stated.

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2 minutes ago, tiers said:

1. Of course there is no rule that the free kick count has to be even but in any contest between two reasonably even teams it is not an unreasonable expectation that the free kick count will be less unbalanced.  23 to 9 is a margin of 150%, far too high for any two party contest.

2. The heavy reaction is to hopefully alert the umpiring coaches that there is a problem with their coaching and interpretation of the game. I accept that this will be an unlikely and forlorn hope but so what? It needs to be stated.

I suspect the distribution of free kicks follows a normal distribution over the longer term. So, in thousands of matches, it won't be unusual to see a 23-9 distribution every now and then. It takes approx 5 years for 1,000 AFL matches.

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On 7/3/2022 at 7:53 AM, BigFez said:

It looks to me in the last couple of weeks the umpires have been directed to put the whistle away.  I don't mind it, the game was being over officiated and the umps seemed to feel the need to make a decision in every contest.  Fans were getting really sick of it.  I think it is annoying how the AFL just don't come out and say it, they are loathe to ever make comment that could be seen as admitting they were wrong.

Also, that Mitch Brown blocking free was as bad as I've seen.

Had a bit of a look at free kick stats to see if there was any data to back me up.  Up to and including the bye rounds, 73% of games had 40+ free kicks paid.  Since the bye rounds (small sample size I know), 11% of games have had 40+ free kicks paid.

There has been, on average, 9.3 less free kicks paid per game since the completion of the bye rounds.  Early days but I suspect there has been a directive to let it go a bit more.

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2 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

I suspect the distribution of free kicks follows a normal distribution over the longer term. So, in thousands of matches, it won't be unusual to see a 23-9 distribution every now and then. It takes approx 5 years for 1,000 AFL matches.

You might be right (statistically) but it seems to me that the distribution is abnormal in that we always end up on the wrong side of the bell curve.

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This anonymous Twitter account which I think is run by a former AFL umpire rates every game from an umpiring perspective and also comments on controversial decisions.

This was his take on Saturday’s game.

 

 

Edited by At the break of Gawn
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