11 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

only allowed to hold your ground. but not to push

not hard to adjudicate

But it is hard to adjudicate.  How does the umpire know how hard the push is?  Why allow it at all - they pay high frees for gentle swipes over the shoulder. They don't try to guess how hard the contact was.

We've now got to the point that some stagers will use a hold you ground push as an excuse to fly forward. Others (eg Hawkins) will be "holding their ground" one meter behind where they were when they pushed, i.e. the ran backwards after the push.

Can i say go giants

7 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Reckon they could get around 45-50K.

Looks a lot lot smaller.

1 minute ago, YearOfTheDees said:

Looks a lot lot smaller.

Normally we play Mothers Day

How many times will they pan to Peter Daicos on the coverage? Line is set at 17.5 times. 

Dame Phyllis Frost Centre visiting times do end at 4pm so every chance the AFL did plan for that. .

4 minutes ago, Satan said:

Normally we play Mothers Day

Yes and we get under 20,000. The have a much bigger crowd then we could pull.

#FreeKickCollingwood

Gee they miss Toby.

Saints coming crashing back down to Earth where they belong. Play a half decent attacking team and they struggle. Lyon in for a ride awakening. 

Hate to say it but hope both Pies and Dees keep winning. 90k+ definitely on the cards for King's Birthday if we're still 1st and 2nd.

GWS are awful

Well done Orange side 

Watching all the games on kayo you get to see the completely random nature of umpire calls in all its glory: pushes in the back (while player in front is flying for ball) unpunished start to finish, second to the ball rewarded at all times, neck tackling allowed at all times, players held onto too long after they no longer have the ball, taking that player out of the next contest. Excessive 50 metre penalties for frivolous reasons. And my pet gripe: hand tackling. I thought players were only allowed to be tackled within a certain range of their body. This is chickenwing 2.0. There is no intention to win the ball here, only to draw a free against the player who went in first. 

55 minutes ago, Brownie said:

After watching our game last night, pushing in the back with both hands appears now to be completely legal.

It's just against the spirit of the game to see a player well positioned in front of his opponent to be just shoved completely out of the contest.

And, it's dangerous. It will lead to a serious collision with some shoved headfirst into a contest.

I'm watching our players do it now and I don't blame them. Everyone is getting away with pushing in the back.

At some point the media will point it out and the. There'll be a weekend of pushing in the back free kicks before it's forgotten about again.

Frustrating for everyone involved.

Why did they allow hands in the back in the first place? It was obvious the likes of Hawkins, Lynch etc were going to exploit it.

Yes thought they were getting somewhere with the "hands-in-the- back" rule Brownie but renegged on it and now they appear to have done a 360.

Alot of this comes back to interpretation and enforcement.  A fair proportion is also the high degree of difficulty umpiring this game in general.

However with the addition of an extra umpire they are supposed to be using him/her in a rolling diamond with one sitting inside 50 most of the time in an attempt to capture more infringements.

I'm not sure it's helped much at all to this point.

Something to do with introducing a batch of umpires that have very little experience and tend to make poor calls and non-calls?

And/or just the general AFL directive to 'keep the game moving/scoreboard ticking over"??

This last part is the base virus that's killing the game.

If you pay the frees that are generally there, and do so quickly.  Or alternatively blow the whistle very quickly for the ball up...instead of sweating, sweating & more sweating hoping the ball will pop out.... you will actually see the ball moving as quickly and more quickly in some cases.  Especially with frees as the free kick recipient clears the congestion and/or hits the scoreboard.

Umpires super reluctant to stop play by calling a HTB/other frees as a result of this directive and a fear they might be dropped?

Players are getting caught after having obvious prior, spun around 360 (sometimes more than that!) and STILL no whistle.

This sometimes results in sling tackle... head trauma... crys for harsher penalties.

But...the cause (imv) lays with the umpires and their reluctance to blow the whistle and blow it quickly when HTB/incorrect disposal and insufficient attempt occurs.

Young umpires scared to pay a free against a big club at home in front of a big crowd as well?  However this has been an issue infinitum and in many sports.

After watching some of the non-MFC games this weekend, ive seen some very obvious frees (from the TV) not callled inside 50 and alternatively some super soft ones given.

Nothing has changed with the addition of the extra ump and if anything things have regressed for the worse this season.  Possibly to the worst level i've seen in my many decades of watching.

I'm also totally convinced now that the Stand rule needs to be scrapped.  It's turned the game into a giant mess of inequitable outcomes with the umpires having slacked off their early enforcement following its introduction where it appeared to have some potential.

They are so lackadaisical / inconsistent with the stand rule/protected zone now it's original raison d'etre is now defunct and is now a meaningless mess that is too skewed in favour of the team with the ball.

Edited May 14, 20231 yr by Demon Dynasty

This is going to be a long game.

Another game on the way to a blow out.

How quickly can we get 20 teams….

2 minutes ago, Demon Dynasty said:

 

They are so lackadaisical / inconsistent with the stand rule/protected zone now it's original raison d'etre is now defunct and is now a meaningless mess that is too skewed in favour of the team with the ball.

Yes the big Yank was squatting down,  while umpire was saying stand, he then jumped up and then ran to the side, while umpire was still saying stand and hadn’t called play on.

A 50m against the Pies, never.

This is shaping up as a smashing. There is just no soul to the Giants. 

17 minutes ago, YearOfTheDees said:

Gee they miss Toby.

And Sam Taylor and possibly Perryman and Kennedy.

How good would it  be to have Hogan and JVR in our forward line. Both strong competitors forward. 

Edited May 14, 20231 yr by Demonsterative

16 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Yes the big Yank was squatting down,  while umpire was saying stand, he then jumped up and then ran to the side, while umpire was still saying stand and hadn’t called play on.

A 50m against the Pies, never.

Adds nothing to the game Red.

And takes alot more away imv

You're supposed to stay in line with the mark or its play on yet here we are watching some players going back behind the mark 1 to 3 meters off the line.  Why?  Because the ump hasn't bothered to move them over.  They can see it but do nothing

About 8 out of 10 times anyway... the odd ump will pull them around but it's rare and usually only when player is taking a shot at goal or kicking in from an OOTF free.

We also more often see players running through the lateral protected zone now (not minding anyone) well after the mark is taken and no penalty / 50.  They get warned sometimes but even the original strict enforcement here has slacked off.  

If you aren't going to adjudicate the mark/stand rules & protected zone 95% of the time (according to the rules) then why have these particular rules?  It's no longer doing what it was introduced for.  Just scrap it!

Edited May 14, 20231 yr by Demon Dynasty

So 2nd on the ladder again it is then

GWS are looking horrible.

My multi & line bets are looking good here!  🥳

1 minute ago, Demonland said:

So 2nd on the ladder again it is then

I think I would be happy to finish 2nd.