Umpires admit they were wrong...

[Jaded No More 68,975]

... but it makes no difference now, does it?

Jeff Geishen has come out and said that the deliberate out of bounds was the wrong call.

Now nobody is saying that we would have won the game had the ball been thrown up, but there were 50 seconds on the clock, and all it would have taken was one clearances (which we were winning all day), and a long kick to a forward who could have taken the kick after the siren. So technically, had the decision been called out of bounds, and NOT deliberate, we could have gone on to win.

For the sake of the AFL and the fans, I hope that the idiot who payed that free kick never umpires again. What a farce the AFL has become!

[The Backyard Charizard 1,202]

Must totally agree with you on that last comment....

No. 24 is an absolute tool and like I have said in an earlier post, the bloke should donate his match fee to charity! Upon donating it to charity he should walk his stoopid ass down to the Burnley tunnel and start doing suicide runs in the middle lane during peak hour traffic for the rest of the working week, or until the job is done!

The humble opinion of a bloke who nearly had to buy a new TV yesterday! :D

[Gorgoroth 13,184]

and from a bloke who nearly blew out his vocal chords and nearly threw out his shoulder and possibly sprayed the guy in front of me with spittle

[45HG 1,559]

and from a bloke who nearly bashed out the people in front of him, as well as his mate's broken hand

[Whispering_Jack 31,129]

What made the call worse was the fact that there were at least two other instances during the game when Port Adelaide players should have been penalised for deliberate out of bounds and the umpires ignored them. When we missed out on the second one I turned to Finks who was sitting next to me and said that it was a 100% certainty that at some stage in the game we were going to cop a penalty for exactly the same thing.

I also predicted during the game after Shane Wakelin got away with the hands on Neita's back, that we would be penalised for the same thing.

I call this the umpire's inconsistency rule. It's bad enough enough that some rules are poorly applied - it's worse when the umpiring during a game is inconsistent.

[deanox 10,045]

i couldnt care less if the umpires came out and umpired netball rules. as long as they do the same thing for 4 quarters it doesnt matter. they can change it week to week, game to game, but for 120 minutes it has to be the same thing...

[dees_rule_4eva 22]

Where can I find the article where they admit they were wrong?

There also must be a way for the public to voice their concerns about the umpiring. The AFL assumes that supporters don't know the technicalities of the game, and are just being biased towards their sides, but little do they know that 90% of fans know the rules back to front. We know when a bad decision has been made, and we know when it affects the outcome of a game.

They must hear our concern, but never will as they are stubborn and think their own [censored] don't stink.

I'm getting angrier and angrier typing this, so I need to stop......

[DeeBest 13]

Anyone notice the stretcher for Cornes taken onto the ground, the trainers ran the thing straight past one of the umpires, yet 5 seconds later the same bloke was waiving his hands calling "play on". The clown from 50m away had to blow his whistle and run across to tell him to hold up the game.

Slightly worrying when they don't notice a bright orange stretcher carried straight past them!

[mauriesy 7,410]

What a farce the AFL has become!

Gieschen quoted on the AFL website:

"On the new hands-in-the-back interpretation, he conceded it created some difficulties, because an umpire at the front of a contest could not see whether a player was touching an opponent's back. "We don't want the umpires to guess in that situation," he said. Gieschen admitted that could lead to a free kick being paid at one end, whereas a similar infringement might go unpaid at the other, depending on umpire positioning. "That's been the case in all umpiring through the ages," he said. "Unfortunately it's a fact of umpiring at AFL level."

You don't suppose he is referring to a particular game played yesterday, do you? :angry:

[Gouga 570]

I can't remember which Port Adelaide player it was that paddled the ball over the line in the last quarter but the TV coverage picked up the umpire's explanation as to why it wasn't deliberate.

He said words to the effect of 'he was under intense pressure ... etc.' Don't the umpires realise that that is the exact situation when players deliberately put the ball out of bounds?!

The state of umpiring is a disgrace, and these blokes explanations for their decisions is an even bigger disgrace.

Andrew Demetriou recieved a bonus recently based on financial achievements, his salary should be based on supporter satisfaction because the actual 'game' is in a bad state of affairs.

[Gorgoroth 13,184]

i missed that, i cant beleive he actually said that!

its baffles me the crap that comes out of their mouths when they try and justify their mistake

[Oxxx 0]

Did anybody else hear the umpires talking in the second quarter when Ebert I think it was ran over the mark once trying to chase Travis Johnstone who was trying to receive a handball, and then did it again & the umpire called it the second time? He said something along the lines of "I warned you the first time not to do it and you did it again." Since when do you need a warning into a 50m penalty? Did Stynes get a warning for it in '87?

[Rogue 585]

Did anybody else hear the umpires talking in the second quarter when Ebert I think it was ran over the mark once trying to chase Travis Johnstone who was trying to receive a handball, and then did it again & the umpire called it the second time? He said something along the lines of "I warned you the first time not to do it and you did it again." Since when do you need a warning into a 50m penalty? Did Stynes get a warning for it in '87?

I heard it - I thought it was a bizarre justification for the 50m penalty.

Maybe had something to do with how close he was to his opponent (who chose to run through the mark) the first time?

[Johnny Karate 559]

i couldnt care less if the umpires came out and umpired netball rules. as long as they do the same thing for 4 quarters it doesnt matter. they can change it week to week, game to game, but for 120 minutes it has to be the same thing...

I agree most with this point. Consistency is the key.

The decisions that were made just go to show Sam Newman (although I know he may be a discredited source) was on to something with "It's not the free kicks they do pay but the ones they don't that upset people"

Neitz probably did push Wakelin in the back but Lade did on Neitz in Q3. (The only thing Neita did wrong was not take a soccer dive like that cheating pissant hack Wakelin)

If McDonald's was paid delibrate out of bounds, Thomsons should have been. Etc

[occo 2]

Umpires were wrong alot but i agree with ND in saying 'we cost us the game'. the melb players played very well but we kicked inaccuratly. Davey was paid a mark when the ball hit the turf. Bell should have got a free against due to tripping Ebert when he ran into the open goal. Yes there were more decisions against us but i think the players cost us the game. Dont get me wrong, i am estatic and thought they represented their club very well but our kicking needs to be worked on. Great teams are thoes that dont have results against them due to umpires. Teams that get free kicks against and still win the games. Umpires will always be bad...always with not all weeks this bad. Still as i said, the umpires are only very very partually responsible.

[Rampaging Demons 1]

was Kane Cornes that ran through the mark twice.... Travis ran behind the player both times, yet Cornes went in front both times and was warned?? did not know that the umpire was able to show his discretion here?

[DemonDoug 0]

We do have to be careful about bagging umpires too much. I don't think they cost us this match. The last free from Neitz was there, Neitz should have done better and bumped Wakelin from the side or been more discreet or tried to knock the ball over his head and let Davey run onto it. The out of bounds by MacDonald was clearly an error but realistically we would have been lucky to win it from there, hard to get a quick clearance when the other team have all their players around the ball.

Also Davey was paid a mark in the last quarter which clearly was not a mark.

Umpires are essential for the game, they must find it confusing the way the rules seem to change from year to year, let alone week to week. When your doing something like umpiring under intense pressure and with little time to make a call, it is very hard to think too long about a decision. Its part of the game that there will be wrong decisions.

We are all frustrated about our loss, but lets be realistic, we lost it through bad kicking, both for goal and to forwards. Unless we get that aspect of the game up to standard we will get killed this weekend by the dogs. Lift the skills MFC, you are well paid professionals who should be able to kick accurately.

[dees189227 12,453]

... but it makes no difference now, does it?

Jeff Geishen has come out and said that the deliberate out of bounds was the wrong call.

Now nobody is saying that we would have won the game had the ball been thrown up, but there were 50 seconds on the clock, and all it would have taken was one clearances (which we were winning all day), and a long kick to a forward who could have taken the kick after the siren. So technically, had the decision been called out of bounds, and NOT deliberate, we could have gone on to win.

For the sake of the AFL and the fans, I hope that the idiot who payed that free kick never umpires again. What a farce the AFL has become!

The Giesh also said that Neitz did get a push in the back by Lade and shold have received a free. Bit late now

[Little Goffy 14,750]

I can't remember which Port Adelaide player it was that paddled the ball over the line in the last quarter but the TV coverage picked up the umpire's explanation as to why it wasn't deliberate.

He said words to the effect of 'he was under intense pressure ... etc.' Don't the umpires realise that that is the exact situation when players deliberately put the ball out of bounds?!

The state of umpiring is a disgrace, and these blokes explanations for their decisions is an even bigger disgrace.

Andrew Demetriou recieved a bonus recently based on financial achievements, his salary should be based on supporter satisfaction because the actual 'game' is in a bad state of affairs.

Yep, I heard the umpire comments too - 'under pressure (blah blah)', then, the gem... 'he was paddling it to himself, he was paddling it to himself'.

If that was paddling to yourself, then I reckon Byron Pickett was trying to bounce the ball, not tackling the Cornes boy at all.

NNNaaaRRgggh.

[demon magik 0]

these are umpires ought to be shot ... if they are going to be an umpire make sure they get the [censored] call right ... the are full of so much [censored]... it frustrates me to a point where i want to shoot my self GRRRRR