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Fremantle supporters have a petition online requesting the AFL to remove Margetts and Dalgleish from all future Derby games because they are both self proclaimed West Coast supporters. Quote from a West Coast fan in the West Australian newspaper 2018- "Dean Margetts- he's always been pro-Eagles so we've done well." This article was about the intense rivalry between Freo and Eagles in the Derby. Everyone knows he is a West Coast supporter. Except the AFL it seems. AND YOU. Are you sure you don't follow West Coast Eagles? Posting misinformation to back up your views. Jetta should have got more than a week. That is my view. Disgraceful umpiring. A young man was concussed. I am supporting my club through bad times and good times. I will not kick them when they are down. I am SICK of all this criticism on this forum of my team which I have supported for over forty years.

I don’t think we should be so hard on Stretch. He is really only playing because we have so many injuries. He has played 40 odd games at AFL level which is an achievement not too many on here have done, and despite his limitations he always gives 110% and is noted as a very professional footballer, attitude wise. To call him a “hopeless AFL footballer” is just disrespectful IMO.

Completely unrecognisable from the kid that got towelled-up against stkilda last year. Played with aggression and confidence. A very exciting prospect.

The only thing I see wrong with Trac is his current kicking for goal yips, played another great game otherwise.

Lack of depth!!!??? We had a moral victory against the premiers , over there, despite hostile umpiring, and 8 - 10 of our best 22 unavailable. I think that suggests our depth is surprisingly good.

FOR THE LOVE IF GOD PICK PREUSS IN THE SENIORS. Be proactive and make the opposition try and figure out how to deal with 2 massive ruckman/ forwards units.

Reckon I know the correct answer to that question but there's someone on here that will dispute it by saying 'Oh but it's just so difficult' 99.9 times out of 100 the umpire will call ball up in that instance. It ended up being the winning move for the game, allowing McG to run free without Smith. It had to be a free kick, at the bare minimum. Play should've been stopped while the tackler was put on report. There were dozens of bad calls in that game, it was borderline match fixing.

Over 15 years of data clearly confirms a bias out west for the Coasters, who are sitting as the number one free kicked team by a country mile. Sure someone has to be at the top...but to be a massive 64.3% ahead of their nearest rival the Kangas is a massive difference in anyone's language! And the argument "it's a home town issue get over it this happens in all other sports"...uh nup not by that differential it doesn't. And besides that can't be the case, with the Dockers sitting a lowly 3rd last! Something's smelly @West Coast and i smell a rat....or two!

This is a terrible take. This is better. There was no need whatsoever for Jetta to pin both of Smith's arms and drive him head first into the ground. There was no need for him to take Smith to the ground at all. The tackle should have been penalised because it was dangerous. The suspension is the right decision, the free kick on the night was incorrect and it had a material impact on the game.

What do we think of Petty second up? I thought he looked totally different to his debut. Confident, gathered several intercept possessions and i thought he took a great pack mark which wasn’t paid. Good return to AFL level.

Well, it is Sunday night and I am still seething about this loss. Against all the odds, it was a game Melbourne should have won. Injuries are crippling this team, and suffered more in the game. The cupboard is getting bare. Frustrating for everyone. I read Gawn's article in the Herald Sun. He wanted to point out the fact he said nothing to Vardy the whole game until the incident when Vardy thought he would be brave and have a go at Gawn when he was lying on the ground and bleeding from the mouth after getting kicked in the face. Some people must have been inferring Gawn had been mouthing off at Vardy during the game, and that is why Vardy did what he did. No, Vardy is an arrogant sook who was beaten on the night by a better player and didn't like it. A##*hole.

Snot in a jar would do a better job at coaching Carlton than Bolton.

We do it too (the 'Ball' cryout)... and so does every other supporter group. It is just that the Eagles fans create a fortress-like atmosphere that creates an advantage. A lot like Victoria Park, Princes Park & Windy Hill ... back in the day. And it rarely, if ever happens at the MCG. Footy Park was the same but I am not sure about the Adelaide Oval.

It's a Richmond home game but I would say the crowd is around sixty forty tigers way so disappointing all round. The MCC section is very sparsely occupied. I'm in the AFL area and have a section of the stand for myself

either atrocious goal kicking or poor umpiring accounted for at least 3 goals so you can legitimately blame either or both for the loss local umpires in perth games is just wrong and easily fixed by the afl standard of umpiring is a real issue for the afl and there are a number of really easy changes the afl could make if they had any leadership make all the apologies you like, macca, but it is simply not good enough to tell people to just move on

Let's just call that his debut and forget the debacle last year at the G. That was much more like what I was hoping to see from him.

Topic said changes, so i'll stick to that. Structural 1) Switch Angus back to middle. Yes I know the Jonesy on a wing didn't work, but losing Angus from the wing hasn't either. And we finally have some run out there - even if both Stretch and Baker are error prone, both work their butt off. 2) Send Jonesy to half-back. We have a plethora of left foot defenders going down the left wing all the time. Is it a crime to go down the right side on occasions? Can't any of our forwards catch a ball when they lead left? By the way I thought Jonesy was exceptional in the first half against Eagles, but tired and was ineffective when it counted after half time. We have to find a spot for him to play on next year and defence is the only option left. 3) Make Preuss a late inclusion. Gawn was a superstar for three quarters and we had great run up the middle with Tim Smith leading up well and giving it off, but when Gawny tired in last quarter against Hickey and Vardy, it hurt us. Mummy will be told to work Gawny over, so it would be nice if we had back up and Preuss is a player who can work Mummy over as well. Bringing him in late will upset their balance and force a rethink. 4) Play Lewis as a forward. We can't have Jordy, Jonesy, O.Mac and Petty all in our back seven (we become way too slow), but Jordy has the smarts to at least position himself well in the forward line. He is still a dead-eye accurate kick as well. 5) Back in the attack down the spine method. With five first choice defenders still out, we are going to be exposed if we try and chip it around, but how good was the manic handball run and carry of the second term against Eagles. Until we get Lever, May, Hibberd and Jetta back, it's better to go down fighting than playing a precision brand that can be intercepted anyway. 6) Back in Stretch and Baker. Yep I did see their errors, but at what point on Friday night did anyone think we were slow and not quick to man up - could it have had anything to do with having two team oriented runners on the wing sharing the role with Angus. Even when Fritter let Ryan run into the pocket it was because he decided that with so many bigs already back there, he should zone off the lead options. It backfired, but hey we lost it because of our errant shots earlier in the night. Baker deserves another shot and Billy deserves a fairly long extended crack at it. Don't judge their games by possessions. Judge it more by their run and pressure. 7) Play Petty again. The move to having a big backline in Perth was not the disaster many of us expected, although I suspect it would have been if it was greasy conditions. The Giants have plenty of talls up forward with Cameron, Himmelberg and Finlayson, so there's a role for Petty again before Lever comes back in. Out: Obviously our concussion boys are all in doubt, but I suspect one of them at least will play. If only one of them is out, then it would be hard not to argue for Fritter to go back to VFL. He's a talent but watch the last term replay and tell me he didn't panic twice under pressure. He needs to go back to VFL and play in the middle and learn to cop contact and hold onto the ball in a tackle. IN: Lewis and Preuss. B: N.Jones Frost Hore HB: Petty O.Mac Salem (if OK) C Stretch Oliver Baker HF: Petracca T.Mac Lewis F: Garlett Hunt Preuss Ru: Gawn Harmes Brayshaw Int: Viney (hard tag on Kelly when on), Lockhart, Wagner, T.Smith (if fit), ANB (if fit) Emerg: Fritsch

He's taken the place of Lewis in the backline.

He commented that he ‘let himself down’ a few times, and was under the ball on a few occasions. Said it was about timing and match feel. After a year out, I’ll give him that.

It beggars belief. And it is a really bad look for the AFL that it was a WA umpire who obviously should have paid the free to Smith, but failing that applied the common sense approach the AFL were so happy with in the rampe non free call and occurs in 90% of situations where a player doesn't hear the play on call. Did he cheat? No of course not. But he made a blatant wrong call that changed the game and may have had a bearing on the result of the match. Leaving aside the discussion as to whether we can blame the umpires for our loss (of course it is our fault, we should have not missed so many easy chances) it simply is not acceptable for a supposedly elite, fully professional sport not to have elite umpires who, under pressure, make a high percentage of correct calls. The answer is simple. Expensive, but simple. Fully professional, full time umpires who are paid extremely well, have clear kpis and have incentives built in to their contracts to exceed those kpis. People love to compare AFL to other professional competitions like the NBA, NFL, EPL etc. It goes without saying that those competitions have full time referees. It is beyond a joke we don't. Would doing so eliminate errors such as the Smith one? No, of course not. But umpiring standards would absolutely improve, which they need to do if the sport is serious. And it would go along way with addressing the issue of difficulty attracting umpires to the sport. Pay AFL umpires 250k a year plus bonuses and you create a legitimate career option and pathway. And something they can do straight away is ensure all games in Adelaide and Perth don't have local umpires. Absolutel no brainer.

??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️??‍♂️ All the blokes you are talking about are playing regular senior footy, they have been picked mid to late in the draft. Spargo was super last year and out of form this year but this is only his 2nd year. Fritsch is to skinny and can’t kick?? What games do you watch? He is a beautiful kick and is used as the bloke to take the kick to break the game open. This is a difficult kick and even the best kicks in the game will turn these over at some stage.

The last 3 years include; 2016 - Mitch Hannan 2017 - Fritsch and Sprago 2018 - Hore and Lockhart. You’re right none of these look like making the cut. Maybe do some research before making comments.

Yeah I'm sorry mate. To somehow suggest because we didn't kick straight we don't deserve free kicks is a bit of a stretch. Yep, we kicked poorly, but surely we're allowed to have another crack at it when our man is knocked out by a dangerous tackle right in front of goal? No? Likewise, just because we didn't kick straight the opposition can't be allowed to clearly throw the ball in the goal square to set up a goal? No? The umps did a great job calling the Oliver throw, good spot. Must've just blinked at the wrong time yeah. Geez this gig is tough! How about Hurn's kick in where he ran almost 30 metres? Yep, Dees can't kick straight, it's their own fault, go for it Hurndawg, bouncing is for [censored]. Each of those 3 calls has impacted the scoreboard in some way. Maybe we fluff the shots, maybe we don't. Doesn't mean we shouldn't be given the opportunity. Keep in mind that's only 3 calls, there were many more. As far as cheating goes, we've been on the end of some horrific umpire performances for the last 10 years, and never have I seen an umpire dropped for their efforts. Suggests to me they're doing exactly what they've been asked to do. Do you own a business with employees? How would you deal with staff that repeatedly turn in poor efforts? 'You're right mate, I know it's hard' will not keep you afloat. You're in the minority for a reason, but you sure are speaking the loudest on this topic. Kudos.

I admire your commitment but I can see this is wrong instantly. There was a throw against Oliver. The problem with analysing umpiring as you have is that it does not take into account all the non decisions which are just as important. It's fine to say they are all there, but why weren't they when it was our turn. Kennedy's free kick in first quarter happened about 20 more times throughout the game with no decisions.

This is fair. Good post as usual, mate.

will play again, as next week against gw$ we have to combat cameron, himmelberg, and finlayson

What a difference a year makes, eh! Really liked his game. A number of reports today are saying he touched the ball that was declared an 'umpires call' goal. Just wish he had ranted and raved to show he had touched it to put some doubt into the umpires mind. As BT said if the player touching the ball doesn't indicate such it is a pretty good sign that he didn't and the umpires use it as a guide. Imagine the hullabaloo if it had been McGovern or Hurn saying they touched it even if they didn't! A little learning for a newbie. He will be a valuable member of our team.

Either the umpires hate Melbourne or there is cheating going on, we have been shafted most games this year and last year, even at the mcg in our home games, how can they keep getting away with it?

Does he? Hes worse than I thought then.

Weekend Monkey: Juventus v Atalanta Juventus win and +2.5 $3.20 (Thought the Italia league was over, but still going).

The best things about Lever's game yesterday was that he played around 70% at least, was not scared to go up in a pack and he came out unscathed. That being said it was an unremarkable game. He was outmarked in a body on body marking duel in the third quarter. Needs a few weeks at least from what I saw.

Macca I usually like your comments but disagree with some of this. I have been saying for some time that we need to call the umpires in and ask them what is wrong with our techniques. We do not receive what appear to be obvious free kicks and give away what are doubtful. Even commentators recognise the many discrepancies. We need to improve our positioning or techniques to improve the ratio and particularly the momentum turning aspects of our free kick record. I note that the booing by Essendon fans resulted in AFL luminaries to call on a review of umpires so a reasonable approach can be worthwhile.

yup, the umpires hate us, i think we are the only team in the afl who gets screwed by the umps on the mcg when its our home game!!! i loved the Perth game the umps would pay in the back when a melbourne player fell on the side yet not pay melb player when it was there!! happened more than once, i also loved how track hit up a player in the 50 in the last quarter and the umps called not 15, the list goes on, THE UMPS are Cheating for THE EAGLES

Were we watching the same M vs. WC game? To make sure, I watched a replay of Q4. Ignoring non frees to both sides, the paid free kicks were... 19:47 - WC - Cripps in the back. Nothing contentious. 18:17 - WC - Darling holding. Called by the commentators before the whistle, so clearly there. 17:55 - M - Harmes taken high by Kennedy. Clearly there and advantage called by the umpire and taken by Frost. 17:19 - WC - Jetta HTB on Smith. Contentious. Ironic that the only reason this incident happened is because everyone had stopped expecting Yeo to get a free for his tackle 2 seconds earlier. 15:59 - WC - In the back to Hutchings. Very obvious. Didn't cost anything as ball spilled to another WC player who goaled on advantage so would have been a goal anyway. 11:21 - WC - Fritsch holding the man on Sheed. Possibly the most obvious free of Q4. What was he thinking? Note - at this point the TV showed a free count of 5-0 for the quarter, so I had to go back and look at 17:55. The umpire blows his whistle then calls 'advantage, advantage' while giving the right arm play on signal. Clearly paid a free and gave advantage. Just weird this is not in the count. 6:17 - M - Gawn for holding. Pretty obvious. Umpire calls 'holding, Melbourne, advantage'. Advantage taken by Viney. 5:23 - M - Jones for holding. Advantage taken by Hunt. Clearly see the call/signal and hear the 'advantage' call. 00:57 - M - Viney - high contact. Soft but there. Played on with a HB to Oliver. 00:12 - WC - Hurn - holding the jumper. Pretty obvious. So the actual free kick count in Q4 was 6-4 in WC favour. Again, ignoring the non frees (for both teams), the only paid free that was in any doubt or in any way contentious in Q4 was the Jetta one. All the others were pretty obvious.

I think a lot of our guys are showing the side effects that having a poor preseason will bring. if you are underdone then you're confidence is going to be down to begin with. plus you're missing shots on goal in games that you'd normally kick because you're tired, and all of a sudden it becomes a bit of a mental game as you're struggling to work out just why you aren't kicking goals. then the pressure comes on and you become even more tense, and on and on it goes. there's no easy fix. the boys just have to keep working hard and find some confidence from somewhere and it turns around for them. if Trac is serious he should be paying someone to fix his goal kicking out of his own pocket and practising in his own time on it. I would if I were him, as there could be a big payoff in it for him come contract time if he can start kicking another goal or two a game. could be money well spent. some of Garletts goal snap attempts and field kicking the last few weeks have been a bit bizarre. looks like he's holding the ball the wrong way, and kicking the wrong side of the ball at times to curl it towards goal through the air. i know he got 3 goals yesterday, (got a couple of easy ones over the back), but to me it seems like he doesn't have the time to adjust the ball in his hands anymore in traffic and just throws it on the boot anyway he can. or maybe he's been practicing the ground ball roller that much he's confused himself on how kick the ball properly. he needs to sort it out whatever it is, because besides this aspect of his game letting him down, he's been finding the ball well enough. TMac still doesn't look 100% to me and is lacking penetration on his kick. I haven't looked at it closely but he may be leaning back on it a bit too much compared to last year? but I think he's smart enough and a strong enough character to sort it out eventually, so i'm not too worried about him.

Jordan is barely 18. Youngest player drafted. I have said 2019 is a pure development year at Casey. His skills by foot are worthy of persistence given he hits targets.

There have been multiple studies that show that umpires in all sports are affected by home town crowds. Basically they involve experienced refs picking rules infringements with the sound on and the sound off. With the sound on, they pick more "frees" (violations, what have you) in favour of the home crowd. In every study. The AFL has an "integrity" department. (Legend has it.) Whether that is an actual office with real people staffing it, or if it's a waste paper basket in the corner of Gil's office, if the AFL had real integrity, they would not permit "home town" officials. Caesar's wife and all that. (Cricket no longer permits "home country" umps, and hasn't for many years, for that very reason -- the appearance of it.) They have empirical evidence that home town bias is real, and still do absolutely nothing about it. Manifestly, they don't care. The AFL competition is a joke wherein the umps do not adjudicate to the rule book. No-one knows what the standard is they do referee too. And the officiating body does not not seem to know either, does not seem to care, gives a free pass for objectively faulty decisions, and charges the players (literally) for the faults of the referees. It's a joke, corrupt competition that has lost its way in pursuit of ratings and $$$$. If it were not for my foolish and inexplicable devotion to the mighty MFC, I would pay it the same attention I do to the 2nd tier Czech handball comp, ie, none.

Two of the biggest D grade ruckmen going around. Vardy got destroyed by Gawn, and his behavior towards him was seriously pathetic. Shows the lack of character from that entire club. But this is a great example of why Gawn needs Preuss. Opposition teams continually batter and bruise him and eventually he will break. My fiancé, who isn’t really that much of an avid footy fan, said to me that poor umpiring is really making him lose the little interest he has in footy. A player gets suspended for an act that earnt him a free kick. I mean try and explain that?! That decision cost us the game. It cost us a goal and lost us a player who was doing a great job shutting down that fat turd McGovern

Below is an extract from a petition being promoted by Freo supporters regarding the local "derby". Enough is Enough! Fremantle Dockers supporters have long known the umpiring bias displayed by the terrible 2, Margetts & Daglish at every WA AFL derby. Both self proclaimed West Coast Eagles fans and both having no shame in socialising and publicly displaying their love for the West Coast Eagles, why does the Fremantle Football Club and the AFL continue to allow this ongoing and disgraceful umpiring bias derby after derby? Sunday 29 April was one of the most disgusting displays of blatant and bias umpiring ever witnessed in a professional game of AFL. It was the tipping point for all Dockers fans and this is their call to action. All Dockers fans respectfully request that both Dean Margetts and Jeff Daglish are no longer allocated to umpire the Western derby games. Dockers fans will even go as far as to commit to paying a $1 umpiring tax on their tickets for all derby games, in order for the AFL to fly and accommodate a neutral umpiring team that are no way conflicted. We cannot accept or allow conflicted umpires who publicly support an AFL team, to regularly officiate and make decisions that have many times changed the momentum of games to their team, the West Coast Eagles advantage. ENOUGH is ENOUGH, no more Margetts and no more Daglish for WA AFL derby games pleas

Preuss in. Every other team can play two rucks why not us? Preuss kicks goals and is dangerous in the 50.

Since Smith was just standing there and not attempting to play on it was unnecessary to brutally drive him into the ground. All that was required was Jetta to hug him and whisper “let’s dance” into his ear. Jetta should have got two weeks for his cheap shot.

We looked much faster out of our defense without Lewis

Gee what an interesting observation and u know what the answer is dont you!?? Also Re Fritta as natural a HALF FORWARD FLANKER as I have ever seen. Reminds me of Robs younger brother Tom Flower who was also a beautiful left footer. Once kicked 5 On a flank vs the Filth! Just saying

For the love of god, please give him a good run of games in a row. Can't stand players getting 1 or 2 games and then being dropped

Let's keep perspective here. Half of our Casey team (eight players under 50 games) travel to Perth. Play a magnificent three quarters, get stitched by the umpires in the final term, and nearly pull off an incredible smash and grab win. Yes, poor kicking is poor football, but the overall sentiment should be positive. The coaching for the most part was brilliant. The effort superb. We have had luck in the last two games. Last night wasn't to be. Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Correction. The umps have been diabolical in every game this year, even the ones we're not in. It becomes more noticeable when we're losing.

Oscar and Hore give him the P off DH shove and attend to their mate lying on the ground. Correct response IMO. Would you have preferred them to leave Max on the ground and go and start a brawl with some tool who isn’t worth the time and effort?

I reckon Vardy (super [censored]) just wanted to touch Max because it was the first time he had been near him all night. Absolute dog act and typifies him as a player. Hang your head you ordinary, ordinary player.

you are as mad as the proverbial cut snake @picket fence

You’re off the mark here. You know what I liked, his teammates weeent concerned about punching on, they were concerned about picking the big fella up. That’s being a team. It’s not the 70s or 80s. They pushed the dumb [censored] Vardy away and helped Max up.