FireInTheBennelly

That review was more 50-50 than ours last week. They got this one right, what happened last week?

Wasn't he the traveling emergency, and flew back from Perth overnight to play for Casey. He might've been like me and gone all Mr Crankypants.

He got as far as he did by trying desperately not to bottom out, and succeeded at that. Unfortunately that strategy doesn't work these days and when you find yourself in the lower rungs on the ladder you really need to bottom out to get what's needed to go back up. He should've called it a rebuild when the likes of Harvey were pushed out the door. The last 3 years could've been developmental, rather than treading water. At the end of the day, they haven't been able to pick up elite talent via the draft, and have simply topped up with role players. I don't think we'll see him as a senior coach again.

Not sure what you expected. The AFL got the man of the moment in the Friday night spotlight and threw in Nicholls 'The Fixer' to boot. Something is very rotten in the game at the moment.

Most of the paying public are blissfully unaware of these things, and the media won't highlight them because their accreditation will be at risk.

Exactly where I was going DS56

You couldn't make this stuff up Sue. Surely you give your best, most in form umpires the Friday night primetime game? So the AFL must've been happy with his efforts.

I see the umpire at the centre of the howler call on Smith last week has been awarded with Friday night's blockbuster Swans v Pies. Good job champ.

Have to agree with that.

Unleash the Prawn!

You've mentioned this before and it's again, not true. I won't be quoting you again, so hopefully this is the last of it, for me at least. Nothing personal with any of this by the way, I'd happily buy you a beer at the footy. I'm not a hater. All the best anyway.

Well, to be fair, you came at me directly didn't you? To jog your memory, you said to me: You do it yourself ... go back and have a read on what you've said over time. Even on this thread IIRC.

I did and I stand by that. I'm not happy with 3 particular decisions which changed the course of the game. That's not hate, I'm not threatening to strap an explosive anywhere am I?

I just tried to add the below but it's saying I can't edit the post any longer. Does this work? Umpires not allowed to attend training of individual clubs. If the AFL feels strongly enough that communication is required between umpires and clubs, all club captains, or another playing delegate if unavailable, will be invited to meet with the umpiring department at the same meeting. I understand there does need to be communication between the 2, especially when rule/interpretation changes are involved, however all clubs should be receiving the same message at the same time. Macca, yes, it's clear he has some form of agenda here, but he's been questioned on what that is and deflected suggesting he purely replies when he's been responded to. Almost every new post gets Macca'd!

Quite right. It is so clearly a conflict of interest to have that happening, and then the umpire in question umpire that team's games. I'm amazed an organisation such as the AFL allows that to happen.

Have to agree to disagree I'm afraid my friend. I'm not going back to read all your posts again, you've bombarded this thread good 'n' proper. I recall you put forward some possibilities for improvement, which is all I was asking. Hopefully we can have a few more people post suggestions. Since you've done your homework on me, go and look at how many games I've commented on regarding umpiring, and compare that to the total number of games over that period. Let me know if you get anywhere near 10% (umm, you won't). I call my mates cheats at Yahtzee all the time, doesn't mean I hate them. They're not precious enough to be offended either.

You keep spewing this line. It simply isn't true. Nobody is taught to hate umpires, officials, anyone. It's learned through the feeling of being 'wronged', and I think the word hate is way over the top. Supporters may hate decisions, but not the individuals making them. I think you'll find people move on, whilst noting the perceived wrong-doer for future reference. Their's no hate for them. As I said, the majority of people don't notice the umpires in over 90% of games. It's where they clearly fail in their role that these issues arise. You wouldn't be able to count how many mistakes umpires made in that game, but the 3 in question were absolute ball-tearers, and without those 3, nobody would be complaining about the umpiring at all. I understand you think it's all too hard, and you're defeated, that's fine. Others don't and would rather look at what options there are for improvement. Are you up for that discussion?

Exactly right. Any sport I've ever watched has been about the players, not the bleeding umpires (try telling Razor - who I don't mind either by the way). It's obvious when they've done a good job because nobody is talking about them, and that's probably 90% of games. And in those 90% of games, nobody would know the umpires names, or even care. When something is amiss is when people start talking about and naming umpires, and those names you've highlighted appear regularly in this type of discussion. Personally I couldn't care less who umpires a game, as long as it's fair. I'll even forgive errors, but blatant failures for whatever reason, shouldn't be tolerated. The 3 I saw in that game were: 1) Tim Smith, 2) throw in goal square, and 3) Hurn kick-in. All 3 would've been the focus of attention and all 3 should've been seen. I don't think we should be putting this in the too hard basket, that's just defeatism at it's best, and if people are happy to live like that then good luck to them. Not me. There's been some good suggestions on here, here's my 2 bob AFL Umpiring to become a full time occupation with bigger matches receiving bigger match payments. AFL Umpiring to be broken into 'teams' with changes only being made to teams when forced (injury/personal/performance). Umpire team performance to be assessed after each game with each individual umpires performance score combining for a team score. Team scores used to rank teams with the higher ranking teams given priority for bigger matches. Neutral umpire teams to be used in all games (difficult, especially in Vic, but with some brainpower can be done). Transparency in AFL umpiring KPIs and statistics. AFL umpire microphones removed from broadcast transmissions. To be recorded though if evidence needed in certain scenarios. No on-field coaching from umpires. Clarification is fine, i.e. come back 2 metres to the mark. Both coaches to provide a performance rating for each umpire in every game, with feedback used to coach umpires. These ratings can be combined over the year to provide an umpires award. MEU Most Effective Umpire, or something like that. Could also be used as a component of the umpires performance score as above. Feedback from umpires on the most difficult rules to adjudicate as well as new attempts by (Hawthorn) players to circumvent rules. Discussion over ways to combat these issues. That's a start. I doubt any of it will happen because quite clearly what supporters want doesn't align with what the AFL wants.

I guarantee the AFL use Champion Data for these particular statistics, but there's no way in hell they'll ever be in the public domain. You only need to follow the umpires a bit more closely to see what's going on. A couple of years ago one umpire, can't remember which one, absolutely destroyed us for a whole game, on a Sunday afternoon. Next week he was given the Friday night game. Now would you call that some kind of promotion? From the dead slot on Sunday afternoon to primetime tells me the AFL says good job buddy, here's your rewards. Update (Found the match): Round 22 2016 (Sunday 21st August) Vs Carlton. Free kicks Carlton 20 - Melbourne 5. Umpire Brett Rosebury. Umpired Round 23 (Friday 26th) The other 2 umpires next weeks, Andrew Mitchell got Ess Vs Car at the G on Saturday afternoon, and Chris Donlon got Nor Vs GWS Saturday night primetime. I also did some analysis that year that showed if you lose the free kick differential by 13 or more, it was impossible to win the game. -15 in this game, 5 free kicks in total over 4 quarters. The same analysis showed of all the statistics in the modern game the one that had the closest correlation with match wins, was indeed free kicks. The bottom line in that game was if we'd won it, there was the potential for us to leapfrog GWS to get into the finals in the unlikely event we knocked off the Cats in Rnd 23. Which do you think they'd prefer?

There's only one way Mumford will retire again, and it's not a LINE in the sand moment that will do it.

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.

We play them again in round 18. Guarantee when they run onto the field then they'll be thinking 'we've got these weak [censored]' Nobody is suggesting a melee, nobody is suggesting a fight. A clear message needed to be sent that we're a team and we'll stand up for our own. FFS I can't believe people can't understand that. Softest supporter base in the comp. How many went to Jetta after he took Smith out of he game? [censored] off back to your cheese platter if you're not happy with that. Viney on Rance after the Watts incident seems light years ago.

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.

I thought it might've been further than that, but that's incredible for the umpires to miss. In that instance almost everybody on the field is watching that 1 player.

Can anyone with access to a replay see how far he actually ran?