Ethan Tremblay

That’s only because the AFL will end up silencing the supporters as well. Heil Gil.

These aren’t emotionally subjective though. At the present, the umpire decides if the player raised their arms in a demonstrable way. A player raising their arms has to be a free or not, it can’t come down to how the umpire “feels”. Totally different to the subjectivity of a cricket umpire calling an lbw…

If the umpire feels threatened by a player raising his arms, whether it’s appealing for a free, contesting a free or in confusion, it’s a free against that player. This is where the rule falls down, it comes down to how an umpire personally felt by the action. What other sport in the world has subjective rules?

Per sip?

Yes, understood. But you’re asking the umpire to officiate based off how they felt. Personally, I would never feel threatened by a player raising their arms and looking or walking towards me. It’s a subjective rule. It’s beyond me that people can’t comprehend this. I’m sure any instructional videos released by the AFL would just confuse the players and everyone even more. “This is a threatening arms raise” “this isn’t”. Seriously?

If a player raises their arms during play and advocates for a free, the umpires have been instructed to penalise via way of a free-kick against the player who has raised their arms. It doesn’t matter if they’re appealing a free or for a free. I’ve attempted to explain this as simply as possible, it’s an absurd rule.

Do you agree with a player being penalised 50m for raising their arms when appealing for a free or when confused by a decision?

You can’t have rules that are subjective and based on how a person (the umpire) ‘feels’. Yes, absolutely stamp out abuse, verbal or otherwise (a clenched fist, middle finger etc), but penalising a player for simply raising their arms, demonstrating confusion or appealing for a free kick, is ludicrous. It’s beyond me how a rational person can support that part of the rule. It’s bordering scary that an organisation has the power to stop someone from raising their arms in that manner.

Not our best.

Well done to Brad Scott for quoting Spider-Man “with great power comes great responsibility”.

Absolutely agree. That’s why it will be interesting to speak with my mates son. I couldn’t have done the job as a young fella without any or much life experience. I would have cried getting yelled at by the supporters in the crowd.

Be interesting to see what Brad Scott has to say in his upcoming press conference. I can’t see the AFL backing down but I’d like to see them get rid of the raising of the arms rule. Just that, thank you.

I have a couple of mates who umpire in the WAFL, to them it’s just water off a ducks back, sticks and stones and all that and they also understand that things are said in the heat of the moment, it’s not a personal attack. To be fair though, they’re both coppers so probably use to the abuse 🤷. One has a teen son who not long started umpiring as well, I haven’t spoken to him since he commenced, will be interesting to get his take. Pre-kids I umpired the colts for a few seasons, I loved the banter, I just gave it back and shot the players down. Then we had a laugh and shook hands at the end.

Appreciate the balanced and considered reply. On cricket, don’t the players raise their arms when appealing or when questioning a decision? Under the new rules, AFL players can’t even appeal for a free kick by raising their arms.

You can’t punish an emotional response where there’s no abuse/swearing included. It’s an absolute joke, sport is emotional. Think about the rule, raising the arms in confusion, without any verbalisation, is a 50m penalty. If anyone agrees with that, thinks the game is better for it and that all players will stop doing it, would have survived well in Nazi Germany. Speak up, don’t suppress your feelings, it’s not good for mental health. But don’t instinctively raise your arms in confusion.. far out.

I wouldn’t be surprised if facial expressions are punished in the near future

Given that raising the arms up or outward when questioning an umpires call is penalised, I’ll happily take that bet. As much as people don’t want them to be, players are humans, not robots. People also raise their arms instinctively when confused or puzzled. To police this is bordering cruel. There’s plenty of articles on arm body language, feel free to have a read or don’t.

It’s human behaviour to be emotional and question what you perceive as a poor judgement. Raising or putting your arms out is an automatic response. You can’t just tell people to stop doing it all of a sudden, it’s an instinct. According to the new ‘dissent’ rule, asking an umpire to watch the screen is a 50m penalty. Additionally, the player doesn’t have to stomp his foot or even carry on, simply raising the arms is a 50m penalty. We don’t want the players to be robots, but…..

I’m not sure if this is tongue in cheek or not. You can’t punish someone for being emotional, Scott’s not being abusive here. It’s quite scary to me that people are calling for instinctive emotions (not abuse) to be punished. You can’t bottle up the frustration/emotions in such a high-intensity environment.

The last sentence is absolutely common sense, which unfortunately, isn’t all that common.

I’d suggest it’s because the majority of the umpires realise that a 50 for raising your arms is ridiculous. The kids umpiring at the junior level are going to cop it even worse for enforcing this one. Players are always going to be raising their arms, even when simply asking “what for?” I’ve most definitely said enough about the absurdity of this rule so I’ll leave it there.

If AFL umpires are having trouble with interpreting the rules and enforcing them (80 missed “raised or outward arms” in round 5), what does that mean for the juniors? The problem starts with the AFL, not the players or the supporters. It’s similar to policing, the commissioner and politicians come up with some stupid ideas for the police on the ground to enforce, the ones who enforce the rules/law are the ones who cop the abuse. Don’t make stupid/complicated rules, and people won’t complain (well, they’re people so they probably still will to some degree).

Bit of hyperbole there Bob. People are asking for a bit of consistency, not the “perfect umpire”. The penalising of a player who simply throws their arms up or out (without verbal abuse or swearing) is only going to make the abuse from supporters (at AFL games down to grassroots) even worse. It’s common sense (which may be the reason why some don’t get it now that I think about it…).

Penalise abuse, swearing aimed at the umpire etc but don’t penalise a player who simply throws their arms up or out. It’s essentially an instinctive behaviour that people do in their everyday life when questioning something. I personally dislike the AFL and umpires even more now.

WTF is arms out in a demonstrative manner..?! Seriously, no wonder crowd numbers are down. You can express emotion inwardly, towards yourself but you can’t throw your arms out… [censored] this rule off.