sue

Armed with my deep expertise in all matters, I can't wait to vote for who is an expert. I hate unelected football pundits, but at least I am expert enough to know most of them have no special expertise.

Yep. Good to see someone looking for the positives

Umpiring up to 2021 standard I see

Umpiring plumbing new depths

The 15 metres standard must be made of rubber. Same umpire 2 successive kicks. First one "not 15 play on", the shorter kick "mark"

It is remarkable how infrequently back players fall forward when pushed in the back compared to forwards. The reason why is obvious. You'd hope umpires would judge whether a forward deserves a free by the push necessary to move a backman.

That's unfair. They are perfectly happy repeating the same ones for as many minutes as are available.

As a paying customer I want more for my money, not less. ?

New definition of front on contact

I detected a whiff of irony in that short list.

copy has arrived. Looks good.

Whenever they say "you heard the umpire" I always ask "why the bloody hell can't we hear them all the time instead of you cretins?"

But it remains a mystery why he can't do that for set shots.

This analysis overlooks the 'assist' of a forward player #1 doing a good kick to another forward who marks inside 50 who then misses the goal. Hardly the fault of player #1.

Who writes these rules? When does a player ever 'elect to incorrectly dispose of the ball'? Perhaps when they deliberately throw it, but a fist missing an attempt to handpass is hardly 'electing'. But what about a player who had prior opportunity who is then tackled and genuinely ATTEMPTS to kick the ball but misses it. No free kick according to that. Any guide to the perplexed?

Why isn't there an option on here to give multiple likes to a post?

I'm driven crazy by commentators giving a lecture on what players need to do, either during the play and then again immediately afterwards as if that somehow proves the wisdom of the original comment. But why do I say 'original' - usually the comment isn't original at all. It's stating the bleeding obvious. As if they are lecturing to 6 year olds or people who have never seen AFL before.

Because we hadn’t lost to the giants yet

Players stand in a random spot and then the ump calls “stand”. Or they have to guess where outside the protected zone is. More distances for the umps to ‘measure’ accurately.

Is that an euphonium?

The umpires don’t seem to have read the rules. Eg. push in the back just before the kick is given as free downfield in front of the goals

But isn't it just as likely that he was trying to ensure it did not cross the line as he prepared to kick it. Anyway, whatever our memories of a golden age when the AFL rules were well written (like all golden ages, there's no such age I expect), the rules as currently written are silent on the question. And if anything the simplest interpretation of them as written is that the boot can be in contact with the ball. I can't see how an umpire lacking a high-speed camera could ever judge exactly when a ball leaves a boot, let alone doing that while noting the position of the ball. By high-speed I mean something better than the AFL s currently using. Even with a decent camera, the camera would have to be near boot level - unlikely. It is so difficult to judge that they'd be better to make the rule state that as long as contact with the ball is made before the ball crosses the line, then it is a goal.

Several people have posted this, but I don't see how this interpretation was even possible before high speed video was available. As I posted earlier, the rules are silent on this matter since they don't define what a kick is (beyond being below the knee). There is nothing there about a kick being complete when the ball leaves the boot. Nor do the rules say anything about a kick having to be complete before the ball passes the goal line.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-01/is-west-coasts-biggest-strength-masking-bigger-weaknesses/100255464

It would seem the Essendon coach doesn't subscribe to the umpiring plot theory.