Webber

Exactly this, and as @Jaded No More said. All those men/women who were looking at full time footy careers, cruelled for whatever reason, this would allow them to stay in the sport, and for significant income and respect. Umps could be pre-selected based on specific testing and personality factors, eg immunity to external influence, lateral/abstract thinking, peripheral vision, tolerance to continued decision-making stress. Exactly the same as players go through with biometric testing pre-draft, but in umps case, just with different emphases. No reason why it can’t be a 15-20 year career, which of course then sets them up for post-active employment in umpire education, etc. How old is David Rodan, the goal umpire, and why aren’t there more ex-players? We’ve seen only a handful over the years. Crazy, considering how many AFL careers finish early. And don’t get me started on the AFL mandating industry silence on umpiring, which they justify by saying it risks vilification of individuals (thus discouraging people from becoming umpires). Brilliant blame-shift when it’s your organisation who create the reason for criticism out of sheer negligence in the first place. As the ‘controversy’ motive - I’m just about cynical enough to believe it. They encourage pure click-bait drivel to spew from their own media, so why wouldn’t we believe they happily invite controversy from garbage game-day adjudicating? All in all, for the things in the game that really matter, the AFL, a financial behemoth, either pay lip-service or are completely negligent. Gone is any sense of duty to maintain the integrity, status and future of our national sport for that reason alone. It’s just profit-based now (even the changes in concussion care/vigilance are motivated by fear of litigation), and we’re told to believe that’s the healthy approach.

The relevant point Dr. G being ‘on the run’, exactly what he tried to replicate by NOT taking the set shot. His yips entirely relate to the set shot. I could read his thinking as it was happening.

Yep, but sadly his yips this year means he just doesn’t trust his set-shot kicking - goal square in front excepted. Every other season, he just takes the set shot, and even milks the expectation.

Absolutely. Umpires are flawed humans, doing their best. As such the AFL flagrantly disrespect them by not allowing optimisation of their abilities - as full-time professionals, disrespect us and our investment (at every level) by allowing the game to be so much less than it should be, and disrespects every club/team who has to SILENTLY accept obstruction to the single thing they’re trying to achieve -winning by unimpeachable, dedicated effort.

Surely you understand there are many factors that make up a game result. Yes our flaws are there, no argument, and obviously they are in most/many games the sole difference, BUT, and it’s the one BUT that makes too many game results so frustratingly fragile at this level, is the quality of the adjudication. Poor umpiring today influenced the result of the game, it’s that simple. Perfection is a nonsense, but umpiring is glaringly the worst aspect of our professional game. To say it should/could be better is a no-brainer, but those with the money/power aren’t interested enough, and those with the most at stake are forbidden to mention it.

And the deciding factor…….the umpiring. It’s a blight on this great game, and the voices that matter aren’t allowed to talk about it.

I’ve been waiting years for this opportunity @Demonstone! It’s Johnston Street. No ‘e’ required. I’ve no doubt you understand my joy. 😜. Excellent story, btw (I hope the bus wasn’t going to Windy Hill).

Went there in 1975 as a Robbie Flower-worshipping 10 year old, my only time, with my Dad (a New Zealander and Rugby crazy who only had a passing interest in footy) and stood behind the goals. Dees were pressing for the final 5 (on the back of Ray Biffin having a purple patch at full-forward!), if other results went our way. They didn’t of course. I had to stand on beer cans (ah, the days of steel-spined VB tinnies!). It was feral. Dad, who was a NZ rep-standard prop-forward and no shrinking violet, said ‘we’re never coming back here’. That was during the very long period when Umps had to be escorted on and off the ground by police….police!, who, an hour or so later had to escort them to their cars post-game. No wonder so many of us feel about Collingwood the way we do. (And to think I now live here, 🤪).

But true. Concussion is a function of brain movement within the skull. Sloshing trauma, so to speak. External devices, hard or soft, do precisely NOTHING to influence this effect. In truth, studies show they can create a detrimental level of false confidence. As to the external head (skin and skull), headwear can obviously diminish likelihood of lacerations and fractures, so a hard helmet on a bike (any version) is a no-brainer, pun intended. None of the above is contestable in evidential science.

Was as sure he was gonna kick that would-be goal on the run near the end as Fritta (poor guy’s got the horrible yips) was gonna miss his set shot. Mind you, if he HAD kicked it, I probably would’ve expired. He and the Bison aren’t just skilled, they’re strong, gutsy, and most excitingly, really really smart footballers.

Jake’s one of those players, and not because of his size, who makes me scared for his safety when there’s a contest looming. Inspirationally courageous, and absolutely AA. He’s simply become elite.

The fact Brisbane kept kicking it to him was hilarious. I reckon that’s the ONE thing you’d be coached NOT to do. Loved it. And as whoever on the Brisbane cheer squad, I mean on the commentary team said, HE IS A COLLOSUS!

It absolutely is. He will be reported, and then fined I reckon. Which will be a gutless outcome.

Not now. 3 years ago I was sure he wouldn’t miss

Poor Fritter. He’s the last player I’d have expected to get the yips.

Cheers for the shout out @binman, I think 😉. Yes, I was very harsh on the game, but will stand by my assessment of the first half. It was the most awful display of footy in my recent memory - slow, sloppy, mistake-ridden - poor sub-standard VFL stuff, both teams. And Richmond’s defensive strategy doesn’t soften that. Having straw-polled footy-smart non-partisan friends who saw it has universally confirmed as much. I happily admit though, that a big part of my frustration comes down to flawed expectation. The Freo game was a joy to watch for precisely the opposite reasons, so that’s where my head was at. I will offer a complete mea culpa though on the match-winning third quarter, and my failure to admit that this was exceptional footy rather than just a relief from the first two. My bad. Should also have acknowledged the continued miracle season of Jake Bowey (Chin not far behind). I reckon he’s currently the best back half distributer in the AFL. Also to reiterate that Max is simply the best ruck-captain the game’s seen, grinning now, arm in arm with Robbie Flower on that pedestal. I do reckon you’re being generous on the last quarter (taking the red and blue specs off, the Kosi ‘non-goal’ DID in truth deviate off the Tiges defender’s hand). It was back to horrible, marked by the absence of Maxy of course. It’s a truism that you’ll be worse without your best player, but we were verging on uncompetitive at stoppages when he went off. Fullerton vs Nank was comical, and even sadder was the truth that we were all watching, in real time, the end of a player’s AFL aspirations. Overall, I reacted badly, and should have tempered my expectations for the team and game (love the Anzac eve fixture, and am used to us offering a version of our best) before spewing my distaste all over demonland’s notorious post-game distaste banquet. Such is the life of a footy fan I guess.

Top 5 worst games of AFL footy I’ve ever seen. From a Dees perspective, we’re very very ordinary of course, but without the best ruckman the game’s ever seen, I think we might be the worst team in the league. At the moment. Things can improve no doubt. And they will. Hopefully. 71,000 at the G, and they all should feel robbed.

This is unwatchable. If it’s not the worst game of the round, I’ll be shocked. We’ve completely abandoned all of what was good about last week. ALL OF IT!!! And the obvious question is, why?? It’s impossible to understand. What WAS the plan before the game? Maybe this - “Let’s go back to what we were doing the first 5 weeks. Go soft at the contest, slow it down and wait for their defence to set. Don’t move it quickly, or even look like you want to, or play on with a quick run past. And when we do have a chance to go inside 50, kick it to a defensive outnumber, or failing that, kick it to them please.” [censored], it’s just so tragically bad!!!!! Definitely Richmond’s to lose, I don’t expect they will, and they are horrible.

Hard to know if it’s just lack of confidence or uncertainty, but the Casey decision-making across the board is just dumb. They look like a bunch of dumb footballers, but I’ll stay glass half full and go with the former assessment. Apart from that, their tackling, kicking, marking and handballing is horribly inferior. So all the things making good footy. Geez this club is living under dark grey clouds. Where-when will we see the glimmer of light?????

If it hit the ground before crossing the goal line though, it’s not a goal. Thus applies only to balls ‘in flight’. Not sure on that last goal.

It’s one of the interesting things about umpiring. If they feel the vibe of helplessness from a team, and we ARE currently helpless, they stop paying obvious free kicks because they unconsciously interpret potential free kick situations as either incompetence or desperation from the crowd. Mind you, we ARE desperate to get a free kick. I haven’t seen a lack of confidence leading to shocking decision making like this from us for many moons. It’s so hard to watch. I really feel for the guys out there, they’ve just got zero self-belief. Most of how bad they are is above the shoulders.

The positive is if Clarry can start actually holding the ball, we’re a chance.

At the ground. The awful thing is how each of our failures/breakdowns/errors you can see coming a mile off. Like watching a slow motion car crash. The question seems not to be whether we can correct, cos it appears soooo unlikely, but how much worse we’ll get. Currently an opposition’s dream.

Fabulous