Webber

Nothing, back to sleep…

Sometimes it’s sweet being right, rpfc. He’s all demon, is Jack Viney. Made special sharp for the pointy end of things.

Ok. 12:14 am by my clock. 95 it is.

60?! Please. 70 minimum….

Perfect summary, AoB. The planning and ability for these guys to have a ‘finals gear’ just can’t be understated. This team is now doing exactly what they were designed to do. And they’re doing it for all of us, which they’ve made wonderfully clear. It’s a beautiful thing in a beautiful game.

What about the trade Viney brigade?

Well. Has to be asked I guess. Bwahhahahahaha…..

Bit ordinary really. IN OPPOSITE WORLD!!!!!!

Jeremy Cameron, you utter front-runner. Can’t be relied on, and now everyone knows it.

So by my MFCSS rules, we have to be more goals up than minutes to play……….oh [censored], I missed it!

You’re spot on. Sadly, it’s now or never for Maysie. If he can help us get there, his job is done, because he won’t be there in 2 weeks.

He’s a second half player, particularly against a tiring side. He’ll be right.

Yeah, that iteration is. The earlier version was higher, and tighter to a point.

Anyone know of any old-fashioned guernseys out there, à la my avatar? I’m surprised some natty knitter hasn’t resurrected the all-wool button-neck long-sleeved guernsey with the red yolk way out to the shoulders (no sponsor logos, no nothing), particularly whilst there’s a market. Basically what was worn in 1964. Wouldn’t be cheap, but who wouldn’t want one?!

You’ve clearly not read that I’ve written, consistently and unequivocally, that the idea that the umpires are cheating is ridiculous. By that you’ve ignored our agreement on this point. This part of your reply is thus meaningless to me. The Dogs ‘strength’ at winning free kicks would be explicable by that alone were it not inexplicably 2.4 times better than the next best, Geelong, and exponentially multiple times better than all other teams.

No, I didn’t. To say they are way out front in free kicks by their own clever, umpire manipulating actions, particularly compared to other teams who would all be trying to do the same (to a greater or lesser degree as described by a natural bell-curve) is just as conspiratorial as saying most on here are convinced the umpires are ‘on the take’. Neither are true, obviously. Most of us on here are looking at the facts, that the Bulldogs, and good luck to them, have a statistically anomalous advantage in free kicks that can’t be explained by being ‘first to the ball’ and ‘playing for free kicks’ according to some kind of team design. Of course they play to optimise free kicks and want to contest hardest and be first to the ball. So does every team. None of us actually know why they are the outlier. We can theorise, which is a bit if fun, and emotion is always a factor, but a simple Occam’s razor explanation such as you propose just doesn’t fit the objective anomaly.

I would suggest you lose the patronising condescension, but that would be [censored]-for-tatting. You’ve just reiterated the obvious points without addressing the statistically anomalous nature of the free-kick disparity. No kidding. By this reasoning, the Bulldogs apparently do this multiply better and for more amplified significance better than any other team in the AFL. I’ve watched the game, and very closely (thanks again for the advice), and this is plainly fanciful. I suspect you’re convincing very few otherwise.

You might have nailed it, MR. Until umps are elevated in every respect - full-time professionalism, expectation, on-field treatment (re Toby Greene) - and then given recognition for quality and excellence by consequence, it’s just not going to get any better. The athletic/sporting standards of this game’s playing personnel compared with the standards we accept (by lack of investment) in its adjudication and adjudicators are worlds apart. It’s incredibly frustrating that the AFL persist with such a clearly half-arsed status quo.

Basically Macca you’re suggesting that the Bulldogs are the best contested team, have the best contested ball players, and play ‘in front’ more than any other team. Above this, they ‘know’ how to play for free kicks, which by implication means they are either ‘coached’ to do it (more than any of the other 17 clubs), or are brought to the club because they have that ‘skill’ inherently. In a game that is made highly transparent by statistics, those statistics plainly defeat your first point. The implication behind your second is plainly silly.

As I made the point, none of this, particularly your ‘get to the ball first’ nonsense is born out statistically. I don’t know why there is such an obviously unbalanced free kick ratio, and nor does anyone else, including the ‘AFL overlord conspiracy theorists’, or the ‘mates with the players’ suggestors. The only other example of objectively egregiously unbalanced umpiring we’ve seen in modern times is the West Coast in Perth situation, which is explainable by unconscious crowd effect…..a bias of screaming affirmation. This seems to be something more intrinsic.

Nope, because that’s patently ridiculous. What is absolutely, objectively the case is that the free kick differential over the season (and the finals are merely reinforcing that fact) puts the Bulldogs way, way out beyond the normal spread of the bell curve. The Bulldogs simply have an established ability to gain a statistically irregular advantage from umpiring decisions. None of the other comparative stats that might explain this … contested possessions, tackles, etc, match this irregularity. Not even close. That the umpires ‘consciously’ make this happen is ludicrous. It is however highly anomalous and needs scrutiny because it gifts them an obvious advantage, and that’s not a game I really want to watch.

It’s true layzie, but the game needs to be protected, dare I say saved from its single most obvious blight. When the game’s adjudication is so often horrendously flawed, it becomes very hard to watch, because it destroys the idea that two teams are playing each other on equal terms. It’s frankly amateurish, and simply has to be better.

Completely. If you can just run into someone and get a free kick with 2 minutes left on the clock and less than a kick in it, something’s horribly horribly wrong. Everyone sees it, and knows it. When will it become a properly discussed issue, scrutinised in the way it deserves? Amazing.

I’m not sure how lucky it is when you consistently get the umpiring advantage. I just don’t get how this keeps happening. It’s an objective embarrassment.