binman

For me it is not about accountability. It is about being a full time professional. Training all week. Doing mutiple matches. Coaching young umpires at lowe level. Practising decision making under pressure. Going to the clubs and umpiring at training sessions. Full bloody time.

As I say the afl love all the hysteria the rubbish umpiring creates. Any news is good news

Of course it does. If only for blatant throws that happen all game because the umpires operate in the corridor and can't see what happens boundary side And the players take full advantage.

This times a million. If say umpires were paid 120k a year, with performance bonuses you don't think young men and women who want to be involved in elite sport might make it a career? Create a bloody pathway to the professional level and it will help all levels, both in terms of numbers but also talent. I'm not sure if this is urban myth but I have been a number of times that key metric used for selecting afl umpires is fitness.

All good. Apologies for over reacting. The standard of umpiring has long been a major frustration of mine. A billion dollar competition and an error like that can be made. And I don't blame the umpires. I blame the AFL

Perhaps. But my response is to you dismissing peoples reasonable frustration with an appalling decision. One that just happened to cost us at least 2 points. In doing so you introduced the argument that in fact it couldn't have been deliberate because it was touched, making a definitive statement that if the ball makes contact with an opp player it can’t be deliberate. And based on this, you implied there was enough grey, or doubt to make the non decision understandable

Ta. Mel Bourne, perhaps you have a different rule book?

Is that right? I doubt it, but you seem definitive so i guess you are correct. So it wasn't an error by the umpire after all

I meant that I doubt the rule us if an opposition plsyer touches it voids a deliberate call. For clarity sake I AM IN ZERO DOUBT THST WAS DELIBERATE OUT OF BOUNDS. The rule was brought in exactly for that scenario. As was rhe insufficient attempt change. And i don't understand the need to conflate the loss and the free. It is possible to discuss them separately. It was an appalling error. And its not good enough

Spargo touched it so it should not have been deliberate? Please. The fact that was apparently not evident to a single person watching the game last night shows how ridiculous that is. Besides I doubt that does in fact mean a deliberate cant be paid. I mean he deliberately tried to handball it over the boundary. And succeeded. And obviously showed no intent to keep it in sy, let alone insufficient intent. What does an imperceptible deflection change?

You do struggle with nuance, don't you.

Agree Webber. Given tge stakes it is completely assured the umpires are not full time professionals. Or at the very least one, who has authority to over ride or change any call. At the risk of being accused a conspiracy theorist, as I wrote last year, I think the AFL deliberately create interpretation related controversies. There is at least two per year. Currently it is holding the man and I'll bet the next one is how quickly the umpires call play. Ridiculous. Why? Just look at all the thousands of hours of free coverage and click baits the game gets as a result. Maybe not have professional umpires is part of that strategy.

Yes x4

No. They all should appealed like crazy very poor

I sort of agree. Harmes, melksham and langdon all come to mind trying stuff that was to smart by half

They applied more pressure than us all game. Even in the last, when we finally shot our pressure to our benchmark their pressure was better. Which is why we got no advantage from our clearances. Most were under real pressure. And we didn't spread and gut run. Meaning we couldn't keep the ball in our half. Or stop their transition. And players like jordon were off with their kicking and hunt and rivers could not get any run. And we fumbled more than we have all season and dropped marks we haven't been. Better in the last, but they deserved to win.

Delilah?

Thanks for that. Cornes is spot on. And hiw pathetic is it hearing a bunch of ex footballers and an overweight sad sack journalist who who woule faint with a single bump all defend them. Footy teams have long memories and a fit and firing Max might decide to remind some crows players of their sniping tactics

There is no trick, no illusion. There is no house of cards. Admittedly we have had some luck, but we haven't been gifted some fortuitous draw and fluked our way to 9 zip. We are the real deal. I can't see us bringing our full heat today.We don't need to. They will dial it back a bit im sure. We need something in the tank for next week. But we will bring enough to get the job done. The line in this game is 25 points. We will make that not getting out of second gear. But that line is predicated on the crows bringing their very best pressure game. If they don't we will get on top early and smash the easing up in the last (which will annoy many im sure(. Im predicting a 57 point win. And that I'll read complaints we should have won by 100.

Last year? Try right up to 3/4 time of round 2 this year!

Well, we have the same number of tall forwards this week

Here's another one in a simlar vein. Quite funny actually: https://www.gq.com.au/fitness/sport/weighing-up-the-prospect-of-an-undefeated-melbourne-afl-season/news-story/4f425ea7ab7c7d0712a4b2efe2d98c26

So you don't plan on dressing up?

Has not aged well. One of those players has played every game this season in the best team in the AFL. And is an integral part of that team. The others, bar one, have, not The others, bar one, are not. One of the others can't crack a team in said best team. And one other did. And was dropped after one game, four possessions and negative 10 metres gained.

Brilliant design. Been meaning to buy one in previous years. Will buy this one