I have just watched the Preliminary Final and I need someone to convince me that the umpires did not try their hardest to influence the result in the last quarter.
Otherwise G. Geishen the AFL and the newspapers will be bombarded with my feelings.
For starters no one can criticise the umpires.
This then makes it easy for the AFL to lean on umpires to make certain calls at certain times and thereby influence a result.
Over the last year or so I have thought this to be happening but have dismissed it as paranoia on my behalf but tonight was the last straw.
Of course Sydney's last goal came from a free which was 50/50 at the best and after the result was a foregone conclusion. and it made the FK differential a bit better. If it was close the call would have been play on.