Yep.
The Agar caught behind decision was an absolute howler, there was one in an ODI earlier this year where hawkeye said the ball pitched about 10cm away from where it actually did on the vision.
It doesn’t help the catches where the question is whether the fingers got under the ball, or it touched grass.
In this WC there was seemingly a catch given, when the fielder was over the line.
And now you routinely have guys being given out LB when they’re 2 metres out of their crease.
You’re right - that does sound silly
I reckon in cricket there is probably more contention now. The intent was probably to get rid of the howlers. They’ve probably mostly done that. But the borderline ones now cause a lot more contention than they ever used to.
Same thing seems to be happening in the AFL
Not sure where people are hearing all this “Contention”, … I’ve heard fark all.
I don’t read the Sport press or radio etc though., … precisely because they invent contention, and continue to manufacture it as a matter of course.
It is their entire business model.
This was posted in the Good by Woosha? thread. But to discuss how the game is in 2019 I thought I’d do it here. Now I don’t see a lot of the non-Essendon games, and definitely a lot less than a lot of you here. So I don’t have a feel from seeing many matches how they are as spectacles. The games are lower scoring. Sure, we like to see goals kicked, but a good hard contest can also be enthralling.
Question: is the game better or worse or the same to watch this year?
Answer: It is worse, partly due to the tactics employed but primarily due to the abysmal state of umpiring
Yes, the umpiring - it’s execution and the handling of it PR wise - has been a disaster this year.
When the new zoning rules were introduced, it was for the purpose of extra scoring, so it makes sense the coaches went more defensive.
The rules would have alarmed coaches who don’t want to get into shoot outs, so added defensive structures are no surprise.
Thanks again to the afl who cant see unintended consequences of their rules changes.
Holding up quite well for a 130 year old is Derm.
And don’t we as Don fans know all about that!!
Oh boy, more zingers from hocking
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.
Boy, they’ve gone downhill fast since ol’ Liz left.
How does someone so incompetent remain in his job???
The only answer that makes any sense is that his boss is even more incompetent. It’s absolutely appalling how much they are doing to try and ruin an amazing game.
Maybe if they paid the free as they were meant to be paid instead of allowing a rolling scrum of incorrect disposal over and over there would be less tackles
Here’s a thought.
For the last 20 years or so the AFL has had a Rules Committee that has operated on two assumptions:
The game is too slow and fans are getting bored, so it needs to be speeded up and scoring needs to be easier.
These problems need to be fixed and the way to fix them is by modifying the rules.
Both of those assumptions are flat out wrong, and acting on them has made the game worse, not better.
I haven’t done a count but I would guess that in that time there have been about changes of the rules, or changes of interpretation, which are really changes of a rule, and of those 20 I would say only 2 have actually improved the game, while the remainder have all made it worse.
The two that have improved it are a) getting the runners off the ground except when they’re actually looking after players and not influencing play, and b) making contact with the head illegal in all circumstances.
I can’t hope to remember all the others, but just to recall a few:
Kick off after a behind immediately — ridiculous, unnecessary, and all it’s done is produce situations where the player kicks off with the wrong ball or there are two balls on the ground and some flunky has to run on and pick up the one that’s gone astray.
Deliberate out of bounds and deliberate rushed behind: ridiculous, unnecessary, and results in 20 deliberates being called in one game and none at all in another game.
Player kicking off can run 15 extra metres. Words fail me.
Hands in the back: such a ■■■■■■■ stupid idea that even the Rules Committee (qualification for entry: IQ less than 70) decided they should drop it.
10 metre “protected area”. My God.
No ball up until the ball has stopped moving. Seriously, if there’s one thing that has led to the dreaded “rolling maul” that is such a blight on the game, this is it. It’s been around for quite a while now, but if you go back to the 90s or early 2000s, when a pack got into the old “stacks on the mill” situation, the umpire blew the whistle and bounced the ball. (They could all bounce it then.) Then one day our heroes of the Rules Committee saw that sometimes there were two or three bounces in quick succession and decided that that was a Bad Thing that Needed to be Fixed. So they changed the rule/interpretation so that there was no ball up until all ball movement had ceased. And thus was born the rolling maul. Congratulations, guys!
That’s enough. Repeal all the changes of the last 20 years except the two I mentioned and disband the ■■■■■■■ Rules Committee. Then leave the game alone.
You’ve answered your own question. Surround an incompetent person with equally (or more) incompetent people and suddenly they don’t look so incompetent anymore. It becomes normalised and… voila… you’ve got the AwFuL!
AFL are really trying to choreograph the game to be a certain way. They are in the entertainment business and instead of acting as managers they are being the director.
They are only interested in $$$$. Once upon a time they had a solid-gold product which pretty much marketed itself, so being incompetent didn’t matter. Now they’ve managed to ■■■■ their product completely (honestly, when was the last time you watched a truly memorable game?) and interest is wavering. Their incompetence is now on show - appearing from underneath the glossy, superficial veneer.
Last night, while digitising some old VHS tapes, I watched the 2001 Comeback Game. 52 goals! The standard of the football - phenomenal! The way it was umpired - fantastic! You just don’t get that anymore. A good product ruined by a bunch of silver-spoonfed, money-grabbing, entitled private schoolboys hopelessly out of touch with their target audience.
Paying the push as it’s written (aka the hands in the back “rule change”) was a massive improvement.
Clement and Hudghton and Brown scragging made for horrendous footy to watch.
They need to make one simple change
Pay the ball-up or free kick about half a second quicker.
No more of this rubbish 360 degree swinging.
No more waiting until you see a team-mate running past to “have the ball knocked out in the tackle”, aka throw it, which is the most subjective, difficult to adjudicate and grey rule in the game.
Will cut down the “sling” and dangerous tackles by a huge margin
Breaks up the packs
Opens up the play