Haven’t head from him, i wonder if his brain exploded?
It’s not a theory
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I don’t subscribe to the theory that Essendon is particularly hard done by. Statistically we fare slightly worse than others, but we’re not at the bottom of that table and there’s no way you can tell me the AFL has it in for us or anything like that.
But the umpires in Perth are severely influenced by the football bubble over there (the crowd noise and the general Weagles culture that seems to infuse the water over there) and to appoint 3/3 WA umpires despite all the media coverage on free kick differentials was a very strange decision.
I’ve watched the Bombers since the 1960s and haven’t missed many games, and last night I witnessed the second most biased umpiring I’ve ever seen. (Kardinia Park, late 1970s or early 1980s, 44 frees to 15 in case you’re wondering). I understand that bad decisions happen, I’ve umpired myself and it’s a tough gig, but this was a mindset. I’m not sure how they got themselves into this mindset but one possibility is that they’d discussed the media coverage re Weagles bias and in some sort of reverse-reverse-discrimination decided that this wouldn’t stop them from paying Weagles free kicks when they arose.
AFL-level umpiring is generally pretty good, but of course it could be better. If you think the umpiring is poor and call out the umpires week in / week out and harangue them at the game then you are a big part of the problem. The AFL has trouble getting young people into umpiring precisely because of your behaviour. Having said that, the umpiring last night was really really poor and needs to be looked at.
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The worst umpired game I have ever seen was Glen James at Windy hill for a Hawks game in the early 80’s. In a time when 30 frees total for a game was a lot the Hawks got something like 40 to 10 for the game. They used the police horses to escort the umpires off the ground at the end of the game the crowd was that mad.
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the legal system is rife with corruption ??
hence he may know what it looks like cos of it.
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I don’t subscribe to the conspiracy theories of umpires. And I try to avoid watching the umpiring rather than the match. You end up watching the umpires and not the game itself, and you start wishing for your team to do well based on umpiring decisions and not on the players controlling the play. That does not mean I don’t have regular “WTF was that free?” moments during a game. And to be fair when we get a dubious free I don’t like it because what we should all want is correct umpiring. But sure, after 3 -4 “WTF was that free?” moments, a dubious free to us is welcomed.
I think the rules and more importantly the interpretation of the rules is the problem in not getting good quality and consistent umpiring. The AFL and their new committee should look at the rules that are most contentious and decide how to best bring clarity to the rule. Just as an example for discussion is the around the neck / getting a player high rule. I’m don’t think tackling (as opposed to laying a hit/bump to the head) around a player’s shoulders / neck region is a problem if it’s just a tackle. I think we could make the rule to pay the free if it is considered to be dangerous or of excessive force. That would make the obvious ones easy to pay, and eliminate frees that are payed for a good tackle that does not impact on the player OHS more than other tackles.
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i didn’t mention anything about the umpires before the game, and only reading a post after all of ours in humberts case did i eve find out there was supposedly a thing brought up about WA umpiring.
I also never claimed it was anti essendon umpiring, if anything I was claiming it was pro west coast umpiring.
and it is open to corruption as humbert sort of alluded too.
the cricket don’t allow competing teams umpires to adjudicate their countries matches, so again if humberts facts are true, why in a week that it was ultimately brought up, did that afl allow 3 WA umpires to umpire in perth ?
it is corruptness through ineptness.
and no it’s not just an essendon thing, altho we do cop it. I’ve watched some games and just left shaking my head at the downright inept and atrocious umpiring across the years. people laugh when it happens to a team they dislike and i always say on here, why are you laughing when you should know if they are umpiring that badly for other teams that they will turn on us even harder for that round.
but if you honestly don’t believe there’s corruption within the afl system, let alone the umpiring fraternity, esp after our last 5 years, then i won’t talk about this with you anymore, cos you’d rather live in a fairytale than reality, and you tell me to grow up, pftt.
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I have blue eyes and black hair, and I’m CERTAIN that there is corruption in the AFL.
joking aside, umps were deplorable. its not anti essendon bias but they just generally seem to be getting worse and worse every year.
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It will have to be the supporters and even then what good will it do?? If you are expecting the club to complain to the AFL about umpiring. It ain’t 'gonna happen and you are just going to get more and more angry. The AFL own us, in other words we have no voice.
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Think of it this way, In spite of the umpires and some sh1tty, frustrated, behaviours by West Coke players we still won.
Ha, ha, ha, you didn’t get the win you probably thought was a walk over. The finger, yeah.
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I remember a game (vs Eagles) at Etihad (or Colonial as it was then known) when the umpires crucified us beyond belief and one of the supporters threw a water bottle at the umpire. The throwing of the bottle was almost justified… The AFL hated us way back then as well.
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He ought to know how the wind blows then, wouldn’t you say?
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The umpiring in all West Coast games in Perth is like that. Not just ours. The AFL need to look into it. But to suggest the umpiring Dept has it in for Essendon and we need some sort of people power movement to address it is just another piece of tin foil hattery. And when it comes to tin foil time I’m just not interested.
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No the standard is just worse than poor often.
I realise its hard to get umpires, its a job no one really wants particularly; when the AFL probably pays peanuts. At one time it was practically a love job. I’ve umpired a couple of times and it is not an easy job but; it doesn’t have to be that hard either. The rules are mostly the problem.
Continual changing of the interpretation of the rules make it even harder. Instead of making things harder AFL, why don’t you just keep it simple, clear and concise. The mistakes made are often right up one end of the ground and wrong down the other - makes no sense. Stop complicating the game nby changing the rules every season. More changes coming next season count on it.
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They are paid very well.
I could live with umpires being poor, as long as they are poor for both teams.
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Umpires like players need to be full time like players. And wouldn’t it be a good idea if all umpires, umpired elsewhere other than their home turf and vicki verka. Then there could be no claims of bias or not as many.
They may be well paid now and that’s good and fair. Now if only the rules can be left alone.
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Whilst it’s all well and good to dismiss the prospect of bias by umpires towards one group or against another out of hand, you’d be forgiven for considering such last night. I’m with those who promulgate the theory WCE enjoy a particularly good run from the umps at home. But I also buy into a notion the we, the EFC, are not likely to always be treated with an even-handed approach from certain umpires. That’s impossible to rebut and, given past events and human nature, almost to be expected. A shame but there you have it.
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Those couple of deliberate OOB were horrible. Reckon Green legit gave away about 5 or so free kicks last night and they were all there.
That’s EXACTLY what a shill for the AFL would say.
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