You’re right boot, the umpiring is that bad for all eagles games and they always get the best rub of it (except the finals match against the dogs in 2016)
It cant just be a coincidence and it cant just be “oh, they are always first to the ball”. There is clearly favoritism shown by the umpires to the west coast players, no other way to describe it.
Go back over the last 10 years and the eagles have had the highest +ve differential for free kicks every year
Yeh, in the context of the game last night I wanted to argue all those but had to give up because he was just playing dumb. He was off the pace and trying to compensate but ended up murdering some transition and forward 50 opportunities. If the Eagles had kicked straight and we had a close game those frees really could have cost us big.
100% on this post.
I don’t subscribe to “AFL has it in for Essendon” or even “umpires have it in for Essendon” stuff, but I believe that human nature being what it is, that some umpires will show favoritism in some games. Last night, good example of that. Appointing the local umps on a Thursday night game is the most sensible option given this is a side gig for all of them.
The AFL should adopt the NFL model when the refs are “crews” and always work together. They probably already do in AFL for some of them but I’m talking the full crew be together - centrals, goals, boundary, review - pay them to be full time employees and be assigned to neutral turf wherever possible.
this is my solution to the umpiring crisis
no more bad umpire calls after that
I just want to congratulate the Players for not going ape droppings at the Maggots last night. They were amazingly disciplined.
I simply asked the question; how is it in anyway possible that a team that was so completely on top of the opposition in all respects, can get 50% LESS free kicks and give away 3-0 50m Penalties.
It is absolutely the worst display of Maggoting I have ever seen. No 22 was a pounce. Margetts was Margetts…and the other 2 put on a Harpo disguise to leave the building.
Absolutely shocking.
Absolutely.
That is the patch which needs to be looked at. They paid EVERYTHING in that patch.
The equivalent of those same frees was ignored for the rest of the match.
I don’t think its corruption or intentional. I think its subconscious.
But something needs to be done because its A JOKE.
Equally though our players need to learn not to tunnel players and not to get sucked in to idiotic stuff (TIPPA!) and not to play for frees and sook it up if one gets missed.
so did they only the umps never paid them
Could have done with an ump last night that wasn’t a resident of WA.
True dat, but when even FC supporters are complaining about the one sided umpiring you know there’s a problem
If I was out there I would have completely lost my bundle, impressed with the professionalism of the group.
Mind you, it’s a lot easier to be professional when you’re up by 40
it isn’t a theory if it is actually happening
I am a tiger supporter but i had to say i was so surprised there was no media comment on the poor umpiring at last nights game. So much so, the only source of discontent wad this one. But google has revealed a gem 2 days ago in the WA newspaper. 3 WA umpires are selected for the wce vs bombers game as vindictation that the afl has confidence in the non biased umpires.
I think last nights game - especially the 2nd quarter is proof that all 50-50 calls go with the home team. As a richmond supporter living in adelaide, i think the bombers were unusually hard done by last night.
oh… its not unusual
Any person that supports a Melbourne based team sympathises about the umpiring in perth.
It doesn’t matter which team, pencil in 3-4 goals kicked on you because of umpiring bias.
It’s the fact that people just accept it now, that’s the issue.
I forgot the link to the article https://thewest.com.au/sport/west-coast-eagles/three-wa-umpires-appointed-to-look-after-west-coast-v-essendon-at-optus-stadium-on-thursday-ng-b88872395z
I can’t buy into conspiracy theories and the like, but i do believe inherent biases do exist, and teams and players get free kicks for or against based on these inherent biases.
Lloyd was called out in the press for staging, yet got mugged all the time (especially by glenn manton) and got nothing from the umps. They in the vack of their minds stopped payibgs frees because of that.
Free kick Hawthorn was a thing because top teams naturally get a better run from umps due to respect (and this is not isolated to afl it is soccer worldwide - look at how badly refs treated Australia in the past, or Morocca the other night v Portugal). Or the bias could be as simple as growing up loving / hating a certain team.
OK. Not sure if it was the same game, but it was around the same time and the same venue and in retrospect it was the most embarrassing example of group racism I have encountered from a Dons crowd. If I had been James I would have paid a free to the opposition even if they punched us in the head. This was the time “Roots” was showing on TV and honestly the racist abuse James copped was relentless and disgusting. I won’t repeat any of it but I’m pretty sure the older Blitzers know what I’m talking about.
Not sure how many indigenous umpires there have been since but James has my admiration for putting up with such crap. I know I couldn’t have.
So, how many have there been since?
I heard Glenn James speak about crowd abuse. He didn’t mention that game at Windy Hill, but did mention an Essendon v Collingwood game at Victoria Park. He recalled and repeated some of the vile racial slurs he received. He said that every time he heard one from the Collingwood Members area, he gave a free kick against them.
Conspiracy theory - It was designed to destroy the intensity of Ess and make us worry about the hard at the ball attitude.