I really do think the saga is involved…not in a conscious way - I’m not a complete tin-foil-hat loon just yet - but I’m pretty sure there is an unconscious bias “hangover” from all the negative press etc during the saga, that will still take a while to work it’s way out of their minds. Add to that the desire for the AFL to have Shittney always in the eight so their “loyal” fans don’t evaporate - and the all-too-evident favouritism towards the Perth teams - and it’s not surprising that we always get a raw deal from the umps at the moment.
But hey, if this team is going to challenge for the flag over the next couple of years they need to ignore the free-kick count and just push through…jst like last night.
The 50 against Parish at least you could understand that the ump has been conned. The ball came out so its not that hard to see they assumed (wrongly) that Parish stripped it out. Incompetent decisions like that are frustrating but at least I can see how they happen. The non-calls of HTB are completely different. There really was no interpretations needed & no way to suggest they couldn’t see it or were somehow fooled by the players. There simply is no logical explanation other than temporary blindness or bias. We have very high inside 50 stats, the highest marks inside 50 & have the guys with the most inside 50 tackles YET we were way behind the second least inside 50 frees. Again the only explanations are that we are fundamentally doing something wrong in the way we play (coached incorrectly) or there is a bias.
The problem with the htb decisions is although they have an eternity to get rid of it, they manage to get a correct disposal away in the end. We get tackled and incorrectly dispose of it, thus we don’t know if we would get the same leeway in terms of time.
Doubtful freekick to demons right in front against mcgovern bullshit at end of 3 rd quarter
Won those … the game. Umpire called it from centre of ground
