There’s being shithouse and then there’s cheating.
Panell is an expert at timing his run of gifts to the opposition at the optimum moment to kill off any momentum and ruin any chance of us breaking the game open.
He has a track record.
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Sorry - but my bias against Panell prevents me from being able to come into a thread about him and post fairly!
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The difference is that we aren’t complaining 5 minutes after the game when emotions are high.
We are calling him out pre game, which we have done in the past. And he NEVER fails to disappoint us in terms of some ludicrous decisions against us.
I have no doubt we won’t get a good run with the umps on Saturday, and there is only one reason why.
THIS
I’ve been watching football since the late 70’s. I can name ONE umpire that I can honestly say I’d admired and consider a quality umpire. Glenn James. I think he finished his career somewhere in the 80’s…but I still remember him.
Was it because he a good umpire. I’m sure he was, but I honestly wouldn’t know as I was a kid and the nuances of umpiring wasn’t something I couldn’t even digest. Was it because he was the first aboriginal umpire? Unlikely, the 70’s and 80’s was as racist as any time and as a kid, I wouldn’t have been able to identify with his struggles then. What I am sure of was though, it likely comes from being the one and only central umpire of the 1984 GF. A honour for any umpire to be selected as the finest umpire of the game to bounce the ball of that seasons Grand final. I feel we lost that when we added a second field umpire.
These days we know know umpires names simply because of hate. We see them as a team of umpires. A team we hate, like you would Hawthorn or Carlton. It’s easier to shout abuse at a group rather than an individual, and it’s easier to single out an umpire from a group. The numbers on their backs makes it easier to pinpoint the hate also. There is little to no respect any more, and it’s the AFL’s fault. They used a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Based on the AFL’s logic, would a fourth central umpire make the game better than with three? How about 5 or 6? Would it be better umpired? Less mistakes? This argument was made by opponents when inducing the 2nd umpire, and third. We all know the answer to this.
ONE central umpire with rare help from 4 boundary umpires would have answered the above question to the affirmative in my opinion. The current structure we have now is rubbish.
But wtf would I know…To the AFL I’m just a fan consumer.
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Troy Pannell is a cucking funt
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Or a Fun-ting cuck.
(^^could be an actual thing, if you made a weak, effeminate, or inadequate man. out of A Chinese porcelain having a white paste, resembling in appearance soft paste but in reality hard. )
Maybe not such a bad description for Pannell really … 
Ian Robinson was good also.
That makes two in forty years.
The thing is, not making a decision is still a decision. How many time do you see an umpire bring the whistle to his mouth. Then chooses not to blow it. That’s a choice.
I like matches to flow. I prided myself on not getting involved in the game unless I had to. This was hard sometimes when the other umpire wants to blow his whistle at every scrimmage. So you need to make a decision to umpire your own way, or be consistent with your mate. You need to go the second option unfortunately.
I haven’t umpired for about 5 years. But early days we were always instructed that holding the ball should be the last decision that you pay.
There was a routine in order:
1: was the tackle to high? No. Then move to question 2.
2: was the tackle in the back? No. Then move on to question 3.
3: was there prior opportunity (ie. legitimate chance of hand balling or kicking it)
no. Play on or ball up… or yes. Holding the ball.
Prior opportunity is red hot now compared to what was happening when I first started. You could run 4 meters with the ball, get tackled and it was play on. Now the umpires are instructed that holding the ball is the first decision you should be looking for.
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I would like to say I love all umpires.
While the sentiment stands, the 2 field umpire system started in 76…!
Great post TeeBee.
I remember Glenn James vividly.
One thing that stood out about him was the rapport and respect that he seemed to have from all the players of that era.
You very rarely ever saw a player arguing with him and quite often have a bit of a laugh with them out on the ground.
In the WAFL during the same era we had guys like Mike Ball and Peter Capes who were the premier umpires of the day that shared the same type of respect that both umpires James and Ian Robinson had in the VFL.
I believe that these guys knew how to manage the players through them always being cool, calm and collected during matches without trying to elevate their importance above those of the players or the game itself.
You very rarely saw them impose themselves negatively on a game much like these glory seekers that umpire the game today.
There seems to be too many guys with over inflated egos and a sense of self importance running around with whistles in their hands today.
These days almost every player in the comp has a crack at the ump and argue the point each time a free kick is paid, so much so that you often see them pointing to the big screen at the ground urging the ump to have a look and try to justify their decision of which the umpire always refuses to do so, just in case they do realise that they’ve farked up.
The lack of respect that the players show towards the umps should ring alarm bells for the AFL, but as we often see they just don’t give a stuff or don’t want to deal with any problems as it’s in the too hard basket for them to try and handle.
They then put all the responsibility onto the players and club officials to behave themselves regarding the umpires or they will cop large fines or more severe punishments if they don’t comply.
All this has done is create a culture of resentment and distrust within clubs and fans alike of the umpiring fraternity and the game’s Rules Committee, all because the adminstrators of the game are way too pissweak to make hard decisions and hide behind their protection of anything to do with the umpires.
All the while where we now have this situation of where certain clubs supporters are filled with dread whenever particular umpires are named to offiate their games.
This is what you get when you have a bunch of gutless, greedy corporate types running a multi-billion dollar sporting competition for their own personal gain and not of in the interests of the people that are the grassroots of the game itself.
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He’s incompetent enough not to know how to be biased against any single team.
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Who the fark is maggot no. 22 !
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Yeah 22 is incredibly poor. Both ways.
Man are we getting humped out of it tonight.
He can’t have been serious with the joe decision
How bout McGovern flying for the specky and not getting at touch on it?
That is a free kick every day of the week
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Leigh Fisher is incompetent.
Troy Parnell is divisive and manipulative of the result. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
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Parnell is a ■■■■■■■ disgrace. Woosha and the club need to call these green farking maggots out for what it is. It’s clearly biased to the other side every time these two pieces of ■■■■ take the field as umpires. They’re a disgrace.
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