Pannell is obviously working under instruction because no one can be that ā ā ā ā at tgeitr job and still have it.
And donāt give me this ā ā ā ā āumpiring is hardā. You know what else is hard? Playing football yet we demand our players to hit every single target so surely these ā ā ā ā ā can get a decision right
Me and a couple of mates had a crack at him as he was walking off, questioning if he should be paid for today. He smirked at us. I also offered Tomahawk some advice in the last qtr, that he needs to get his free kicks closer to goal. The Geelong supporters were not appreciative. And my final moment of the day, when Stringer kicked the banana, we yelled out āthe Packageā and he smiled at us.
I canāt imagine he is that bad for Non-Essendon matches.
Letās be honest, itās beyond a coincidence that he f*cks over Essendon time & time again.
Clearly he doesnāt have the balls to let the AFL know that he canāt be proffesional to enough to call EFC matches down the line.
I donāt care if we get the rub or not, 71 frees is way WAY WAY to over umpired. Itās akin to a free every 2 minutes of game play. Iād rather miss a heap and let the game go then pay every single half decision every minute of the game.
Perhaps the AFLās 10 dumb ideas of the week this week could include a hard cap on free kicks? Like once you hit 60 maybe thereās no more for the game.
Finals footy is most likely better umpired because theyāre too frightened to make a frivolous decision in the event that a) it directly impacts a teamās season and b) probably more important for them, they donāt get a gig for the rest of the finals. Open slather during the season however.
I saw a lot of Geelong players playing for head high contact, ( mostly Selwood of course but that is to be expected, he is the Brownlow Ducking Medalist most years ) Its not bending over to get the ground ball, OK, , but bending over/sagging when about to be tackled. The umpires paid it everytime. I understood that was play on. Was I seeing things ? Does it account for the massive free kick differential? At least in part. IMO