Autopsy Autopsy vs Collingwood aka the Great Pain Robbery

[Forever North]

Just like Andrews got the Kings birthday gong to basically re-write history and deflect away from his incompetence these useless and incompetent umpires today will get the tick off from AFL HQ tomorrow and probably be rewarded with a grand final gig. The AFL is all about protecting it's brand and will no doubt spin and cover up today's utter shintess. It's a filthy, corrupt, money hungry pig of an organisation. It just plays us fans for fools. Screw this 'it's a hard game to umpire' narrative that gets spewed at us by their media lackeys.

 

[north_lad]

Good write up. As someone who claims to watch a lot of footy and clearly pays attention to the umpiring, do you have an opinion on what you see in Richmond games? I cannot claim to watch many Nth games sorry, but whenever i watch other teams games, especially Geelong, Carlton, Collingwood, Sydney - i can't believe i am watching the same sport. The difference in the style of umpiring is beyond ridiculous.

In 2021-22 the amount of 50's Richmond gave away was insane . The AFL actually dont track 50's so i cant get an official number, but we had 8 in a match against carlton, all of them for onfield "admin" errors like moving off the mark, vaguely touching the player after the mark etc. none of them were for unsportsman behaviour etc. We had a minimum of 3 each week, but more than a few times over 5.

My mate who is a Crows supporter feels like they get a pretty horrendous run of calls & feels its all a bit rigged as well. But its nothing compared to literally every Richmond supporter i know. Its just common knowledge between us that the AFL said "no fun for you" after the club behaved poorly during the COVID hub. I agree, the club did act in an unacceptable way at a time when people were losing their jobs - but you can't punish a fanbase for 4 YEARS over it . Even this year we have seen it and we are legit terrible, we don't need the umpiring to be losing games

You say to have 10 less free's in a game is impossible to overcome - Richmond averages over 5.5 less PER GAMES. That's an AVERAGE. Compare that to the Suns who average +4.2 - it means the difference between Richmond & Gold Coast on AVERAGE is 10 per game.

And to make this even more confusing. The guy who coached the style that was responsible for our unfortunate umpiring differential..... is now the guy umpiring the team with the TOP umpiring differential, playing a very very similar game style. Richmond has maintained slightly below this same average ( -4 pg) EVERY YEAR since 2020 & had 3 coaches in that time. Irrelevant of the game style we play based on each coach, the FK-Diff maintains or get worse.

Seeing things like today makes it all feel like they have lost track of the need to keep up perception while doing all this bullshit. Its like after they overtunred that goal at the Gabba in 2021, they have just gotten more and more openly brazen to basically just do whatever is required to get result they think is best for the league. Be it to benefit a season narrative, ensure a team learns a lessor to never fk with the AFL and its money again, or, to ensure spreads and gambling results to please major sponsors - its becoming quite clear they have zero ****s in even hiding what they are doing. Black mirror stuff

I was watching Richmond the other week, I forget who against, but you were getting absolutely dudded. Perhaps it was confirmation bias at work, but my immediate reaction was that it was bizarre.

 

[archereleven]

Who goes out for Logue?

Pink.

Gus to chb, Chom to chf

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[Horace]

Good write up. As someone who claims to watch a lot of footy and clearly pays attention to the umpiring, do you have an opinion on what you see in Richmond games? I cannot claim to watch many Nth games sorry, but whenever i watch other teams games, especially Geelong, Carlton, Collingwood, Sydney - i can't believe i am watching the same sport. The difference in the style of umpiring is beyond ridiculous.

In 2021-22 the amount of 50's Richmond gave away was insane . The AFL actually dont track 50's so i cant get an official number, but we had 8 in a match against carlton, all of them for onfield "admin" errors like moving off the mark, vaguely touching the player after the mark etc. none of them were for unsportsman behaviour etc. We had a minimum of 3 each week, but more than a few times over 5.

My mate who is a Crows supporter feels like they get a pretty horrendous run of calls & feels its all a bit rigged as well. But its nothing compared to literally every Richmond supporter i know. Its just common knowledge between us that the AFL said "no fun for you" after the club behaved poorly during the COVID hub. I agree, the club did act in an unacceptable way at a time when people were losing their jobs - but you can't punish a fanbase for 4 YEARS over it . Even this year we have seen it and we are legit terrible, we don't need the umpiring to be losing games

You say to have 10 less free's in a game is impossible to overcome - Richmond averages over 5.5 less PER GAMES. That's an AVERAGE. Compare that to the Suns who average +4.2 - it means the difference between Richmond & Gold Coast on AVERAGE is 10 per game.

And to make this even more confusing. The guy who coached the style that was responsible for our unfortunate umpiring differential..... is now the guy umpiring the team with the TOP umpiring differential, playing a very very similar game style. Richmond has maintained slightly below this same average ( -4 pg) EVERY YEAR since 2020 & had 3 coaches in that time. Irrelevant of the game style we play based on each coach, the FK-Diff maintains or get worse.

Seeing things like today makes it all feel like they have lost track of the need to keep up perception while doing all this bullshit. Its like after they overtunred that goal at the Gabba in 2021, they have just gotten more and more openly brazen to basically just do whatever is required to get result they think is best for the league. Be it to benefit a season narrative, ensure a team learns a lessor to never fk with the AFL and its money again, or, to ensure spreads and gambling results to please major sponsors - its becoming quite clear they have zero ****s in even hiding what they are doing. Black mirror stuff

Absolutely. The Tigers are clearly on the wrong end of the pineapple, when it come to free kick differentials. Pretty sure that was reported recently.

The bloke who cuts my (now meagre amounts of) hair is a a fanatical Tiger supporter and we discussed this at length a couple of weeks ago.

Like us your mob does not need this sort of treatment from the umpires.

 

[hilly]

I'd like to see us send Clarko down to the bench to coach against Melbourne. And if one of the 69 ex NM staff who work for the AFL have a problem with it they can GAGF.

 

[Uncle_Leo]

Just like Andrews got the Kings birthday gong to basically re-write history and deflect away from his incompetence these useless and incompetent umpires today will get the tick off from AFL HQ tomorrow and probably be rewarded with a grand final gig. The AFL is all about protecting it's brand and will no doubt spin and cover up today's utter shintess. It's a filthy, corrupt, money hungry pig of an organisation. It just plays us fans for fools. Screw this 'it's a hard game to umpire' narrative that gets spewed at us by their media lackeys.

 

[Lavy_Panther]

I don’t want to overreact, but Zac Fischer played probably the most pathetic game I’ve ever seen from someone wearing the North Melbourne jumper.

 

[Zondor]

And just to add to that, imagine if we had have had some of those howlers paid to us, not to mention an extra 10 frees instead of them. How much would we have won by?

Think about that instead of just making some knee jerk negative response.

54 points up Old Man! :stern look

 

[Briedis]

AFL is doing the tanking for us to get pick 1 and made sure the umps did their part?

 

[Uncle_Leo]

I don’t want to overreact, but Zac Fischer played probably the most pathetic game I’ve ever seen from someone wearing the North Melbourne jumper.

 

[Briedis]

We need pick 1 more than anything else, and we need to make pick 1 a real winner. Stuffed up with JHF (who is going to be a superstar that is better than any youngster we have), and we've missed out on Reid who again is probably going to be a superstar that is better than anyone we have.

Sheezel or Wardlaw > Reid

 

[TheKanga]

Loss would be a tad easier to stomach if even 20% of pies fans could admit they got out of gaol (for most of them probably the second time that's happened) today, and got absolutely dick ridden by the umps for a half.

But it's all "**** this teams so good" "54 pts, no problem!", "This team never gives up".

Completely blind to what every neutral could see.

You couldn't pay me to read the drivel on their board

Delusional

 

[archereleven]

It is a directive.

Have had this 100% confirmed.

It's been a directive since Sam Newman was given the arse off MMM for being too negative, calling out all their **** ups...

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[TheKanga]

This is a loss that will hurt for years to come.
What should have been party time and a highlights reel played ad naesuem.

The combo of such a large lead whittled away and the horrible corrupt umpiring hurts like hell.

 

[Horace]

54 points up Old Man! :stern look

Go On.

Oh and we do all grow old. Not that that has anything to do with this topic.

 

[Zondor]

Go On.

Oh and we do all grow old. Not that that has anything to do with this topic.

I’ve been 69 years old for 69 years so I hear ye yah. :stern look

 

[Marksup]

We had a soft draw for the first half of 2016, so our top of the table ladder position flattered us.
Once we came up against the better teams in the second half of the year, we got found out and fell away badly. I think we only won 1 game in the back half of the season. Then got flogged by 10 goals in a final in Adelaide, been nowhere near finals since.

People forget we had a horror injury run. We were all over the Cats on a Saturday night at Etihad and ended up losing 3-4 players and they beat us. Those injuries kept compounding and we never recovered from it.

I actually think the best we ever looked was 2013, but we had a glaring incompetency that year when it came to holding onto leads. Finished 10th but could have easily been top 4.

 

[Rod Stroker]

People forget we had a horror injury run. We were all over the Cats on a Saturday night at Etihad and ended up losing 3-4 players and they beat us. Those injuries kept compounding and we never recovered from it.

I actually think the best we ever looked was 2013, but we had a glaring incompetency that year when it came to holding onto leads. Finished 10th but could have easily been top 4.

Nah I reckon 2015 was our best squad during that era. Waite, Higgins and Dal were great additions for us, and save for some horrendous umpiring in the Perth PF, we would have been playing off in the GF

 

[Skarrz]

3 weeks ago we had this chalked up as a 100+ point loss

We have a successful brand of footy that looks beyond elite, we just need time and fitness and a few spuds cleared off.

Add in Mckercher Duursma Payne Goater Smilie/whoever to that team today in 2-3 years we will be undefeated

Fwiw the umpires aren’t cheats they are just incompetent cause they refuse to make them full time and have 4 of them making worse calls than when 3 were there.

Onwards and up boys, chins up. Stay the course.

 

[Roosurgence]

You know what’s worse than the non paid 50, was that dog shit effort on goal by Tucker.

He had the time to size them up even on his left and missed everything.

The one time I wish Zurhaar went the hungry way and took it on himself.

 

[Kangapirate]

We've gone over the umpiring. Im still a bit dissapointed to see a 54 point lead vanish like that, scores were basically level with 10 minutes to go. It was very rare to see leads like that vanish that quickly in the 80s and 90s when it was essentially open 1 on 1 footy. I just hope this doesnt leave our younger guys with mental scars, its painful to have that effort not rewarded with 4 points.

 

[Tas]

I was disappointed we didn't hang on, makes it hard to make the finals from here... :stern look

Hehe, there were a ton of positives to come out of the game. Wardlaw was amazing, particularly in the first half, they got a lot of their goals when he was off the ground. His mission is to now build his tank up over the pre-season, only had 74% ToG but had 30 disposals, 6 clearances, 6 inside 50s for 1 goal and 3 assists. He just ran out of gas in the last quarter.

I liked Phillips' game against Daicos, I think subbing him off for Stephenson was a really dumb decision. I think going forward having roles for Will like this will make him a significant asset, because he has the capability of getting the ball and kicking goals... he just isn't in the same league as LDU or Wardlaw in a primary ball getting role. This kind of role adds the point of difference which has the potential to turn him into a great player.

I just felt it was really dumb to sub him out, when we had no Simpkin, no Greenwood and we ended up having too many guys like Curtis and Stephenson around the ball and when momentum was against us, they aren't exactly our defensive tackling machines. When our pressure around the ground waned, it gave them too much time and space to move the ball around and hit targets.

I thought Curtis was okay, good in parts but was really quiet when we needed others to step up when LDU had the hard tag and Wardlaw was fatigued. Similar with Powell, and I was really upset he picked the ball up and gave away a 50m penalty. Just dumb errors by him, Corr, Fisher, etc just gave away cheap goals and gave them momentum and a belief they could reel in the lead, which they did. We just needed to not shoot ourselves in the foot, and sadly our experienced players were at the forefront of the foot shooting which has been ultimately the reason we are as bad as we have been for so long.

McDonald also just untidy with his disposal, barely got any of the ball, wasn't getting contested ball but just wasn't hitting targets. Corr is kind of useless, I think Dawson and Comben are our best two key defenders, I'd rather see Corr out for Logue when he is ready to resume because he is shithouse even on third string forwards. Fisher is also as useless as teats on a bull.

Xerri was fantastic and liked the look of Teakle.

I am optimistic about our backline if it looks something like Logue, Dawson, Comben, Goater, Bergman and Hardeman/Archer. There is a lot more optimism than there was at the start of the year, largely because Comben and Dawson have stepped up and Goater was really good before getting hurt.

I think when McKercher comes back from injury, we should immediately put him into the midfield role, let him start on the bench and when a core midfielder needs time on the bench he comes in, so he can experience a bit of LDU's role, Wardlaw's role, Powell's role. It would benefit him to get a taste for it and have some things to work on over the pre-season.

It is this level of pressure and tackling which should be the benchmark going forward, the last two games have been good and should have been the benchmark coming into the season rather than having to lose 11 in a row before we realise perhaps our defensive pressure is dogshit.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

This is a loss that will hurt for years to come.
What should have been party time and a highlights reel played ad naesuem.

The combo of such a large lead whittled away and the horrible corrupt umpiring hurts like hell.

How long it hurts depends what happens next. North learns and builds from here and it’s a quirky footnote to history. No reason that won’t happen.

 

[Hearts to hearts]

The 50m penalty from Powell was after Fisher tried to dance around instead of kicking it and he got caught.

He had a bad day today. Most of the older guys have been playing better lately but most of them weren't very good in the 2nd half today.

They are as or more unreliable than our young players. That is the problem. Other young sides don't lose 50 point leads because they have reliable experienced players to steady the ship.

When the going gets tough our experienced players get rattled and look at the 19 year olds and ask for help.

(excluding Simpkin)

All our players fell away in the second half compared to the first. Yes the older players should be fitter and stronger and more reliable, but they weren’t the reason for the loss. I think they were more obvious because they had to do more as the game went on.

The first half still happened. After so many games watching that dip and opposition run on after the team has struggled to break even, resulting in big losses, this is still a huge step forward that should give them great belief.

 

[Ball Dont Lie]

Why didn’t we make any in game changes in the last quarter to stem the tide? Send pink or Brinn back to clog up the defence? Put Zurhar in the middle. Dropping the tag wasn’t the only questionable decision. Sure the players are to blame but as a coaching unit it’s disappointing they couldn’t set up ro defend a 5 goal lead. Everyone knew they would come. We learnt nothing from the week before.