No Oppo Supporters General AFL discussion and other club news

[Suntory Boss Coffee]

I think Geelong have a culture issue

 

[hardway]

I think Geelong have a culture issue

Nothing a cheap farm can’t fix!

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Always love Huddo's reaction in this one.

 

[Phil McCreviss]

Was watching a couple of post game press conferences recently and when there are questions about umpiring decisions, coaches often say "it's a tough job, they umpire the most difficult game in the world".

How the hell is it the most difficult game in the world to officiate? Sure there are nuances, like in every sport but the most difficult in the world is hilarious. Is this something the coaches have made up in their own mind to justify poor decisions?

 

[peetoo]

Was watching a couple of post game press conferences recently and when there are questions about umpiring decisions, coaches often say "it's a tough job, they umpire the most difficult game in the world".

How the hell is it the most difficult game in the world to officiate? Sure there are nuances, like in every sport but the most difficult in the world is hilarious. Is this something the coaches have made up in their own mind to justify poor decisions?

It’s a go to in order to avoid fines

 

[Phil McCreviss]

It’s a go to in order to avoid fines

The media does it as well though. It's like they truly believe it, as an industry. Strange.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Was watching a couple of post game press conferences recently and when there are questions about umpiring decisions, coaches often say "it's a tough job, they umpire the most difficult game in the world".

How the hell is it the most difficult game in the world to officiate? Sure there are nuances, like in every sport but the most difficult in the world is hilarious. Is this something the coaches have made up in their own mind to justify poor decisions?

There’s no other sport played on a 360° basis with the speed that Aussie Rules is played at with the sheer level of intricate rules. Yes, Rugby is more technical from a rules standpoint but it’s more linear. Soccer can be a bit more 360° but isn’t remotely as fast and has very basic rules by comparison. Not to mention there’s rule changes every season and interpretation changes dictated intra season constantly. I absolutely agree that it would be one of the hardest sports to umpire.

 

[NewkTheLot]

AFL have caved massively after their little whinge at their B&F.

The secret herbs and spices AFL says they work with, clearly show that its all just made up at this point, as the numbers make zero sense.

Still - if Saints only needed draft picks to rise up the ladder, they would have done so already. Draft hand aint their issue.

I mean, I think the fact that the whinger’s brother is an AFL commissioner probably meant that was always going to happen.

But it’s irrelevant anyway. Backing the next pick after whatever pick 8 ends up being to be a champion of the game while the Saints pick a spud

 

[Leather Poisoning]

One thing we know about Ross Lyon is (unless it's Nick Riewodlt) he knows how to choke every bit of creativity and brilliance out of a high draft pick.

Band one compo for the saints is just as likely or unlikely to be successful as second or third band compo.

The fact they've just lost their third best player is a big hit and they're angry from all the times they've shot themselves in the foot. They're celebrating because, despite their best efforts - they've actually obtained the best possible outcome from a great player leaving.

I'm almost include to give them a pity applause.

 

[Nathan Detroit]

There’s no other sport played on a 360° basis with the speed that Aussie Rules is played at with the sheer level of intricate rules. Yes, Rugby is more technical from a rules standpoint but it’s more linear. Soccer can be a bit more 360° but isn’t remotely as fast and has very basic rules by comparison. Not to mention there’s rule changes every season and interpretation changes dictated intra season constantly. I absolutely agree that it would be one of the hardest sports to umpire.

Pretty sure this will come off as picky, but hockey is a 360 game that is actually much faster. Your point still stands though as the playing surface is far smaller and the referees only have 12 players to monitor at a time.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Pretty sure this will come off as picky, but hockey is a 360 game that is actually much faster. Your point still stands though as the playing surface is far smaller and the referees only have 12 players to monitor at a time.

Not picky at all, I had considered ice hockey also but basically weighed up your arguments in my summation.

 

[Phil McCreviss]

There’s no other sport played on a 360° basis with the speed that Aussie Rules is played at with the sheer level of intricate rules. Yes, Rugby is more technical from a rules standpoint but it’s more linear. Soccer can be a bit more 360° but isn’t remotely as fast and has very basic rules by comparison. Not to mention there’s rule changes every season and interpretation changes dictated intra season constantly. I absolutely agree that it would be one of the hardest sports to umpire.

Definitely one of the hardest. But that's not what's being said. I hear often "the hardest sport in the world to officiate" which is a stretch and a little ignorant.
I'd say ice hockey as much more challenging to umpire. Try officiating a game where they skate at over 50kmh with alternating lines, 20 min periods with rare stoppages like AFL. Not to mention you have to be a world class skater just to get on the ice and avoid being hit. AFL umpiring is a walk in the park by comparison. I go to roughly 10-15 NHL games a year over here and its on a completely different level to any other sport imo. Edit Nathan Detroit beat me to it

 

[Ned Ryerson]

Definitely one of the hardest. But that's not what's being said. I hear often "the hardest sport in the world to officiate" which is a stretch and a little ignorant.
I'd say ice hockey as much more challenging to umpire. Try officiating a game where they skate at over 50kmh with alternating lines, 20 min periods with rare stoppages like AFL. Not to mention you have to be a world class skater just to get on the ice and avoid being hit. AFL umpiring is a walk in the park by comparison. I go to roughly 10-15 NHL games a year over here and its on a completely different level to any other sport imo. Edit Nathan Detroit beat me to it

No disagreements there - but I agree with what Mr Detroit said that Aussie Rules has a vastly larger expanse to monitor, even with 4 umpires, and up to 36 players on the field as opposed to generally 10 active skaters in Ice Hockey. Again the rules in Ice Hockey aren’t quite as interpretive also - it’s easy to explain to a novice offside rules or why a certain hit would be illegal compared to trying to explain all the factors in a HTB decision.

Its always open for debate - but for mine I don’t think it’s an ignorant comment to say our game is a bloody hard one to officiate. Its even harder when the umpires aren’t fully professional so have day jobs to attend to also. They also don’t have other officials assisting them - boundary umpires are fairly limited in their duties and don’t give constant feedback or act as a second set of eyes like a linesman or touch judge do in other sports.

None of this excuses absolute howlers that get made - but sometimes I get why umpires can’t see everything or get things wrong because with the frenetic nature of the sport it would be bloody difficult to make decisions in real time.

 

[Leather Poisoning]

Definitely one of the hardest. But that's not what's being said. I hear often "the hardest sport in the world to officiate" which is a stretch and a little ignorant.
I'd say ice hockey as much more challenging to umpire. Try officiating a game where they skate at over 50kmh with alternating lines, 20 min periods with rare stoppages like AFL. Not to mention you have to be a world class skater just to get on the ice and avoid being hit. AFL umpiring is a walk in the park by comparison. I go to roughly 10-15 NHL games a year over here and its on a completely different level to any other sport imo. Edit Nathan Detroit beat me to it

I know what you're getting at with this.

I reckon it is a really hard game to officiate - but saying it's the hardest game in the world to officiate is an exaggeration that's stuck and is carried along.

The thing that makes it hard to officiate is that we, the fans, the game, the history, demand that the rules be applied very differently depending on the area of the ground, the time of the game, the players involved, whether it's a final or a round game one etc. Every single decision made is wrong in some interpreation of this.

It's fine to hate officials in other sports but in AFL the fans have total disrespect for umpires. Puttng numbers on their back is a whole massive step in the wrong direction I reckon.

Think marking contests. If there's no defender there a forward will naturally run and jump at the ball and mark it as high as he can.
Add a defender and he will try and bump the defender and then fly for the ball.
However, nearly every single marking contest in a forward line the forward is completely impeded from running and jumping at the ball. And we've come to accept this as part of the game - which is fine - but it means there is SO MUCH interpretation in every decision.

Anyway - I'm sure other games are just as hard to officiate - but we are so far from black/white rulings that any attempt to introduce them gets a massive pushback

 

[Simon_Nesbit]

...

Anyway - I'm sure other games are just as hard to officiate - but we are so far from black/white rulings that any attempt to introduce them gets a massive pushback

I genuinely believe it IS the hardest sport in the world to umpire - it has umpires completing the same mental gymnastics as ....well artistic gymnastics.

The rules change every year, the interpretations almost every week! The commentators/media and fans backlash seems to have direct impact upon interpretations - certainly how recognisable a player is impacts on decision making (Superstar gets extra time, their OOB was a skill error; whilst unknown is HTB or DOOB); etc.

The umpires have to be inside the players head (deliberate OOB), be metronomic with judging distances at speed from different angles from as far as 50m away; determine whether it's a "push" or just holding their ground; if someone dived or was pushed; if someone ducked or just bending to change direction; etc; etc.

If the rules were written in black and white - IF this, THEN that - it would be a FAR simpler game to umpire.

 

[Brishawk]

Was watching a couple of post game press conferences recently and when there are questions about umpiring decisions, coaches often say "it's a tough job, they umpire the most difficult game in the world".

How the hell is it the most difficult game in the world to officiate? Sure there are nuances, like in every sport but the most difficult in the world is hilarious. Is this something the coaches have made up in their own mind to justify poor decisions?

The only people who would say that have never watched rugby union

 

[DogDaySonny]

I often think that ice hockey is the sport most similar philosophically to footy. Free flowing, full contact and wide open structurally by rule. Ice hockey seems to be having a hokball revolution on basically the same schedule and for the same reasons as footy. I was fascinated watching this video thinking that someone could put almost the same one together for our game and only the details would change.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

The only people who would say that have never watched rugby union

Just because there are more rules than there are in tax legislation doesn’t mean it’s hard to officiate. Rugby is a hell of a lot less free flowing, less frenetic and not nearly as quick as our game and gets played on a far smaller ground and isn’t played on a 360° basis. There’s also linesman patched into the referee who act as extra sets of eyes. As someone who grew up playing and watching both rugby codes - Aussie Rules has a hell of a lot more going on at any one time.

 

[Ned Ryerson]

I often think that ice hockey is the sport most similar philosophically to footy. Free flowing, full contact and wide open structurally by rule. Ice hockey seems to be having a hokball revolution on basically the same schedule and for the same reasons as footy. I was fascinated watching this video thinking that someone could put almost the same one together for our game and only the details would change.

Something they don’t share however is an offside rule. The lack of one makes Aussie Rules a much different beast versus most football codes and ice hockey also.

All that said - it would be interesting to see how hard the rules and interpretations are in sports like Hurling and Gaelic footy to see if they’d be harder to officiate.