Oppo Camp Opposition supporters say the strangest things

[PhatBoy]

I would be all for not allowing an umpire to be an ump for a side they go for. Even if they want to be perfectly fair sometimes the subconscious takes over.

Same with commentators they should never be allowed to commentate teams they played or went for.

The latter would create ridiculous scheduling headaches for broadcasters and the fact that it doesn’t impact the game itself means it’s never going to be officially policed.

I really don’t care too much if there’s an expert or special comments man that is biased towards his former side. As long as the main caller isn’t too over the top about it I couldn’t really care less

 

[Stab Pass]

The fewer free kicks they pay, the more players will push the rules and the more frees that will be missed. The ones that will be paid will look like they were plucked out of thin air. You want to fix the umpiring "problem" pay more frees.

 

[Partridge]

Do we have too many umpires???

Good question. Probably do. The problem is it's one of those articles of faith that has just been relentlessly drummed into the heads of supporters most won't ever question it. Like the "Melbourne can't support 11 teams" mantra.

 

[Cataholic]

Or the ‘look for a reason not to blow it rather than trying to find reasons to blow it’ approach

Footy is becoming known as that steadily shrinking time between the umpires whistles.

 

[PhatBoy]

Good question. Probably do. The problem is it's one of those articles of faith that has just been relentlessly drummed into the heads of supporters most won't ever question it. Like the "Melbourne can't support 11 teams" mantra.

The problem with 3 that they were trying to address in the first place as I understand it was ‘one and two might miss something that the third picks up.’

That’s fine but it means free kicks that aren’t there are more likely to be awarded as the third official might see things the first two don’t think are infringements.

And that’s fine if it’s there and the correct call.

Unfortunately if two of them incorrectly think that something deserves a whistle and the third one correctly thinks it doesn’t, he has no means of overruling them. So the mistakes when a call SHOULDNT be made but IS, increase, but the mistakes when a call should be made but isn’t, stay the same.

It’s hard to explain that in straightforward terms but essentially it’s too many cooks spoiling the otherwise un-whistled broth

 

[Cataholic]

The problem with 3 that they were trying to address in the first place as I understand it was ‘one and two might miss something that the third picks up.’

That’s fine but it means free kicks that aren’t there are more likely to be awarded as the third official might see things the first two don’t think are infringements.

And that’s fine if it’s there and the correct call.

Unfortunately if two of them incorrectly think that something deserves a whistle and the third one correctly thinks it doesn’t, he has no means of overruling them. So the mistakes when a call SHOULDNT be made but IS, increase, but the mistakes when a call should be made but isn’t, stay the same.

It’s hard to explain that in straightforward terms but essentially it’s too many cooks spoiling the otherwise un-whistled broth

Averaging 6 extra free kicks per game this year over 2021.

The excuse that 'it's a difficult game to umpire' is wearing a bit thin. It's a cop out.

Brad Scott has created this mess, and it's destroying the game from within.

 

[Selfield]

Port supporters are mentally challenged, probably due to all the asbestos roofing around the port.

Crows supporters are just as bad, there must be something in the water over in South Australia.

 

[Gunf]

Crows supporters are just as bad, there must be something in the water over in South Australia.

Hey i know a few Crows and Port supporters are ok people.... Wait they aren't from SA carry on

 

[Partridge]

Averaging 6 extra free kicks per game this year over 2021.

The excuse that 'it's a difficult game to umpire' is wearing a bit thin. It's a cop out.

Brad Scott has created this mess, and it's destroying the game from within.

For the first time, I see the absolutely ridiculous free kicks that are paid now - both in Geelong games and otherwise - and I am starting to think I don't enjoy this game anymore. It's really not worth the effort.

 

[Cataholic]

For the first time, I see the absolutely ridiculous free kicks that are paid now - both in Geelong games and otherwise - and I am starting to think I don't enjoy this game anymore. It's really not worth the effort.

They're losing touch with the soul and spirit of the game.....and the hearts of fans.

 

[PhatBoy]

For the first time, I see the absolutely ridiculous free kicks that are paid now - both in Geelong games and otherwise - and I am starting to think I don't enjoy this game anymore. It's really not worth the effort.

He cops it on the forum but Robbo is a good gauge of the general man on the street I think only he is more informed and knows and understands more about the game than he is given credit for.

He summed it up well on 360 when he said the physical courage of the players is one of the factors that attracts people to the game in the first place. The physicality of the game and the combativeness and battles of strength and resilience and so forth.

And that is at the root of the philosophical problem that umpiring faces.


I made an example earlier in this thread of an incident in our game on Saturday where port fans had a moan about a throw(?) or HTB decision against them just moments after Joel Selwood was collected on the head by the hip of an opponent. By the letter of the law it was an obvious free kick to Selwood but the umpire I think either missed it altogether or he gauged the spirit of the moment: both players were coming from different angles and were determined to get the ball, Selwood showed genuine courage to launch himself for the ball, his opponent braced late to collect him when he saw the collision coming.

To me that was really good umpiring because it assessed the meaning of the situation. It wasn’t a player standing stationary and with no momentum it was two guys going equally hard towards the ball

That sort of thing too frequently gets assessed on a technicality rather than on an interpretation

 

[Cataholic]

He cops it on the forum but Robbo is a good gauge of the general man on the street I think only he is more informed and knows and understands more about the game than he is given credit for.

He summed it up well on 360 when he said the physical courage of the players is one of the factors that attracts people to the game in the first place. The physicality of the game and the combativeness and battles of strength and resilience and so forth.

And that is at the root of the philosophical problem that umpiring faces.


I made an example earlier in this thread of an incident in our game on Saturday where port fans had a moan about a throw(?) or HTB decision against them just moments after Joel Selwood was collected on the head by the hip of an opponent. By the letter of the law it was an obvious free kick to Selwood but the umpire I think either missed it altogether or he gauged the spirit of the moment: both players were coming from different angles and were determined to get the ball, Selwood showed genuine courage to launch himself for the ball, his opponent braced late to collect him when he saw the collision coming.

To me that was really good umpiring because it assessed the meaning of the situation. It wasn’t a player standing stationary and with no momentum it was two guys going equally hard towards the ball

That sort of thing too frequently gets assessed on a technicality rather than on an interpretation

I'm not sure history will look too kindly on Brad Scott's tenure if he doesn't turn it around.

The umpiring fraternity is floundering, and people are becoming disenchanted.

 

[PhatBoy]

I'm not sure history will look too kindly on Brad Scott's tenure if he doesn't turn it around.

The umpiring fraternity is floundering, and people are becoming disenchanted.

At the moment I think he deserves criticism for the dissent garbage which is completely removing the humanity from the game in a major respect.

The state of umpiring itself I think can’t yet be directly linked to him. There needs to be more evidence that it isn’t just poor umpiring

 

[Partridge]

I'm not sure history will look too kindly on Brad Scott's tenure if he doesn't turn it around.

The umpiring fraternity is floundering, and people are becoming disenchanted.

Honestly I think it's too late already. The game has just been changed so much.

Watch literally any game, there are so many free kicks that are paid automatically, without question, that fans I think are now just numb to it. Any of the following scenarios are covered by this:

1. The "protected zone" garbage. 99% of the time, the player who is judged to infringe is nowhere near the player with the ball, isn't going to interfere, and isn't going to stop the player disposing of it. Doesn't matter, 50 metres each time now (and frequently a pretty soft goal as a result).
2. The deliberate out of bounds rule. Now it's a complete fiasco. The number of times players genuinely want the ball to go out of bounds is pretty low. Now it's more or less every time the ball is moved forward and isn't perfectly delivered. Players throw their arms up before it even goes out of play, and hordes of mindless fans yell for a free because they either think it's clever or are completely ******ed. Umpires pay this ten times more than they need to.
3. A new one - I saw it live on Saturday. Players now get tackled, actually dispose of the ball legally by hand, but because they've been spun at all in the tackle it apparently is too long and his holding the ball. Bull. Shit.
4. Last but not least, the ongoing war against key forward and key defenders to engage in any contact at all. Sure, when forwards are scragged they deserve protection, but mostly they aren't. On the flip side, players from all teams (and Hawkins is a major culprit) are now allowed to openly push players in the back, but that isn't a free kick.

They've simply destroyed whatever soul was left in footy. Fine. Just don't ask me for my money.

 

[Cataholic]

At the moment I think he deserves criticism for the dissent garbage which is completely removing the humanity from the game in a major respect.

The state of umpiring itself I think can’t yet be directly linked to him. There needs to be more evidence that it isn’t just poor umpiring

Agreed.

There's been a slow decline in the quality of umpiring for some time now, and the ridiculous meddling with the interpretation of the game's rules hasn't helped.

Scott has now made 'dissent' his hill, and as people become more disenchanted the opportunity to umpire will become less appealing.

 

[PhatBoy]

Honestly I think it's too late already. The game has just been changed so much.

Watch literally any game, there are so many free kicks that are paid automatically, without question, that fans I think are now just numb to it. Any of the following scenarios are covered by this:

1. The "protected zone" garbage. 99% of the time, the player who is judged to infringe is nowhere near the player with the ball, isn't going to interfere, and isn't going to stop the player disposing of it. Doesn't matter, 50 metres each time now (and frequently a pretty soft goal as a result).
2. The deliberate out of bounds rule. Now it's a complete fiasco. The number of times players genuinely want the ball to go out of bounds is pretty low. Now it's more or less every time the ball is moved forward and isn't perfectly delivered. Players throw their arms up before it even goes out of play, and hordes of mindless fans yell for a free because they either think it's clever or are completely ******ed. Umpires pay this ten times more than they need to.
3. A new one - I saw it live on Saturday. Players now get tackled, actually dispose of the ball legally by hand, but because they've been spun at all in the tackle it apparently is too long and his holding the ball. Bull. Shit.
4. Last but not least, the ongoing war against key forward and key defenders to engage in any contact at all. Sure, when forwards are scragged they deserve protection, but mostly they aren't. On the flip side, players from all teams (and Hawkins is a major culprit) are now allowed to openly push players in the back, but that isn't a free kick.

They've simply destroyed whatever soul was left in footy. Fine. Just don't ask me for my money.

The last one - and yes part of it is my pro-Tom bias but an equally big part of it is what I would term ‘footy common sense’ - I actually like that they are giving leeway now because too often in what to me is an era of quality mobile defenders but rubbish key defenders, defenders are allowed to basically do whatever they want under the guise of ‘eyes for the ball’ and they get an especially large amount of leeway when backing into their opponent and bodying them backwards from the contest. Hawkins does go beyond holding his ground sometimes and actually pushes them in the back towards where they came from but I don’t think that’s nearly as bad a problem as some of the HTB interpretations and other issues you mentioned

 

[Cataholic]

Honestly I think it's too late already. The game has just been changed so much.

Watch literally any game, there are so many free kicks that are paid automatically, without question, that fans I think are now just numb to it. Any of the following scenarios are covered by this:

1. The "protected zone" garbage. 99% of the time, the player who is judged to infringe is nowhere near the player with the ball, isn't going to interfere, and isn't going to stop the player disposing of it. Doesn't matter, 50 metres each time now (and frequently a pretty soft goal as a result).
2. The deliberate out of bounds rule. Now it's a complete fiasco. The number of times players genuinely want the ball to go out of bounds is pretty low. Now it's more or less every time the ball is moved forward and isn't perfectly delivered. Players throw their arms up before it even goes out of play, and hordes of mindless fans yell for a free because they either think it's clever or are completely ******ed. Umpires pay this ten times more than they need to.
3. A new one - I saw it live on Saturday. Players now get tackled, actually dispose of the ball legally by hand, but because they've been spun at all in the tackle it apparently is too long and his holding the ball. Bull. Shit.
4. Last but not least, the ongoing war against key forward and key defenders to engage in any contact at all. Sure, when forwards are scragged they deserve protection, but mostly they aren't. On the flip side, players from all teams (and Hawkins is a major culprit) are now allowed to openly push players in the back, but that isn't a free kick.

They've simply destroyed whatever soul was left in footy. Fine. Just don't ask me for my money.

Hard to disagree with any of that.

The deliberate OOB drives me nuts. The ump's have no feel for it.

And the dissent thing is now punishing normal human emotion, when it should be limited to those protests that are too demonstrative or aggressive.

Becoming a bit too precious.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Crows supporters are just as bad, there must be something in the water over in South Australia.

Hey! Some of us have brain cells AND live in SA thanks

 

[AWOL]

More media nuff than oppo supporter, but welcome Sam Landsberger…
As a footy “Jerno” you’d suspect he could do a smidge of research rather than write off Stewie’s sublime performance as chip scabbing.

 

[STPer18]

More media nuff than oppo supporter, but welcome Sam Landsberger…
As a footy “Jerno” you’d suspect he could do a smidge of research rather than write off Stewie’s sublime performance as chip scabbing.

I can state for a fact that it wasn't 13 because at least one kick-in was taking by Kolo. He booted it 20 rows back OOF.

 

[MacStradbroke]

Hard to disagree with any of that.

The deliberate OOB drives me nuts. The ump's have no feel for it.

And the dissent thing is now punishing normal human emotion, when it should be limited to those protests that are too demonstrative or aggressive.

Becoming a bit too precious.

i agree but it’s not deliberate out of bounce anymore even though that is what everyone in the crowd screams each time. Insufficient intent is completely different, but yeah they still get that wrong as well from where I sit.

 

[AWOL]

I can state for a fact that it wasn't 13 because at least one kick-in was taking by Kolo. He booted it 20 rows back OOF.

Absolutely it wasn’t 13. He’s lazily looked at Adelaide’s score line and assumed that Stewart took them all to have achieved 40 disposals.

 

[Ricky Vaughn]

Absolutely it wasn’t 13. He’s lazily looked at Adelaide’s score line and assumed that Stewart took them all to have achieved 40 disposals.

Super ****ing lazy considering you can actually look at how many kick ins he took on the AFL app.

The answer was 5 kick ins taken for 4 additional kicks.

 

[catempire]

It may not have been 13 but he gets a lot of fodder possession at half back. That’s fine; it’s his role as the 7th defender. But he shouldn’t be judged on possession count. His real value is intercept marking and that contest on the wing where he nearly killed that Adelaide player.

 

[allrighty]

Honestly I think it's too late already. The game has just been changed so much.

Watch literally any game, there are so many free kicks that are paid automatically, without question, that fans I think are now just numb to it. Any of the following scenarios are covered by this:

1. The "protected zone" garbage. 99% of the time, the player who is judged to infringe is nowhere near the player with the ball, isn't going to interfere, and isn't going to stop the player disposing of it. Doesn't matter, 50 metres each time now (and frequently a pretty soft goal as a result).
2. The deliberate out of bounds rule. Now it's a complete fiasco. The number of times players genuinely want the ball to go out of bounds is pretty low. Now it's more or less every time the ball is moved forward and isn't perfectly delivered. Players throw their arms up before it even goes out of play, and hordes of mindless fans yell for a free because they either think it's clever or are completely ******ed. Umpires pay this ten times more than they need to.
3. A new one - I saw it live on Saturday. Players now get tackled, actually dispose of the ball legally by hand, but because they've been spun at all in the tackle it apparently is too long and his holding the ball. Bull. Shit.
4. Last but not least, the ongoing war against key forward and key defenders to engage in any contact at all. Sure, when forwards are scragged they deserve protection, but mostly they aren't. On the flip side, players from all teams (and Hawkins is a major culprit) are now allowed to openly push players in the back, but that isn't a free kick.

They've simply destroyed whatever soul was left in footy. Fine. Just don't ask me for my money.

I don't even know what constitutes HTB or PITB anymore. I am bemused.

There were a few yesterday and I could not fathom how they were or were not free kicks. Clearly being called on a very technical perspective, but I have NFI what that is.