08-12-2019, 11:35 AM
Not for the first time one of our players has suffered a serious throat injury during a game and has not even won a free for his efforts. This time it is Liam Jones, who totally obliterated a Big Head called Riewoldt.
Why is us? How is it happening? Somebody is not looking closely enough at the game. (No need to guess who.) And those whose job it is to police the game at the administrative level are not doing their job.
At the moment too many people at the top end are ignoring the basics to push their own agendas (growth in Qld and NSW) and making politically correct statements. Both of those goals are fine in their own right, but the AFL is simply ignoring other problems:
(a) The standard of umpiring.
(b) The state of the game at grass roots level in the core states.
© The inequities in programming and recruiting.
(d) The treatment of players on the field and the justice of the bodies who determine what is accepted and what is not.
There are plenty more things, but that will do for now.
[1] The Standard of Umpiring and the use of the technology to help them.
Yesterday’s game is very much a case in question. The umpiring is not good. Nor are the AFL willing to address the problem. They will not accept any criticism of the Umpires, which is simply hiding from the issues.
Examples:
(a) In the last few minutes we (mis)kicked the ball into our forward 50 to a contest where we were outnumbered. Richmond win the ball and start to run it out of defence. Harry McKay chases (about the only time he did it all day). He gets reasonably close to his target and is running though our attacking goal square, where, instead of being shepherded legally, he is jumped on and tackled to the ground. The Umpires ignore it. Richmond run the ball down the ground and kick a goal.
Result: 2 goal turn-around with only a few minutes left.
I find it almost incomprehensible that the umpires could not see this and should have paid a free about 3 metres from goal directly in front.
(b) In the last seconds of the game the ball gets kicked to the Richmond forward line. The siren goes noticeably and measurably before the mark is attempted. The mark is paid, and a goal is kicked.
When questioned by Daisy Thomas the umpire not only confirms his error but states that no potential review is possible, even though the game has finished.
That does not appear to be reasonable.
The law states that the game finishes when the umpire calls time: fair enough. However, that is not the way that the game has been interpreted, and not just this season. In games involving us (Hawthorn is Tasmania, for example) and those not, the umpires have consistently considered the game finished when the siren went, not when they have put their hands in the air.
Nor is this a new issue. North Melbourne defeated Collingwood some time after the siren in a Night GF many years ago. Supposedly things were changed to make a repeat impossible. That does not appear to be the case.
I well understand just how difficult our game is to officiate: I have tried myself more than once. However, even with 3 umpires, many frees are not seen, others are decided by the umpire making a guess and others are systematically ignored. The kicking in danger rule could have been paid many times in recent times and is not. The Goodes rule is now usually ignored. The push in the back rule rarely gets paid, and the few times where it is, it appears to be extremely soft. Some very clear tow handed pushes are ignored, and not just in marking contests. Many years ago, Adrian Bassett tackled a Sydney player very late in the game. It was paid a free for in the back. At the time I didn’t like it, but I thought it was a reasonable decision. The same tackles happen now each week and are systematically ignored. There were at least 4 cases I could remember, 2 our way and 2 Richmond’s. None got paid.
Demonizing fans who call out towards umpires is not helping the umpires. Instead it is giving them a false sense of security that they can make blatant errors and get away with them, instead of learning to fix them.
With the technology available now, decisions can be accurately determined. In the Cricket the third umpire usually uses the technology to overturn wrong decisions. An umpire off the field could easily inform an umpire of an incorrect decision that could be remedied.
At this point, an umpire cannot change his decision, even if he has realized that he made a mistake. He can only review certain things under very limited circumstances. That is a mistake.
There are a number of potential theories going around for ways of improving the umpiring, some impractical, others not. However, the AFL does not face the issue.
This is an error that does not just change the result of games (and could well determine the result of a GF), but it adds enormous stress to an Umpire. After all, Umpires are humans and will be informed about their decisions in many formats, not just the irritation of the fans on the day.
Nor is the AFL apparently willing to address the obvious fallacies: for example, the day Collingwood got 24 frees and we got 8. Any reasonably disinterested party could judge that we were harshly done by. Yet, there is not way to seek redress. It cannot even be reported if the umpires involved were penalized if they have been making errors.
Recently a ‘group of experts’ determine that 21% of all frees paid are incorrect. I may be leery of ‘panels of experts’, but this sort of number cannot be ignored. And yet it is.
Why is us? How is it happening? Somebody is not looking closely enough at the game. (No need to guess who.) And those whose job it is to police the game at the administrative level are not doing their job.
At the moment too many people at the top end are ignoring the basics to push their own agendas (growth in Qld and NSW) and making politically correct statements. Both of those goals are fine in their own right, but the AFL is simply ignoring other problems:
(a) The standard of umpiring.
(b) The state of the game at grass roots level in the core states.
© The inequities in programming and recruiting.
(d) The treatment of players on the field and the justice of the bodies who determine what is accepted and what is not.
There are plenty more things, but that will do for now.
[1] The Standard of Umpiring and the use of the technology to help them.
Yesterday’s game is very much a case in question. The umpiring is not good. Nor are the AFL willing to address the problem. They will not accept any criticism of the Umpires, which is simply hiding from the issues.
Examples:
(a) In the last few minutes we (mis)kicked the ball into our forward 50 to a contest where we were outnumbered. Richmond win the ball and start to run it out of defence. Harry McKay chases (about the only time he did it all day). He gets reasonably close to his target and is running though our attacking goal square, where, instead of being shepherded legally, he is jumped on and tackled to the ground. The Umpires ignore it. Richmond run the ball down the ground and kick a goal.
Result: 2 goal turn-around with only a few minutes left.
I find it almost incomprehensible that the umpires could not see this and should have paid a free about 3 metres from goal directly in front.
(b) In the last seconds of the game the ball gets kicked to the Richmond forward line. The siren goes noticeably and measurably before the mark is attempted. The mark is paid, and a goal is kicked.
When questioned by Daisy Thomas the umpire not only confirms his error but states that no potential review is possible, even though the game has finished.
That does not appear to be reasonable.
The law states that the game finishes when the umpire calls time: fair enough. However, that is not the way that the game has been interpreted, and not just this season. In games involving us (Hawthorn is Tasmania, for example) and those not, the umpires have consistently considered the game finished when the siren went, not when they have put their hands in the air.
Nor is this a new issue. North Melbourne defeated Collingwood some time after the siren in a Night GF many years ago. Supposedly things were changed to make a repeat impossible. That does not appear to be the case.
I well understand just how difficult our game is to officiate: I have tried myself more than once. However, even with 3 umpires, many frees are not seen, others are decided by the umpire making a guess and others are systematically ignored. The kicking in danger rule could have been paid many times in recent times and is not. The Goodes rule is now usually ignored. The push in the back rule rarely gets paid, and the few times where it is, it appears to be extremely soft. Some very clear tow handed pushes are ignored, and not just in marking contests. Many years ago, Adrian Bassett tackled a Sydney player very late in the game. It was paid a free for in the back. At the time I didn’t like it, but I thought it was a reasonable decision. The same tackles happen now each week and are systematically ignored. There were at least 4 cases I could remember, 2 our way and 2 Richmond’s. None got paid.
Demonizing fans who call out towards umpires is not helping the umpires. Instead it is giving them a false sense of security that they can make blatant errors and get away with them, instead of learning to fix them.
With the technology available now, decisions can be accurately determined. In the Cricket the third umpire usually uses the technology to overturn wrong decisions. An umpire off the field could easily inform an umpire of an incorrect decision that could be remedied.
At this point, an umpire cannot change his decision, even if he has realized that he made a mistake. He can only review certain things under very limited circumstances. That is a mistake.
There are a number of potential theories going around for ways of improving the umpiring, some impractical, others not. However, the AFL does not face the issue.
This is an error that does not just change the result of games (and could well determine the result of a GF), but it adds enormous stress to an Umpire. After all, Umpires are humans and will be informed about their decisions in many formats, not just the irritation of the fans on the day.
Nor is the AFL apparently willing to address the obvious fallacies: for example, the day Collingwood got 24 frees and we got 8. Any reasonably disinterested party could judge that we were harshly done by. Yet, there is not way to seek redress. It cannot even be reported if the umpires involved were penalized if they have been making errors.
Recently a ‘group of experts’ determine that 21% of all frees paid are incorrect. I may be leery of ‘panels of experts’, but this sort of number cannot be ignored. And yet it is.
Live Long and Prosper!