Umpiring rants ~ receive our scorn

[dillo_09]

Great article today by Rohan Connolly in the Age

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/umpires-steal-show-with-inept-handling/2007/07/07/1183351523898.html

I like the latter parts where he states -

"By this stage, the three-quarter-time free kick count having been 23-12 St Kilda's way, a mass storming of the umpires' rooms by the Collingwood army looked a distinct possibility."

and then goes on to say

"But ultimately, this wasn't just about one team or the other being monstered by the umpires and their stringently enforced and inflexible interpretations. It was about a whole game that should have been remembered as a terrific contest being overshadowed by the three blokes who should be helping run the show, not stealing it."

[fan4collingwood]

I found it deeply offensive the amount of times those men in white got it out of there pockets yesterday, double whisltes all overthe place, whisltes at teh wrong time, an absolute disgraceful display.


An idea for a protest, everyone going to next weeks game bring along a whistle, and when the umpires come out on the ground blow them hard, all over the ground to show them we want the game to flow, not to listen to unnessessary whistles or have those things in white as the star attraction. We go to the game to watch a game of football, not them.

Its when you don't notice the umpires at all, on way or the other, that I deem they have done a great job!

[Presti35]

Last week Howe was robbed of a MOTY contender. This week Elliot is robbed of a goal after one of the worst frees I've ever seen.

And not that I want this one taken off us, but Mihocek takes a mark thats paid and the ump says "he had enough of it". But he has less of it than Howe last week. And Howe was about 2 metres higher.

Get your act together you damn chimps.

[piedys]

I can see that goaled we were robbed of will cost us by the end of the final term.

[T2]

And then the "Out on the Full" call off Sidey's thigh!

[Presti35]

Ended up being 9 frees to 25 in our favour. I cant believe it.

[Pies4shaw]

^ Especially given the 43 they missed that they should have given us.

[Geek]

Yeah we lost a goal to that ordinary call in the first and Sidey wasn't HTB at half time either. That's continuously called "knocked free". That's 2 goals right there.

Sidey had 2 throws near goal later not paid and one of them was an absolute howler on the umpire's part. Then again, how many times do they let the throw go? Either way.. wrong calls on all counts and they cost goals. 2 each way.

There was an HTB on Prestia that was pretty hot I thought and a couple of others where I thought they forgot they were umpiring us. They were the kinds of calls you tend to see in other games and not usually paid our way. We seemed to get called advantage on pretty much all the 50/50s. Elliott got a font on contact free when he'd held the mark anyway.

Nup. We were definitely on the better end of the umpiring tonight. Not 7 goals worth by any stretch but it was a refreshing change nonetheless. Looking forward to the replay and judging it all emotion-free.

It's worth noting that we won the disposal count 467 to 303 AND the tackle count 60 to 33. Those are just stupid numbers. Richmond pushed us pretty hard there in parts and for the rest of the game, were shut right out of it. 300 possessions in a game of footy these days? That's nothing. 33 tackles? That's JLT stuff. And if you are second to the ball that often and can't be arsed doing anything about it when you get there, you aren't going to earn too many frees.

[WarrenerraW]

There were some pretty hideous decisions all round and some which were very blatant, but not even called. There's four of them out there prancing around like gazelles making it up as they go along. Lynch getting a free for landing on his arse was comical. There's more marking infringements than every before. Even the players don't know what's going on. Problem is the umps have been given a platform. They're interviewed, give special comments and are miced up. They always seem to rise to the occasion when it's time to kill momentum.

[doriswilgus]

If we’d had tonight’s umpires in last year’s grand final they would have paid that mark to Mihocek in the last quarter and we would have won the grand final.They really can influence the outcome of a game,especially when it’s close.

[doriswilgus]

If we’d had tonight’s umpires in last year’s grand final they would have paid that mark to Mihcek in the last quarter and we would have won the grand final.They really can influence the outcome of a game,especially when it’s close.

[Geek]

Oh and I forgot about the out on the full paid against Sidey that appeared to come off his thigh and an HTB against us where the player got a shin to it

[35forever]

Given that we broke records in marking etc, and the huge discrepancy in other stats we should've A. Won by 80, & B. picked up 10x the frees, but again, it isn't how many, its where & when.
That 2nd goal to Jamie which was taken away after a totally non-existent free against Cox could've seen a totally different game. But then the incredible end-to-ender where Treloar marked in the pocket, to Maynard who kicked a huge pass to Stevo, who put it in front of Checkers who strolled in, could have also changed the game if the Tiger chasing checkers, who got a hand to him, had pulled him down à la Johnno in the '02 Qual. final. It was right in the middle of one of Richmonds best passages & players were spread right out. If that had started an end to end goal we would've been in a LOT of trouble.

As it was I didn't see any kicks we were paid which weren't obvious frees. I saw about 4-5 Richmond missed out on, & about 12 we could've easily been paid. Many of those were holding the man, which are seldom ruled. correctly.

In the end we dominated all four quarters, and the stats give a true picture of how much we dominated. If the oppo had been Freo or StKilda we'd be screaming right now about the percentage boost we threw away! In the end only the last few minutes made it something like a reasonable outcome. Thank god for that, & thank God Bitchmond got a bit of a reality check into how much better than them we are.
They won't beat us again for a while.
So lets hope we meet in September.

[35forever]

While we're at it, with 10 to go we were 288-170 in uncontested ball, & 141-61 in uncontested marks (two & a half times them!). We ended up with 338 unc. touches to 185, meaning 50-15 in the last 10. Even more remarkable, two & a bit minutes into the last the Tiges managed a goal. They didn't score again. We took more marks than anyone has ever taken against Richmond, and were only 5 or 6 short of the all time marking record.

The point is that while that free-kick number is amazing, I don't think I've seen it before, in the context of the domination we had over them its not that shocking.
Really the only number which didn't match the rest was the scoreline. Normally those numbers are only seen in a 100 point pantsing. 44 points doesn't tell the tale. Proving once again what I've been saying for 3 years, we have easily the best list, and should be flogging all comers. Our best is still ahead.
If this was round 1 the footy world would be frantic. Those damn Magpies are going to win the bloody thing.

And then 3 more.

[mudlark]