Umpire farce - Getting worse by the minute!

[Meteoric Rise]

Here is a direct reason why 15 people didn't attend MCG today and ended up watching it at home. 16 year old birthday of hawk fan who now lives interstate. In Melbourne for holidays to visit family. Intention was for extended family to go with the young bloke. His mum tried to book. Block of 10 max. Then cost was $75 for reserved seats, not together. She gave up. Some irony in that his mothers brother is a senior exec at another AFL club.... the people who create and encourage this messy greed.

It is disturbing in this day and age that:

a) with 52k seats available in a stadium you cannot get 15 seats together, and

b) that with a half full stadium there is such rigid pricing that people are being put off going by the price of admission.

I run an Airbnb out of what used to be my garage. As a landlord you can elect to have variable pricing. So Airbnb will monitor demand and set prices according to how much demand there is in your area at any given time. So I might get $300 one night then $180 another night. There is surely no reason the AFL can’t apply this for general admission to ensure pricing varies according to demand, and this should lead to optimising revenue and better crowds at the same time.

 

[Eddie Bax]

RE: The arms out penalty stuff, several thoughts come to mind for me, in no particular order:

- I don’t like that the "arms out" (ie. questioning an umpire giving a decision) will be penalized so harshly but the overused action of putting up arms looking for a free kick (ie. effectively questioning an umpire not giving a decision) instead of attempting to go for the ball seems to be ok. Are they both not "dissent" if you're going to take it to that extreme?

- Respect is a two-way street - if the AFL wants players and the public to have respect for umpires’ decisions, they need to respect the players by getting it right on the obvious decisions more often than they do, being consistent across games, and admitting more often when they were wrong.

If that includes making umpiring fully professional and better paid and trained, I’m on board with that.

- 50 metre penalties for things that don’t actually affect the play and aren’t otherwise egregious (minor “dissent,” minor infractions into the “protected zone,” moving sideways off the mark when the player with the ball is clear off etc.) are completely overboard and way too harsh.

Although my preferred solution is to eliminate these penalties altogether, a stepping stone would be to bring back the 15 metre penalty for minor stuff like this.

- If you’re going to have an emphasis on particular issues/new “interpretations” each year, sort them out in the preseason and don’t change them again until the next year; don’t come out hard then pull back several weeks into the season, or drop new emphases several weeks into the season.

 

[Batchelor Party]

RE: The arms out penalty stuff, several thoughts come to mind for me, in no particular order:

- I don’t like that the "arms out" (ie. questioning an umpire giving a decision) will be penalized so harshly but the overused action of putting up arms looking for a free kick (ie. effectively questioning an umpire not giving a decision) instead of attempting to go for the ball seems to be ok. Are they both not "dissent" if you're going to take it to that extreme?

- Respect is a two-way street - if the AFL wants players and the public to have respect for umpires’ decisions, they need to respect the players by getting it right on the obvious decisions more often than they do, being consistent across games, and admitting more often when they were wrong.

If that includes making umpiring fully professional and better paid and trained, I’m on board with that.

- 50 metre penalties for things that don’t actually affect the play and aren’t otherwise egregious (minor “dissent,” minor infractions into the “protected zone,” moving sideways off the mark when the player with the ball is clear off etc.) are completely overboard and way too harsh.

Although my preferred solution is to eliminate these penalties altogether, a stepping stone would be to bring back the 15 metre penalty for minor stuff like this.

- If you’re going to have an emphasis on particular issues/new “interpretations” each year, sort them out in the preseason and don’t change them again until the next year; don’t come out hard then pull back several weeks into the season, or drop new emphases several weeks into the season.

Really well written and logical post Eddie. Taken to even further extremes, "dissent" should also mean any questioning of the umpires decision, because that means you are disagreeing with the official view. that may be the next step. The game is eroding before our eyes.

 

[Butch67]

If umpire 'abuse' is deserving of a 50 then how come when a ball up is adjudicated and a player argues then a free kick isnt given? Seems contradictory

 

[eddazol]

If umpire 'abuse' is deserving of a 50 then how come when a ball up is adjudicated and a player argues then a free kick isnt given? Seems contradictory

A free kick should be given.

 

[yandb]

Umpires already earn at least 130k per year plus finals so they can be professional if they choose.

There are 3 umpires out on the field so interpretations will always vary during the course of the game.

I believe that you will find that most of the umpires are not happy with the arms out rule as they understand that if a mistake is made it is understandable the player would be frustrated.

The AFL has contributed to the frustration with umpires for years because they are treated as if they are emotionally fragile so no public criticism is tolerated.

The AFL needs to re-introduce a sentence they seem to have removed from their umpiring literature which said something like that the rules of the game shall be judged fairly and with common sense.

When I started umpiring over 30 years ago this was an important part of our education and seems to have been removed from the literature.

Bring back "common sense"

15 metre penalties are a junk rule as it slows the game down and who cares about 15 metres unless you are near the 50 metre arc.

 

[bob]

I didnt watch anything but did read a few twitter feeds.

For those who did watch, am I right to assume the 'media' forgot to call out the dive?

 

[Legends of 2017]

There are 3 umpires out on the field so interpretations will always vary during the course of the game.

There was a perfect example yesterday. There was an umpire literally only a few metres away directly in front of the play. A free kick was warranted. He had a perfect view of the infringement, he was actually looking right at it. Nothing. Another umpire 40-50 metres away, in a much worse position to view it could see it , that’s how blatant the free was, blew his whistle to pay the free

 

[Bullarto Tiger]

It is disturbing in this day and age that:

a) with 52k seats available in a stadium you cannot get 15 seats together, and

b) that with a half full stadium there is such rigid pricing that people are being put off going by the price of admission.

I run an Airbnb out of what used to be my garage. As a landlord you can elect to have variable pricing. So Airbnb will monitor demand and set prices according to how much demand there is in your area at any given time. So I might get $300 one night then $180 another night. There is surely no reason the AFL can’t apply this for general admission to ensure pricing varies according to demand, and this would surely lead to optimising revenue and better crowds at the same time.

$300 for a night
That must be an awesome garage, MR !!

 

[Tenacious]

$300 for a night
That must be an awesome garage, MR !!

Guessing it includes access to the large filled beer fridge

 

[eZyT]

Hawkins is a cheat. Couldnt get front spot, so did a cartwheel.

I wonder why he isnt relentlessly booed into retirement by the paying crowd? (I dont really wonder)

Then hawks go arms out at the replay of a horrendous decision.

Among other things This rule will entirely disolve the umpire/player relationship. Players will be trained to never talk, respond or have eye contact with an umpire.

That mightnt be a bad thing - chamberlain can go back to being a financial planner without any illusion of anyone liking or respecting him.

Why can the AFL get nothing right?

It wouldnt be hard to apply an ump abuse penalty;

Say 'that is *smile* *smile* umpiring' looking at the ump

50m

Say 'jeepers' under your breath

Not 50m

Give an ump the bird or get *smile* bent elbow?

50m

Throw arms out?

Not 50m

 

[Quickdraw]

I grew up going to the football every week. Home and away games.

Loved footy but have slowly become more disillusioned with the game over the last few years, getting to the point where I have no interest in attending games and I've barely watched any football on TV so far this season (Tigers included).

I've hated the constant tinkering of the rules. The stand rule is an abomination and while I agree with the push to eliminate umpire abuse, the AFL has completely "smiled" this up, resulting in the opposite.

Then there is the imbalance of frees for/against. As others have pointed out it's the frees we don't get that hurt us. The club can't publicly criticise the umps. The media flogs all toe the party line.

I would have thought a coach (respectfully) giving his opinion that the umpiring was poor is not a bad thing, but no! Not in AFL land.

 

[Tigers of Old]

No doubt umpire numbers are now flourishing around the country..

 

[Legends of 2017]

Hawkins is a cheat. Couldnt get front spot, so did a cartwheel.

I wonder why he isnt relentlessly booed into retirement by the paying crowd? (I dont really wonder)

He obviously had a brain freeze. Normally when he’s behind someone he just pushes them square in the back to take a mark.
He’s made of Teflon that *smile*. Pushes in the back gets away with it, takes a blatant dive and gets rewarded too

 

[jb03]

No doubt umpire numbers are now flourishing around the country..

Gone from looking for more respect to being the subject of mass ridicule. AFL smashing it out of the park.

 

[Roksman]

Only way to get our sport back is to stop going to games - yes it will hurt Richmond but every fan base must to do the same. The only way the AFL will listen to the fans is if it hurts their pocket$.

The game is gone, it's simply over officiated and becoming basketball on grass with constant "fouls" with no game flow, almost every contact with an opposition player is a free kick now.

I will not attend another game until the stand rule is gone.

 

[JimJessTorp]

Umpire Dissent Training Examples....

The following are clearly not a show of dissent...

https://imgur.com/rewczGB

https://imgur.com/HkjBjPL

This one definitely is...

 

[Little Ziggyadee]

No doubt umpire numbers are now flourishing around the country..

But Pinoccio reckons the game is in great shape.
As soon as the new bloke gets the Gig he has to get rid of these rules that are driving people away before it's too late.

 

[Berwick boy]

Only way to get our sport back is to stop going to games - yes it will hurt Richmond but every fan base must to do the same. The only way the AFL will listen to the fans is if it hurts their pocket$.

The game is gone, it's simply over officiated and becoming basketball on grass with constant "fouls" with no game flow, almost every contact with an opposition player is a free kick now.

I will not attend another game until the stand rule is gone.

I have stopped, till this group of *smile* up rules gets canned.

 

[graystar1]

Just get rid of the statue rule and all that will be over.
Won't happen of course.