Umpire farce - Getting worse by the minute!

[CarnTheTiges]

They need to remove the arms out rule and ffs turn off the umpires microphones. Giving them an audience has contributed to lot of this. Before the AFL go implementing their new you beaut rules talk to the umpires as a collective, get their input and *smile* listen to it! This new one is going to get to the point of a player being pinged for sighing and/or rolling their eyes at a decision. They think they had a problem before with people wanting to be umpires. This has made it a whole lot worse.

 

[btoz_01]

Gill the Dills replacement must be someone that is prepared to remove all the stupid rules that are destroying the game
If they don’t AFL footy will be destroyed forever

 

[Quickdraw]

I get emails occasionally from the AFL for me to do the odd survey. Surveys are always about what I think of the layout of their website or their app, what my level of interest is in the game, how often I attend or watch on TV etc. I always do the survey to contribute my little bit.

I wish they'd do a survey about what's wrong with the game. They won't of course, or if they did, they'd never make the results public

 

[CarnTheTiges]

I get emails occasionally from the AFL for me to do the odd survey. Surveys are always about what I think of the layout of their website or their app, what my level of interest is in the game, how often I attend or watch on TV etc. I always do the survey to contribute my little bit.

I wish they'd do a survey about what's wrong with the game. They won't of course, or if they did, they'd never make the results public

I don’t think they pay any attention to the ones they do now. They’re done for the optics and so they can tick off that box.

 

[Letsroar]

Due to the state of umpiring which I believe to be caused by the AFL not the umpires themselves have gone from watching at least 4 games per week to
- walked out of the Brisbane Wobbles game at half time because the game was about the umpires not the teams
- watched 5 minutes of our game and saw who the umpires were and went and did something else
- saw a bit more of the hawks game as I break up my walk with a beer in a pub

Solution is not hard for any sane person so that lets the AFL out of the equation

It’s not new either
Strip the rules back to the basics and explain them clearly to one and all
Reduce the interchange
Encourage the umpires to report players for sustained or personal abuse
Set the umpires up in teams for the year

Rant over

 

[Mr T.]

I’m getting upset just reading this thread. But play on…

 

[btoz_01]

Brad Scott said umpires weren’t tough enough on players over the weekend as some abuse was missed
how is a player asking an umpire a question or waving their arms or rolling their eyes deemed to be abuse?

 

[Total Tiger]

I'm going to swim against the tide here. How hard is it to just accept the umpire's decision and move on? Has an umpire ever gone "yeah, you're right" and changed their decision because it was protested by a player? No. So why not get on with the game and look to the next contest instead of whinging about the last one. And this protesting at AFL level is outright abuse at local levels, where parents regularly have to umpire junior games due to there not being enough umpires to cover the games. The players, and commentators and fans for that matter, have to suck up the fact that umpires get some decisions wrong or miss infringements, just like the players sometimes miss targets and shank kicks.

 

[CarnTheTiges]

Brad Scott said umpires weren’t tough enough on players over the weekend as some abuse was missed
how is a player asking an umpire a question or waving their arms or rolling their eyes deemed to be abuse?

This is another part of the problem. No one can agree on the terminology. Everyone is confused. The sane thing to do is roll the rule back to genuine abuse, but of course that makes sense so the AFL won’t even consider it.

 

[Willo]

On Footy on Nine Twitter - as expected, the AFL Have doubled down. And no staging for Hawkins.



Brad Scott has stood by all the frees and 50m penalties paid over round 5 for dissent, including the controversial calls against Harris Andrews and the Hawks. All correct, according to AFL.

And he confirmed the AFL view that at least six other dissent incidents should have been penalised

What a steve *smile* hocking this bloke is.
Say goodbye to our game.

 

[TT33]

I'm going to swim against the tide here. How hard is it to just accept the umpire's decision and move on? Has an umpire ever gone "yeah, you're right" and changed their decision because it was protested by a player? No. So why not get on with the game and look to the next contest instead of whinging about the last one. And this protesting at AFL level is outright abuse at local levels, where parents regularly have to umpire junior games due to there not being enough umpires to cover the games. The players, and commentators and fans for that matter, have to suck up the fact that umpires get some decisions wrong or miss infringements, just like the players sometimes miss targets and shank kicks.

Players have ALWAYS been able to ask the umpire "what was that for" & The umpy has ALWAYS been able to answer "I paid it for this or that" & just about ALWAYS the player has accepted it. If he didn't & argued about it, the umpire had the option of penalising him.

That's the way it should still be.

 

[jokershoppe]

Arms out 50. Is this really a rule? Wasn't aware of it till now coz my interest for the game has dropped off.

What a *smile* joke.

But it's quite reflective of the way society is heading where they want to quash all dissent and make everyone obedient to authority.

Spot on,agree fully.

 

[King Kong]

On Footy on Nine Twitter - as expected, the AFL Have doubled down. And no staging for Hawkins.



Brad Scott has stood by all the frees and 50m penalties paid over round 5 for dissent, including the controversial calls against Harris Andrews and the Hawks. All correct, according to AFL.

And he confirmed the AFL view that at least six other dissent incidents should have been penalised

Brad Scott is a *smile* idiot

 

[artball]

On Footy on Nine Twitter - as expected, the AFL Have doubled down. And no staging for Hawkins.

Brad Scott has stood by all the frees and 50m penalties paid over round 5 for dissent, including the controversial calls against Harris Andrews and the Hawks. All correct, according to AFL.

And he confirmed the AFL view that at least six other dissent incidents should have been penalised

yikes .. it's an uncontrollable mess .. Brad Scott is a big player in all this ..

by the sounds of it the 'dissent clause' is paramount in AFL thinking ... it's correctness gone mad ...

 

[Legends of 2017]

The AFL have now announced an amendment to the stand rule in the hope of killing 2 birds with one stone. It will now not be the “Stand” but the “Kneel” rule. The player on the mark will have to kneel before the umpire. The AFL , after extensive consultations with all the stakeholders of the game, expect this to a) stop all criticism of the stand rule as it no longer exists and b) show the proper respect and reverence to the umpires. It is expected that while players are kneeling they are in no position to express displeasure at any of their rulings

 

[TigerForce]

Dissent - terribly, terribly, terribly childish.

These dumpires are doing nothing but providing themselves with more power and forcing players to act like zombies.

NFL have coach review and players can TOUCH and ASK umpires, same with soccer. This is a joke to our game and wonder how many non Aussie Rules followers laugh at this.

 

[Mopsy]

You want a snapshot of why the game is a mess?

Direct quotes from Brad Scott

”There’s no acceptable level of dissent towards umpires. So, if players show demonstrable dissent then they’re risking a free kick or 50 metre penalty. In terms of what that level looks like that’s up to the umpire to decide”

”We have been very clear on this, really clear to the clubs, we have unanimous support from all the leaders at the clubs, and in fact they want us to pay these free kicks”

Wow. What crap. There’s no direct ruling, no directive as to what actually constitutes abuse. Just another rule where it’s up to umpire interpretation. And that‘s the problem with our game, everyone has different interpretations on everything.

As for the clubs supporting all of this…..please. They really do take us for fools.

 

[TigerForce]

You want a snapshot of why the game is a mess?

Direct quotes from Brad Scott

”There’s no acceptable level of dissent towards umpires. So, if players show demonstrable dissent then they’re risking a free kick or 50 metre penalty. In terms of what that level looks like that’s up to the umpire to decide”

”We have been very clear on this, really clear to the clubs, we have unanimous support from all the leaders at the clubs, and in fact they want us to pay these free kicks”

Wow. What crap. There’s no direct ruling, no directive as to what actually constitutes abuse. Just another rule where it’s up to umpire interpretation. And that‘s the problem with our game, everyone has different interpretations on everything.

Pepper Scott has turned into an AFL puppet. A yes man. Brainwashed.

 

[Legends of 2017]

Pepper Scott has turned into an AFL puppet. A yes man. Brainwashed.

Was SHocking’s protege
The apprentice will soon overtake the master

 

[tigersnake]

I'm going to swim against the tide here. How hard is it to just accept the umpire's decision and move on? Has an umpire ever gone "yeah, you're right" and changed their decision because it was protested by a player? No. So why not get on with the game and look to the next contest instead of whinging about the last one. And this protesting at AFL level is outright abuse at local levels, where parents regularly have to umpire junior games due to there not being enough umpires to cover the games. The players, and commentators and fans for that matter, have to suck up the fact that umpires get some decisions wrong or miss infringements, just like the players sometimes miss targets and shank kicks.

Its a fair point, hard to argue with and I agree with the principle. The man in white is always right. But its more complex. It shouldn't be, but it is. the standard of umpiring is in the crapper. That is not the umps fault, I can't stress that enough, its the AFLs fault due to poorly thought-out, unnecessarily complex, unneeded, and confusing rules on the one hand and poor resourcing of umps on the other.

Even putting all that aside, the game is emotional and passionate, thats why we care about it. Players aren't robots. To me, there is a difference between aggression, which should be penalised, and exasperation, which shouldn't. The Harris Andrews one was the latter, and not even an extreme example. He just shrugged basically. Some of the other examples of the 'arms out' from last week were aggressive towards the umps and were fair enough IMO. Thats putting aside the terrible state of umpiring in general.

But the broader issue for me is the AFL chasing its tail. The rules and their enforcement is in a terrible state. That is what has to be addressed. I'm not convinced dissent has increased, but if it has it is because the standard of umpiring has plumetted. At the same time we can't condone dissent, but the AFL are hiding behind that fact IMO.

Sorry for confusing post but it is a mess. The AFL says 'the fans own the game', if thats the case they should read the play on the stand rule for one.