The AFL cracked down on umpire dissent ( and to a point, rightfully so) because they said players actions were putting those potentially wanting to be umpires off from pursuing that career. I’d say it’s watching the umpiring at AFL level is putting people off from wanting to become umpires. I hear anecdotally that the umpiring from vfl level down is actually not too bad to quite good. It’s when it gets to the “elite” AFL level where it turns to *smile*. Either the wrong people are in charge of training the umpires, the people people become AFL umpires or the idiots on the rule committee that keep making stupid changes year after year are *smile* with the umpires and making it harder and harder to adjudicate on decisions.
As an example on my last point. Years ago, holding or dropping the ball was one of the most simple decisions an umpire could make. If a player had the ball, had time to dispose of the ball, was tackled with the ball and the ball either spilled out or he was still in possession of it, it was holding or dropping the ball. These days it can either be holding/ drop the ball, or it could be play on because you actually hear the umpire say “ the ball spilled out in the tackle” , or some *smile* like that, or it’s a ball up. It’s pot luck depending on the umpire and their mood at the time