Hate blaming Umpires but ........

[Sainter_Dad]

Plugger???

[The Fireman]

some constructive thoughts here with most agreeing there is a problem.

[Pwoit]

What was the free kick paid for during Roos incident. I though it was a throw in or was it paid for us retaliating to the Nick bump?

[kosifantutti]

What was the free kick paid for during Roos incident. I though it was a throw in or was it paid for us retaliating to the Nick bump?

I assume it was for retaliation as it was nowhere near the boundary line.

[gringo]

The mystifying one to me was Mc Carthy getting a free kick when Dempster set up in front of him 15 meters out from goal. Didn't look like any eyes left the flight of the ball so just a special call.

[mr six o'clock]

We rarely get the rub of the green as it's called
In the other six matches this weekend involving clubs from different states , the home team has either won or broke even on the free kick count .
and one of the break even's was the dogs v the eagles , the eagles of course finish each year miles ahead of any other team in the " free kick for " column .

Saints had five less free's than gws , who also got four 50 metre penalties ( one warranted ) which resulted in goals .

[saintspremiers]

The umps were either retarded or corrupt yesterday.

Take your pick.

[plugger66]

The umps were either retarded or corrupt yesterday.

Take your pick.

Quality post. Im going with neither.

[Kate]

We need a bigger pool of umpires to select from. The pay for AFL matches need to be very rewarding. However, dud performances like we saw yesterday should mean a stint in the bush at much reduced wages. A little competition for the top gigs will see the cream rise to the top.

[Junction Oval]

What if anything will the Club be saying about the Rooey incident and also a few very soft 50 mtr penalties?

Sometimes they just need to stand up and call it.

[St DAC]

It's the toughest game in the world to adjudicate IMO. I'm amazed they get as many right as they do; quite often the ones I think they've missed or got wrong turn out to be right after I see they replay later, and there's no replay available to umpires.

Having said that I reckon Lonie should have got the free, and Dempster was iffy too. But at least 2 of the 50's resulting in goals were clearly there.

I've seen worse performances from umpires than the game yesterday, and I doubt it actually cost us the game. We missed a heap of shots for goal that we should have kicked (so did the Giants) and by the play we should have been 5-6 goals down at half time.

We may have stolen it with some more sympathetic umpiring, but it really would have been a steal; the Giants were the better team yesterday.

[SaintPav]

Objectivity about umpiring is bullsh*t.

But GWS did well out of the umpiring which sucked yesterday.

[stevie]

My two bobs worth: only saw the second half and I thought the umps were pretty good (compared to last year tho that isn't saying much). They were good with HTB decisions which Redeemer noted and that's an improvement on one of the blights on the game.

The Lonie one was 50/50, they might've thought he was doing some milking. I knew they weren't too bad when I realised while watching I hadn't noticed them much! But again I didn't see the first half.

More suprised by the Giants. If they're a finals prospect then so the hell are we! Lol

[kosifantutti]

Quite simply, the Lonie, Dempster issue had a huge bearing in the result. A 2 goal turn around in aprox 30 seconds. It cant be argued against. Whether the decisions were correct or not is a different story, but the IMPACT of those 2 decisions was massive.
My personal view is both were frees. The second one wouldn't have happened if the more obvious free was paid to Lonie 10 yards from goal to bring the margin back to 2 points, and the momentum heading all one way.

I reckon both decisions were incorrect.

But there was quite a gap between them unlike how a few on here seem to recall it. We actually scored a point between the two incidents.

[saynta]

Non free to lonie costly, goes down other end for goal.

Non free to Lonie and free against Dempster were farking atrocious

Missed opportunity to put 4 on the board

How many times were frees ignored when they were going our way and non frees paid to GWS.

Don't want to use the Umpires as a crotch - but in these games when it really does come down to 50/50, we need some reward for effort.

Free kicks - 25 to 20 - how many of ours were genuine hard won tackles - how many of theirs were soft???

Cannot believe the crap served up by the men officiating.

We need to learn how to duck and milk the system!!!!

We won the clearances, we won the contested possessions, we won the tackle count. Keep your heads up boys!!!!!

And the umpires won the 4 points, nevertheless.

[ROLS-LEE]

Even Eddie on fox during the half time break thought the umps were bad, Esp last quarter. I can't comment yet, going to watch our game after the cats vs hawks. Just got back from hols.

[gringo]

In a close game the number of free kicks on goal that weren't warranted was only making the game s***.

[SuperDuper]

It does not matter why the umpiring went against us today, the fact is that it did...

A 10 free kick turnaround.. i.e. take 5 from GWS and give them to us so that we won the freekciks 25-20 instead of the other way around.. then we win

The Lonie/Dempster turnaround was crucial...

Decent effort by the saints and not good enough by the AFL if games rely on umpiring rather than effort and skill

Im unsure what the AFL can do. They would pick the best 27 umpires to do games. Like footballers, some are very good and some aren't.

well if they can't do better, then it is just a terrible sport then.... who wants to watch a sport where the rules are ambiguous and the umpires determine the winner?

the buck stops with the AFL. They have a rules of the game committee that they appoint. They train the umpires.

Why cant we teach our players to be skilled like other sides? Because some just aren't up to it.

yes plugger.. and we come on here to comment about out team and their abilities, our coaching, and our recruiting. If all those things result in us playing worse than our opponents and therefore losing, then we try to analyse why, and which part is to blame. Part of that may, as you say, be because the coaches did not teach our players to be skilled (although that is not how I would analyse it, skilled players is more in the realm of recruiters.. but that is another argument..)..

So, in this game, my analysis is that our team played as well as the opposition. We matched them in a game of football. Some things, generally involoving skill, GWS did better than us. Other things, including endevour and tackling, we did better than them. But overall, I think we matched them. To me, the umpiring separated two very even teams on the day. So I commented on the umpiring, who are the AFL's responsibilty, the same way as I comment our team, which are our club's responsibility.

The umpires made errors, and the AFL is responsible for that in the same way that our club is ultimately responsible for the performance of outr team, each time they run on to the field. When our players make errors, or our coaches make errors, then we comment on that. In this game our coaches and players certainly made errors. Even starting from team selevction, IMO, we made crucial errors. But the umpires made errors too, and those errors were a significant factor in the outcome of this particular game. And the AFL is responsible for that in the same way that our club is responsible for our teams playing performance.

[Joe Bloggs]

The future of umpiring my be having a third umpire system similar to cricket but more overreaching, if an umpire clearly makes a mistake or misses a free the third umpire steps in and makes the correct call to the on field umpire I'm not advocating for long replays to make the correct decision as I think most free kicks a pretty obvious It may slow the game down a tad but tha afl want that anyway ...could be a can of worms but should improve the game for the fans especially saints fans.

[SuperDuper]

The future of umpiring my be having a third umpire system similar to cricket but more overreaching, if an umpire clearly makes a mistake or misses a free the third umpire steps in and makes the correct call to the on field umpire I'm not advocating for long replays to make the correct decision as I think most free kicks a pretty obvious It may slow the game down a tad but tha afl want that anyway ...could be a can of worms but should improve the game for the fans especially saints fans.

I ageree with you Joe Bloggs... use every bit of technology available IMO, whatever can be introduced without interrupting play. Considering instanteous communication and things like smart watches... thetre is much that can be done, I am sure

[plugger66]

The future of umpiring my be having a third umpire system similar to cricket but more overreaching, if an umpire clearly makes a mistake or misses a free the third umpire steps in and makes the correct call to the on field umpire I'm not advocating for long replays to make the correct decision as I think most free kicks a pretty obvious It may slow the game down a tad but tha afl want that anyway ...could be a can of worms but should improve the game for the fans especially saints fans.

I ageree with you Joe Bloggs... use every bit of technology available IMO, whatever can be introduced without interrupting play. Considering instanteous communication and things like smart watches... thetre is much that can be done, I am sure

Never should we have replays for frees in our game. It wont and should never happen. Ever.

[SuperDuper]

The future of umpiring my be having a third umpire system similar to cricket but more overreaching, if an umpire clearly makes a mistake or misses a free the third umpire steps in and makes the correct call to the on field umpire I'm not advocating for long replays to make the correct decision as I think most free kicks a pretty obvious It may slow the game down a tad but tha afl want that anyway ...could be a can of worms but should improve the game for the fans especially saints fans.

I ageree with you Joe Bloggs... use every bit of technology available IMO, whatever can be introduced without interrupting play. Considering instanteous communication and things like smart watches... thetre is much that can be done, I am sure

Never should we have replays for frees in our game. It wont and should never happen. Ever.

well pluggs, who ever said anything about replays? The comments were about real time, technology enhanced decision making. The technology is becoming increasingly able to do that in an increasing number of situations. Technology is improving very very rapidly, maybe you noticed that. Never say never.

[plugger66]

The future of umpiring my be having a third umpire system similar to cricket but more overreaching, if an umpire clearly makes a mistake or misses a free the third umpire steps in and makes the correct call to the on field umpire I'm not advocating for long replays to make the correct decision as I think most free kicks a pretty obvious It may slow the game down a tad but tha afl want that anyway ...could be a can of worms but should improve the game for the fans especially saints fans.

I ageree with you Joe Bloggs... use every bit of technology available IMO, whatever can be introduced without interrupting play. Considering instanteous communication and things like smart watches... thetre is much that can be done, I am sure

Never should we have replays for frees in our game. It wont and should never happen. Ever.

well pluggs, who ever said anything about replays? The comments were about real time, technology enhanced decision making. The technology is becoming increasingly able to do that in an increasing number of situations. Technology is improving very very rapidly, maybe you noticed that. Never say never.

Its still a replay even if its nearly immediate. It wont happen. Well I certainly hope not. Cricket is stop and start so it doesn't matter, our game flows.

[SuperDuper]

It is not a replay if it is immediate. Technology is improving repidly. Why would you hope "it" wont happen when you dont even know what "it" is?
I will say it again. Real time technology enhanced decision making.

[plugger66]

It is not a replay if it is immediate. Technology is improving repidly. Why would you hope "it" wont happen when you dont even know what "it" is?
I will say it again. Real time technology enhanced decision making.

How can it possibly be immediate? Your eyes are immediate, not a replay of any kind but im happy for you to explain it. What sport has real time technology anyway?