Observations

[kosifantutti]

My observation is that trying to take this game to the world and explain that umpiring is a complete waste of money.
Then explain a player is allowed to just hold the ball in the air for thirty seconds to end the game while watching the scoreboard in a nail biting finish !
What a joke of a game ours actually is.

It'll never fly on the world stage.

I'm guessing you've never seen an NFL game.

[Sainter_Dad]

Players.... Devastated,totally spent, sore
Richo...... Class act, coach for the next 6 years
Umpires...... We need to be good enough to take decisions and luck out of the equation.

Tony can you please track down the free kick count for the last qtr

Wait until the replay is up on AFL and then go to the last 1/4 and select Frees. There is a little F at the time period of each Free

Thanks !

6 Frees to North in the last - surprise surprise - 3 to the Saints

[Linton Lodger]

Is Ben Guthrie serious here.. He makes out like Nth won by 40 points. And if he thinks Goldstein dominated Hickey then I was watching a different game..
http://m.afl.com.au/news/2016-05-08/pet ... he-spoils-

Who the hell is he?

At worse, Hickey broke even. Goldstein certainly wasn't dominant

Hickey had the better of Goldstein, no doubt about that.

[Linton Lodger]

Regardless of free kick stats, regardless of whether or not the free against Hickey was technically there. You just don't give technical, soft free kicks in those circumstances. Disgraceful & incompetent umpiring! Who is the umpires coach, there's a sacking that should occur.

[the dome]

The momentum of positive development just keeps trucking along. I had a very interrupted view of the tv screen in the midst of Mother's Day socialising. However the snatched glimpses of the Saints in action was encouraging. The very end of the game with the North player simply holding the ball above his head didn't look good for the game/ brains trust problem.

[magnifisaint]

Players.... Devastated,totally spent, sore
Richo...... Class act, coach for the next 6 years
Umpires...... We need to be good enough to take decisions and luck out of the equation.

Tony can you please track down the free kick count for the last qtr

Wait until the replay is up on AFL and then go to the last 1/4 and select Frees. There is a little F at the time period of each Free

Thanks !

6 Frees to North in the last - surprise surprise - 3 to the Saints

I thought the last one was dodgy too. He hardly had time to get rid of it and the umpire jumped on him

[stonecold]

Tony74. ..can you please tell me what happened to Armitage tonight?

Concussion in his hamstring?????

[Zed]

whilst its disappointing to lose another close one, this season is panning out the way I thought it might. I still think we will finish slightly ahead of last year in the win column (7-8 wins), but increasing the number of games where we are still a chance deep into the last quarter that I was hoping we would improve - and we have. Next year we will be good enough to win a number of those close ones as our under 23's get another year under their belt and we should be good enough to finish with enough wins to be in the mix for a finals berth. I really hope we can snag a classy mid with our first round pick to add some polish to what is a very hard working team.

[magnifisaint]

Tony74. ..can you please tell me what happened to Armitage tonight?

Concussion in his hamstring?????

Nah a pain in the hamstring

[saynta]

Well we won our first last quarter for the year.

Dunstan came of age.

Roo confirmed his place as one of the greatest, if not greatest saint of all.

Some saintsational posters even managed to praise Gears.

Sammy Gilbert was BOG.

Richmond, Adelaide, West Coast, Freemantle, Collingwood and Essendon all lost.


All good things.

[bergsone]

Is Ben Guthrie serious here.. He makes out like Nth won by 40 points. And if he thinks Goldstein dominated Hickey then I was watching a different game..
http://m.afl.com.au/news/2016-05-08/pet ... he-spoils-

Who the hell is he?

At worse, Hickey broke even. Goldstein certainly wasn't dominant

Hickey had the better of Goldstein, no doubt about that.

If that is what Ben Guthrie saw.I must have been watching a different game

[Sainter_Dad]

Is Ben Guthrie serious here.. He makes out like Nth won by 40 points. And if he thinks Goldstein dominated Hickey then I was watching a different game..
http://m.afl.com.au/news/2016-05-08/pet ... he-spoils-

Who the hell is he?

At worse, Hickey broke even. Goldstein certainly wasn't dominant

Hickey had the better of Goldstein, no doubt about that.

If that is what Ben Guthrie saw.I must have been watching a different game

Talking Point 1 - Although his impact on the game was minimal

Talking Point 3 - asserted his influence around the ground with 35 hit-outs and had particular impact in the third term as the Roos tried to take the contest away from the dogged Saints

I is confused - it hurts my brain!!!!

[mullet]

Players.... Devastated,totally spent, sore
Richo...... Class act, coach for the next 6 years
Umpires...... We need to be good enough to take decisions and luck out of the equation.

Tony can you please track down the free kick count for the last qtr

Wait until the replay is up on AFL and then go to the last 1/4 and select Frees. There is a little F at the time period of each Free

Thanks !

6 Frees to North in the last - surprise surprise - 3 to the Saints

One of the papers used to give a break down of the frees ie back, mid, forward.
I do have a theory though that the umpires do even up, they will pay free instead of awarding the mark etc so even though a team has won the ball they will call a free kick. I also would like to know how many times they call advantage, because that means that technically they pay a free, but the team have the ball already so the free means nothing, but it helps even up the numbers. I actually think if they want to be transparent why not show the break up of frees ie. advantage, mid, back, forward . After all there are stats for every player and every player is open to criticism or accolades based on these stats. Why not umpires , or do they have something to hide.
and hickey had 4frees against and 1 for, goldy none against 3 for. he is very disciplined isnt he.....

[Dis Believer]

One thing that perturbs me in relation to free kicks is the consistency with which we seem to be on the wrong end of the questionable ones, both those paid against us and those not paid to us.

Bear with me here, but this extends (I believe) over a fairly long period, under a great deal of different circumstances.

It is now the 2016 season, and we seem to have been on the wrong end of umpiring consistently since at least 2006. In that time we have had 4 coaches, been at the top, middle and bottom of the ladder, and turned over almost the entire playing list.

It defies belief (and statistical probablility) that through all of that change that the only constant could be that we were consistently teaching or executing skills so poorly as to warrant being the worst (or close to the worst) team in the league for free kick differential.

Are we executiong tackles worse than every other team? Are we failling to tackle enough? Are we too slow to dispose of the ball compared to every one else? Does no-one else ever tackle our players incorrectly, get caught holding the ball or infringe our players in a marking contest?

I would love if someone who knows how could show the free kick differential for all teams for the past ten years because I would love to see the stats. It defies belief that through all the personnel changes, coaching changes, gameplan changes and different performance levels indicated by our ladder position, we could constantly infringe more than our opponents most weeks, but that is exactly how it feels to me, and I know we have fared poorly in recent years.

[Mr Magic]

I do have a theory though that the umpires do even up, they will pay free instead of awarding the mark etc so even though a team has won the ball they will call a free kick.

I can recall at least 2 marks taken by us that were paid as free kicks - one in the first quarter when Tarrant cannoned into Roo from the front.
At the time I thought it should have been a 50m penalty. I reckon in Soccer Tarrant would have been 'booked' for a 'professional foul'.
Incidentally, did anyone else think that NM were very 'physical' against Roo and our other players in marking contests?
Alost like it was a 'directive' fro their coaching staff.

[Mr Magic]

Another observation re the coaching of Richardson & his team.
I was absolutely gobsmacked to see on a umber of occasions in the second half that we went into a centre bounce with our most inexperienced lineups.

[markp]

While we're trotting out our theories, my longstanding one is that there is often an unconscious bias towards teams that are expected to win.

[Sainter_Dad]

I also would like to know how many times they call advantage, because that means that technically they pay a free, but the team have the ball already so the free means nothing

Correct me if I am mistaken, but I was under the impression that the advantage call nullifies the free kick, so it is not recorded as being paid.

[Bernard Shakey]

My observation is that trying to take this game to the world and explain that umpiring is a complete waste of money.
Then explain a player is allowed to just hold the ball in the air for thirty seconds to end the game while watching the scoreboard in a nail biting finish !
What a joke of a game ours actually is.

It'll never fly on the world stage.

I'm guessing you've never seen an NFL game.

Exactly what I was going to say!

[snoopygirl]

I remember several years ago True Believer, that the club were conscious of the amount of free kicks being paid against us primarily for "in the back" decisions so worked extremely hard to change the way we tackled players so that we fell to the side of the player when dragging the player down. It appears we are still doing this so whilst we are not getting pinged for it, we're also not getting paid any free kicks for it either when the opposition tackle us.

[mullet]

I also would like to know how many times they call advantage, because that means that technically they pay a free, but the team have the ball already so the free means nothing

Correct me if I am mistaken, but I was under the impression that the advantage call nullifies the free kick, so it is not recorded as being paid.

What I'm trying to explain (probably badly sorry) is that when a team is streaming down the ground quickly doing a string of handballs you will hear the umpire call advantage, the team has the ball and is off, and the ball is moving fast so it could actually be 2 handballs previous and their is a call of "advantage" play doesnt stop. Is this recorded as a free kick??? Gawd not sure I explained it any better.

[Sainter_Dad]

I also would like to know how many times they call advantage, because that means that technically they pay a free, but the team have the ball already so the free means nothing

Correct me if I am mistaken, but I was under the impression that the advantage call nullifies the free kick, so it is not recorded as being paid.

What I'm trying to explain (probably badly sorry) is that when a team is streaming down the ground quickly doing a string of handballs you will hear the umpire call advantage, the team has the ball and is off, and the ball is moving fast so it could actually be 2 handballs previous and their is a call of "advantage" play doesnt stop. Is this recorded as a free kick??? Gawd not sure I explained it any better.

I do not believe that under the situation that you have just described, that a free kick would be registered. Essentially, I was under the impression, that free kicks only count if they 'stop' or 'reverse' the play.

[howlinwolf]

My observation is that trying to take this game to the world and explain that umpiring is a complete waste of money.
Then explain a player is allowed to just hold the ball in the air for thirty seconds to end the game while watching the scoreboard in a nail biting finish !
What a joke of a game ours actually is.

It'll never fly on the world stage.

I'm guessing you've never seen an NFL game.

Yes, Kosi, correct. I've never seen a full NFL game because it is a rubbish format.
Doesn't have the credibility like the world game globally.
It is loved by a parochial following just like our game.

[kosifantutti]

There are many many people around the world who follow NFL. The AFL can only dream of that type of global support.

[stkfc1]

While we're trotting out our theories, my longstanding one is that there is often an unconscious bias towards teams that are expected to win.

I've thought that too. Must have some bearing.