elephant in the room

[Solar]

ok whats up with the umpiring. Before this game we had the biggest difference between FF and FA. Not sure the end stat but at some stages tonight it looksed like we were playing 21 players.

Are we a dirty team or coping it.

enter:p66

[Sam23]

lol tonight was a JOKE!

First time i've been upset RE. umpiring all year except for a little period vs. Sydney.

Milne seriously couldn't buy a freekick if he tried.

[rexy]

thought the lack of free kicks given to Milne for holding were very bad, I remember at least 3 occasions when I thought he was blatantly held and the replay suggested I was right but the ump just kept calling play on.

Also thought that the Pavlich free kick paid against Gilbert was terrible, replay showed Pav trip over his own feet IMO.

To answer you yes, I thought they were poor tonight, and last week against Collingwood also. Are we terrible sledgers and arguers on the ground?

[SainterK]

Will I be the first to say it?

Milne and Schneider are big on the overacting, it's coming back to bite them on the backside.

I understand the clean slate argument, that every match should be umpired without bias, but they are repeat offenders.

Think it impacts Schneider more, as he let's it bother him, Milne seems to feed off the unfairness of it all and play even better TBH.

[Solar]

Will I be the first to say it?

Milne and Schneider are big on the overacting, it's coming back to bite them on the backside.

I understand the clean slate argument, that every match should be umpired without bias, but they are repeat offenders.

Think it impacts Schneider more, as he let's it bother him, Milne seems to feed off the unfairness of it all and play even better TBH.

give you that. But it seems that without roo we barely receive a free kick. Holding the ball is thrown out the window and there was no protection for those at the bottom on the pack.

[bigred]

In the first half it was pretty ordinary.

They DID have an effect on the game.

Fkn Pavlich FFS. That free against Gilbert.... **** me.

[Spinner]

ok whats up with the umpiring. Before this game we had the biggest difference between FF and FA. Not sure the end stat but at some stages tonight it looksed like we were playing 21 players.

Are we a dirty team or coping it.

enter:p66

It was disgusting.

And I hate complaining about the umps....But it was just f****** awful!

[Statsman]

I didn't notice umpires Ryan and Pannell much, but Vozzo had an absolute shocker - particularly after half time.

I found it interesting that they were consistent in their interpretation (misinterpretation?) that you can tackle and scrag a player who's not in possession of the ball. Several times our guys (particularly Milne and Schneider) handballed it out in front of themselves (a la Kevin Bartlett) and were therefore no longer in possession or ran onto a loose ball and tapped it along without actually taking possession, yet Fremantle were allowed to grab their jumper or scrag them to the ground. Surely they should have been pinged for holding the man. It's frustrating when they let that go, but ping us every time we touch Sandilands in a ruck contest or dare to put a hand of Pavlich inside 50.

[Milton66]

When our guy got pinged in the first was a disgrace. Took the mark and the Freo guy was right behind, barreled into his back and our guy was pinged.

Then you had other Fre players get caught after taking on our players and nothing.

Pffft.

[n1ck]

Disgraceful.

[Enrico_Misso]

Maybe it was the acoustics, but I kept hearing whispers in the sky.

[Bernard Shakey]

After watching the game again, the umpiring wasn't as bad as I thought at the ground.

Milne still tries to milk everything and Schneider should get nine from the Russian judge for every dive. Both of them will struggle to get frees unless they actually lose their heads.

[Saint Bev]

I actually think the umpiring has been shocking all year, especially in the first half, they seem to even up in the second.

Pavlova's is a very good player, but gee he got some very soft frees tonight.

[battye]

Didn't really have a problem with the umpiring tonight. Sure, at times it did seem to be in Fremantle's favour but they all seemed to be marginal decisions - no real out and out shockers (although the Milne push in the back should have been given).

[ace]

----------TOP SECRET----------

The following message is not to be recorded electronically or in print.
It is only to be transmitted by voice.

We were not pleased with the lack of interest in AFL football in Western Australia last September.
The result of no W.A. team in the finals series caused disasterous TV ratings and apathy in the print media in W.A.

It is essential that a W.A. team participate in this year's finals.
To this end a select group of umpires will officiate led by Michael Vozzo.
These umpires are to ensure that Fremantle remains competitive throughout the match.
When Fremantle falls behind the umpires must assist Fremantle to catch up.
Fremantle should not receive special assistance once if it is ahead lest AFL corruption become too obvious.
Free kicks should be paid to Fremantle better kicks only and preferrably when directly in front of goals.
Free kicks should not be paid to opponents if it is likely to result in a goal.

The AFL will deny any knowledge of the existence of this message.
Any AFL employee disclosing this message will be immediately dismissed and fined.

---------- TOP SECRET ----------

[SaintSimmo]

----------TOP SECRET----------

The following message is not to be recorded electronically or in print.
It is only to be transmitted by voice.

We were not pleased with the lack of interest in AFL football in Western Australia last September.
The result of no W.A. team in the finals series caused disasterous TV ratings and apathy in the print media in W.A.

It is essential that a W.A. team participate in this year's finals.
To this end a select group of umpires will officiate led by Michael Vozzo.
These umpires are to ensure that Fremantle remains competitive throughout the match.
When Fremantle falls behind the umpires must assist Fremantle to catch up.
Fremantle should not receive special assistance once if it is ahead lest AFL corruption become too obvious.
Free kicks should be paid to Fremantle better kicks only and preferrably when directly in front of goals.
Free kicks should not be paid to opponents if it is likely to result in a goal.

The AFL will deny any knowledge of the existence of this message.
Any AFL employee disclosing this message will be immediately dismissed and fined.

---------- TOP SECRET ----------

Hmmmm. This is a very interesting article. Maybe we should release this to the media How did you managed to get your hands on this?

[ace]

Shhhh, we must talk in whispers

[thejiggingsaint]

Like Battye, I did'nt think too much about the umpires at the game.

[plugger66]

After watching the game again, the umpiring wasn't as bad as I thought at the ground.

Milne still tries to milk everything and Schneider should get nine from the Russian judge for every dive. Both of them will struggle to get frees unless they actually lose their heads.

Thats exactly right. You need to see a replay to get the one eyed feeling everyone has during the game out of your system. Not actually yours but everyones. Of course we notice our missed frees more than the other side but i can bet they point our frees we got that they didnt and frees they missed out on. Milne and Schneider did miss out on a couple but like players, umpires make mistakes.

[meher baba]

It would be crazy to suggest that the umps were biased last night. There were some dodgy decisions both ways (Milne's 50 metres anyone?).

It wasn't one of the better nights for the umps. On the whole, I reckon the umps have been better this year in terms of not blowing the whistle for a swan dive when they didn't (couldn't) really see what happened. But last night, they were at it again.

I don't particularly like to quote GT, but I so agree with his infamous comment (which led on to Whispers in the Sky) that nobody would mind if the umps missed a few free kicks they couldn't see if they'd stop themselves from trying to guess the ones where they didn't really see any illegal contact.

Oh well, they're only human (just).

[rodgerfox]

I was thinking about this myself.

If you didn't know better (or weren't one-eyed) you'd swear we are being unfairly treated by the umpires.

However, in reality it's highly doubtful that that is the case.


So, it may be something the coaches need to look at. Are we being a bit lippy to the umps? Are we a bit undisciplined? Are we too aggressive? Are we second to the ball?

[Thinline]

After watching the game again, the umpiring wasn't as bad as I thought at the ground.

Milne still tries to milk everything and Schneider should get nine from the Russian judge for every dive. Both of them will struggle to get frees unless they actually lose their heads.

Agree. And nine times out of ten they were the man in front and capable of winning the ball anyway.

What was the count, BTW?

[Milton66]

I was thinking about this myself.

If you didn't know better (or weren't one-eyed) you'd swear we are being unfairly treated by the umpires.

However, in reality it's highly doubtful that that is the case.


So, it may be something the coaches need to look at. Are we being a bit lippy to the umps? Are we a bit undisciplined? Are we too aggressive? Are we second to the ball?

Problem is that there is no consistancy in decisions, and there seems to be a few decisions being wrongly made when umps are blind sided.

Prior opportunity being one of them. And throws being another.

The AFl should start looking at using boundary umps when there is a scrum near the line.

[bergholt]

To answer you yes, I thought they were poor tonight, and last week against Collingwood also. Are we terrible sledgers and arguers on the ground?

i thought they were fine last week and pretty inconsistent last night. i wouldn't mind seeing a compilation of all the milne ones, seems to be there should be five or six that could be highlighted...

[Dis Believer]

After watching the game again, the umpiring wasn't as bad as I thought at the ground.

Milne still tries to milk everything and Schneider should get nine from the Russian judge for every dive. Both of them will struggle to get frees unless they actually lose their heads.

Agree. And nine times out of ten they were the man in front and capable of winning the ball anyway.

What was the count, BTW?

THe count was 11 to 5 Freo's way at half time and by the end of the match it miraculously ended up 20 apeice.