Where are the umpire apologists tonight?

[Hawkesbury Saint]

Where? What can be said? Absolutely disgraceful. Contemptous treatment of saints going for the ball. Three kicking in danger decisions left and one of them turns into a free goal! Laughable! Eddie may be overseas but he certainly left a war chest! Absolutely ridiculous. Umpire apologists enjoy the stage. Let your comedy routine begin.

[matrix]

he should be along in an hour or so.....

[meher baba]

I sometimes defend the unps but I thought they were shocking tonight: from the outset, they let the crowd get to them and they never regained control.

All that said, we would have won if Milne hadn't engaged in several ridiculous acts of self-indulgence which possibly cost us two goals and gave them one. He should be dropped for such ill-discipline

[SainterK]

The non decision to Kosi was the moment, would of been a shot on goal for a win, not a draw.

Why are defenders allowed to hang/scrag so often on our forwards?

[Verdun66]

Not here.....I'm a raving lunatic here about it. Shocking.

[saintspremiers]

The umpire apologist, P66, is too busy drinking and dreaming up a way of defending 22 frees to 12.

[bergholt]

I'm usually a defender of the umps. Unfortunately, tonight was the first Saints game this year where I reckon the umpiring actually affected the result. No conspiracy - though obviously Milne gets fewer frees than he deserves - but just a poorly umpired game which skewed against us. No fun at all.

[Hurricane]

The umpire apologist, P66, is too busy drinking and dreaming up a way of defending 22 frees to 12.

25-14.

BANG BANG

[Teflon]

The umpire apologist, P66, is too busy drinking and dreaming up a way of defending 22 frees to 12.

How many free kicks resulted in shots on goal??? its where you get em...

I kept seeing holding the ball only paid in Pies fwd 50....

Simply amazed that inept level of umpiring performance in a professional, modern day sport is allowed.... and no point complaining cause NOTHING will be done bout it and people will hide behind "there are 100 minutes" in a game shyte.

[suss]

I thought maybe it was just me but even the 3aw news paid out on the umpires.

I can't recall a more biased, blatent, contemptable umpiring performance in all my life - almost cheating.

[bigcarl]

One will be along soon to explain how we should all bend over and take it.

[Hawkesbury Saint]

I'm off to watch Hawkesbury Jnr play tomorrow. I am currently encouraging him to consider umpriring. We have a big need in junior footy here in NSW. I think there's a whole lot more money in umpiring rather than playing. You get to play God with impunity. Look at P66 as a prime example. He's not arrogant, self-centred and crass, he's an AFL umpire. Come to think of it, I love my son too much. Maybe he should stick to playing.

[Griggsy]

The last 10 minutes had things flyng across the room

[stinger]

I sometimes defend the unps but I thought they were shocking tonight: from the outset, they let the crowd get to them and they never regained control.

All that said, we would have won if Milne hadn't engaged in several ridiculous acts of self-indulgence which possibly cost us two goals and gave them one. He should be dropped for such ill-discipline

i would have to agree with your there....

[stinger]

I thought maybe it was just me but even the 3aw news paid out on the umpires.

I can't recall a more biased, blatent, contemptable umpiring performance in all my life - almost cheating.

no...it was blatant cheating.....and was that way all night...at one stage the free count was 10
-3 the filth way....anytime we got a run on...the maggots pulled us back.....in the end when we looked like pulling off a win......all pretext of fairness just went out the window.....

....the maggots got the result they wanted....


someone should check just who connected to them had any big wins with the bookies......it happens....

[The Jeff]

Just so disappointing. It seems that when the ferals turned up the heat on the umpires they buckled with little resolve. Like I said, just so disappointing.

[saintkev]

The umpires aren't cheats. Tonight's were just pathetic, easily conned by a noisy, aggressive crowd and swayed by mouthy 'pie players. It's a shame Geischen doesn't have a public email address. Perhaps the club could ask him some pertinent questions.

[SainterJ]

Five inside fifties for a score of 1 goal 4 points. We got one.

[battye]

And this still wasn't the umpires worst performance against St Kilda this year... Or should I say best given the number of goals the Pies kicked from frees directly in front?

[samuraisaint]

The umpire apologist, P66, is too busy drinking and dreaming up a way of defending 22 frees to 12.

actually 25 to 14

but more to the point, was where they got theirs

The umpires were clearly fearful of making any decisions in our forward 50 in our favour, but not so the other way
likewise vital decisions in our defensive 50 were ignored, while several 50/50 decisions were paid to our opponents


Think a few questions need answering - club needs to stand up, matter of principle now, I should think

[WellardSaint]

I was stoked when one of the Three Blind Mice gave a free against Shaw for deliberate out of bounds - actually it was 2 against the Pies-
but because the feral monkeys screamed abuse, they umps decided to overcompensate in a big way.
Nice little touch at the end, when we had a choice of 3 to run into an open goal, the little cheat blew the whistle a & stood there with his bony arm outstretched
in a moment of pure theatre and irony.
How happy he must be that he, a scrawny emaciated fellow, could overpower big strong macho men just with a little silver whistle.

[I Love Peter Kiel]

It is corruption...pure and simple.

[kalsaint]

The umpire apologist, P66, is too busy drinking and dreaming up a way of defending 22 frees to 12.

According to the AFL site this was 25 to 14. Either way i stinks and continues to show the bias and effect the umpires are having on the game and finals distribution.

When is technology going to play a part and introduce an external view to 50/50 decisions that can turn games? This need only be in the last 10 minutes of any game.

Umpire numbers have swelled and game speed has increased with it. They not getting it any more right than 20 years ago and claiming am 80% correct decision rate as acceptable is a ridiculously poor target in critical situations like today. Geish, you need to go if you truly believe this is good enough. Even though Saints performance was not good enough to win today and Collingwood probably had more chances to win, the umpires are not the ones to impact the result when wrong. Bring in some sense and technology. You could 6 umpire out there and still keep getting key things wrong.

AFL stop playing with rules to embed what's there. Umpires might have a chance to increase correect decisions to 90%. That's getting cloe to where I believe umpire decisions should be.

[TJMcCarthy]

No support from me. That was intolerable. That absolutely sucks the big one. I can't stand bitchin but...fug me dead! Blind fuggin Freddy could see the bias. Please tell me where I can vent a direct complaint with the AFL?

I reckon the Saints just got the biggest stiff job since Anthony Rocca kicked that goal in a grand final which was called a point.

14 to 25 free kicks in Collingwood's favour! (not including the infringements which were not paid to us!!). -Get the fug out of here.

The free to Dawes which was soft as shitt and then Kosi getting nothing when the same thing was done to him!?

Gram holding the ball was not there, And then Brown does the exact same thing a minute later and gets away with it.

Jones being held off the ball on forward flank -was there.

Milne ruthlessly disciplined unfairly with a 50m penalty for swearing!!.

Saad holding the ball was bullshitt.

'Milne chopping the arm of Harry O!' -Turn it up! The ump was clearly guessing at the most crucial moment of the game. Uneffin believable!!.

That god awful, last gasp in the game, umpiring decision ought place all the grey area ruling interpretations in more shitt than a Werribee duck.

How can any fair minded avid footy follower be expected to fathom out the sickening lopsided reality of a wrong call denying a drawn game.. That's just off the fuggin Richter scale.

What is even worse is the stain on the game itself. It's a joke. I think i might go follow another code entirely. The AFL is a joke. Fancy letting the umps have the final say in who wins a tight game of football.

There is a dreadful smelly problem here. It has caused a massive blight on our indigenous game. More than anything else imo, it is the unbalanced grey areas of adjudication that has brought our game of footy into ill repute.

1. The St Kilda Football club has every right to create a massive fuss. DO SO PLEASE! The game itself needs an honest look at itself, or the AFL will deservedly suffer the joke tag from all other codes forever.

2. A glaring spotlight MUST shine something fierce on those woeful umpires.

3. Questions must be raised. Are those umps involved in match fixing?

4. Intense scrutiny must come onto the AFL this week, or the game go to ruin.

Yeah, I am steamed, but i just watched my beloved Saints get crucified in a crucial game.

[Thinline]

No one seems to make mention of the Rioli/Duncan holding the ball on Friday night too. At least the umpire didn't speculate in those circumstances. He did in our game. Many decisions can influence an outcome. I have NEVER in all my years of watching football ever seen one single umpiring error actually directly impact a result. Until now.