f*** you umpires you cheats

[SMS]

Lost for words.
Umpires YES did not cost us the game but it COST us integrity.
Without the ridiculousness and the destroying nicholls... We wouldve lost by 24-36 points. Does it matter? Not a lot but seriously WHAT IS GOING ON???? Im ready to give up. Blatant biasfrom the umps. Investigation needed. But nothing will happen.

[Devilhead]

Can somebody please explain the 2nd quarter 'deliberate' decision that seemed to be inconsistent with 'non-deliberate' paid 5 seconds later?

The answer lies somewhere between Parkers head high fend off and Fishers head high hit and Swans three 50m penalties and Swans 10m kicks and the Bearhugging love-in of Saint forwards and ........

[Devilhead]

Fisher is at the hospital having scans on his jaw. That fend off certainly was legal though.....

They said it was a clash of heads but it looked like a shoulder hit

[SemperFidelis]

Just got home. Of course they didn't cost us the game. We lost it ourselves early in the 3rd. But we will never know if we could have gotten back. Or lost by 17 instead of 70. The non free kicks, especially Sydney's HTB avoidance method of just letting the ball drop in the tackle as if it spilled free was frustrating as hell. But the final quarter was one of the most dispiriting displays of umpiring I have ever seen. Nicholls should hang his head in shame. He let the crowd get to him and he bloody well knew it.

[saintspremiers]

Nicholls is that bald headed moron number 15.

He should be sacked tonight. Be interested to hear GT's thoughts on this imbecile.

The arsehole had it in for us

[Enrico_Misso]

Can somebody please explain the 2nd quarter 'deliberate' decision that seemed to be inconsistent with 'non-deliberate' paid 5 seconds later?

The answer lies somewhere between Parkers head high fend off and Fishers head high hit and Swans three 50m penalties and Swans 10m kicks and the Bearhugging love-in of Saint forwards and ........

Look The Salary Cap Cheats were harder and tougher and executed better under pressure than us in the third quarter.

But our cause wasn't helped by one of the WORST EVER exhibitions of umpiring.
Who is that bald headed BASTARD?
That ARSEHOLE PRICK is nothing short of a cheat.
We MUST complain about this TURD.
He must NEVER UMPIRE AGAIN!!

[bigcarl]

Nicholls should hang his head in shame. He let the crowd get to him and he bloody well knew it.

Agree. Must always have a question mark against his name after that and you couldn't possibly put the bald git in charge of a final. Could you?

Surely he won't be umpiring a seniors game next week. Surely ...

The weakest umpiring performance I have seen, and I've seen plenty of weak ones.

[SemperFidelis]

From the Age match report:


"They had reason to be unhappy with the umpires, who missed high contact on two occasions which led to goals, though it was by no means the reason their game was unravelling".

[Linton Lodger]

And a big f*** you from me to the Umpires. What a disgraceful performance!

[SemperFidelis]

Even the Hun gets into Nicholls:

"Second-half incidents involving playmaker Luke Parker and ruckman Toby Nankervis are likely to attract the scrutiny of the match review panel.

Parker’s fend on Daniel McKenzie’s face and Nankervis’ shoulder into Sam Fisher’s jaw failed to draw free kicks from umpire Matthew Nicholls, who was close to both incidents."

[satchmo]

Even the Hun gets into Nicholls:

"Second-half incidents involving playmaker Luke Parker and ruckman Toby Nankervis are likely to attract the scrutiny of the match review panel.

Parker’s fend on Daniel McKenzie’s face and Nankervis’ shoulder into Sam Fisher’s jaw failed to draw free kicks from umpire Matthew Nicholls, who was close to both incidents."

Sounds like a couple of swans players might be facing a fifteen dollar fine.

[Enrico_Misso]

Even the Hun gets into Nicholls:

"Second-half incidents involving playmaker Luke Parker and ruckman Toby Nankervis are likely to attract the scrutiny of the match review panel.

Parker’s fend on Daniel McKenzie’s face and Nankervis’ shoulder into Sam Fisher’s jaw failed to draw free kicks from umpire Matthew Nicholls, who was close to both incidents."

After the Fisher incident several of our players including Riewoldt gesticulated to the umpire indicating he had missed an obvious free.
Looks like the bald headed prick decided that he would get revenge on them for questioning his judgement.
Fair to say that he paid us back big time.

[saintbrat]

As I listen to the umpire call during the match - with the Buddy 50 there was a clear 'not 50' heard before it is overridden by another umpire calling '50'

Certainly seemed to be plenty of bias

Comment made after the game ' the umpires came out in the dark and appeared to adjudicate that way'

[Trev from the Bush]

I don't like umpire bashing BUT............

The worst performance I have ever seen by a senior umpire goes to Matthew Nicholls, number 15, the self-centred turd who must believe over 33,000 people went to Etihad jsut for the pleasure of watching him umpire! Bet the AFL say absolutely nothing this week about his bias, blindness and total loss of control. No doubt he will be rewarded with finals duties.

If this match was the "pride" game how proud must the AFL be of this substandard twit? If we were a truly tolerant society, and we are not, we would foster "inclusiveness" of umpires - as well as LGBTI's or whatevers. But you can bet your toy poodle that Nicholls would be pissed on from a great height if he ever dared to show his face at a StKilda function!

[markmark]

I will be very upset if the saints do not question # 15 fn prick.

[Sawf]

I'm not sure whether I'm over-reacting, but the thought of this is still making me livid, six hours later.

I don't think the result would have changed - we were horribly under-manned in that second half and it was always going to be hard with both Dunstan and Gears out in the first place. However, I can't help but think if that blatant high fend-off was given our way, as it should have been, the whole game might have changed. A kick into our forward line, followed by a goal would certainly have (at least) put a temporary halt to the momentum they were building.

We all know that this isn't the first time this has happened to us, not just this season either, so should we (Saintsational) look at starting a petition - either to present to the club (preferred option) or the AFL?

Perhaps if the club (or the AFL) saw some comments like that from wasaintsfan (sorry to single you out, but your comment really rang true) they might actually do something about it.

I don't even live in Australia and it's hard enough for me to stomach, let alone the supporters who pay good money to get along to games every single week.

Taking yesterday's opposition as an example - they don't need the umpire's help on top of their draft and salary cap concessions.

Something needs to be done because we'll continue to get shafted if it doesn't.

[bigcarl]

I don't like umpire bashing BUT............

The worst performance I have ever seen by a senior umpire goes to Matthew Nicholls, number 15, the self-centred turd who must believe over 33,000 people went to Etihad jsut for the pleasure of watching him umpire! Bet the AFL say absolutely nothing this week about his bias, blindness and total loss of control. No doubt he will be rewarded with finals duties.

If this match was the "pride" game how proud must the AFL be of this substandard twit? If we were a truly tolerant society, and we are not, we would foster "inclusiveness" of umpires - as well as LGBTI's or whatevers. But you can bet your toy poodle that Nicholls would be pissed on from a great height if he ever dared to show his face at a StKilda function!

Well said. It will be interesting to see whether this moron gets a game next round or a final.

[saintspremiers]

Just heard Nicholls has finally come out. It was the Pride match. But no, not as part of the LGBTIQ community. Those folk are good honest citizens. But as a liar and cheat.

What chance is the mainstream media of showing him up? Nil!

[samuraisaint]

Was he the umpire officiating the Hawthorn game as well?

[happy feet]

The AFL need Sydney to have a first up home final.

It was probably a stretch to beat Sydney.

But always remember this line.......Sydney Swan, subsidised by the AFL.

[mambo2706]

Was he the umpire officiating the Hawthorn game as well?

No. That wa Andrew Stephens #12

[samuraisaint]

I don't think Buddy could believe his luck.

[mullet]

Nicholls is that bald headed moron number 15.

He should be sacked tonight. Be interested to hear GT's thoughts on this imbecile.

The arsehole had it in for us

Said it as soon as I saw he was umpiring. I said oh no I hate this guy he is really unfair. Isnt he the one who was mr "not 15" in hawthorn game. I have also seen him umpire no saints games and he really has an ego that should be checked at the door. thanks thommo.

Those 50 metres sent me home. twas nothing more than a "suck on that saints supporters" from him.

I also saw a side of buddy I didnt like eiher. think he went the man a little bit too much last night and those elbows are lethal. he is a brilliant player and I have always admired him, however I lost a bit of that admiration last night to tell the truth. A little bit of hawthorn still in buddy

[Kate]

I'm still getting my head around the umpiring performance last night. It was the worst I've seen, and I've seen some shockers. If the AFL is serious about the integrity of it's game, Nicholls won't umpire again, but unfortunately I expect he'll be there next week, business as usual. Umpires don't get dropped anymore, and that is the problem. They see themselves as untouchable and too many are too full of their own arrogance to officiate without bias.

Media don't want to put the AFL offside, so therefore any commentary on umpiring is very limited.

I think the AFL needs to use a bigger pool of umpires and be prepared to drop an umpire when his/her performance isn't up to scratch. I love to see some pressure from up and coming umpires so the senior boys/girls feel they need to work hard to keep their spots.

My 9 year daughter announced last night that she wants to be an umpire. I was surprised. But now I think about it I think she would have done a better job last night than Nicholls.

[George27]

Umpiring is a very tough gig, and overall they do a pretty good job. It is rare to see an umpire lose composure , but Matthew Nicholls did. As a Swans supporter in front of me last night said, he made it all about himself.

I recall a game at Western Oval in 1978, when a first game umpire got caught up in the moment of Templeton kicking a bag, and gifted him non-existent marks and frees. Templeton kicked 8 in the last quarter and 15.9 for the match, and I expected the ump to pull out an autograph book after the game.

In that instance the young ump was incompetent but human. Nicholls was alas just vindictive.

Still , it did not cost us the match , and we should have responded better . If everyone chucked it in when they get the rough end of the pineapple, there would be no one out there either playing or umpiring .

At least we gave a chance to atone next week. One would hope Mr Nicholls would be given a week off to reflect on what role he is meant to play as an umpire.