http://www.saints.com.au/news/2017-04-0 ... ffirmation
St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson has labelled it ‘the noise of affirmation’, referring to the West Coast Eagles’ historic free kick advantage at their home base in Perth.
Speaking on Fox Footy’s AFL 360, Richardson didn’t point the finger at the wide 8-23 free kick discrepancy for St Kilda’s 19-point loss on Saturday night, but did draw attention to the Eagles home ground advantage which is leading to lopsided free kick counts.
According to statistics recorded since 1999, West Coast receives the biggest home ground advantage in the AFL receiving 3.58 more free kicks than their opposition when playing at home against sides other than cross-town rivals Fremantle, adding further weight to Richardson’s belief.
“From my perspective, it is (affected from an umpiring perspective). I call it the noise of affirmation,” Richardson said on AFL 360 on Monday night.
“Our game is very grey, particularly from an umpiring perspective and it’s one of the beauties of our game, but particularly with issues like holding the ball.
“You go in there (asking yourself) did he duck? Did he have prior opportunity? Did he dispose of the ball correctly? The umpire has to weigh all this up.
“And then there’s this incredible noise that potentially gives the umpire some form of affirmation. Or if you’re an opposition player there is no noise, there is no affirmation that the umpire is receiving. My experience is the no calls that are the bigger issue.
“We were frustrated and disappointed with some of the sloppy stuff in terms of tackle, but on the flip side some of those that are like for like that we could have got we didn’t get and I reckon that noise.
“And it’s only Perth. Enough of our fans travel to SA and enough of our fans travel to Queensland to perhaps have that noise and influence and noise of affirmation.”