The Dal Santo incident - Free kick to Sydney

[brown-coat]

Well, i must point out that this was one massive piece of s*** decision.

Dal Santo was milimeters from being knocked unconcious by that useless thug Hall and he was pinged for holding the ball.

What kind of f****** rules are these f****** umpires following. Protect the f****** player who is on the verge of receiving brain damage.

Weren't the rules modified to stop these Byron Prickett like situations occuring all the time? Or did i read incorrectly.

f****** santa clause.

[stinger]

well...i was listening to two fuctards on fm radio at the ground...two former dud swine players...luff and some other creep...they actually wondered why lenny got a 50 metre penalty awarded to him when he was monstered after taking a mark.....wanted to know if it was a new rule or something...and they were former players...

,,,,but even they were embarressed when the guy who raped fraser in the goal square got a free kick...ffs.......disgraceful performance.....

[TimeToShineFellas]

There's an old phrase that applies to last night's umpires...........

"The people you meet when you don't have a gun"


The Dal Santo decision summed up the umpiring last night.

[Mr Magic]

Don't be surprized if NDS is 'cited' by the match review panel for attempting to swallow Hall's forearm/elbow!

I believe that Saints Board have asked their lawyers to check out if we can sue the Umpires for 'fraud by masquerading as impartial competent officials'.

They plan to call the Swans Coaching Staff as witnesses as they were seen by many to be laughing at many of the free kick gidts given to them last night.

[QueenC]

There is no way around it, that was a bloody awful decision !!!

[saintspremiers]

it was farken corrupt.

send the umpires to jail for attempted match fixing.

god damn I am ropeable about it.

Dally should ask for a written apology from those maggots.

[hamill01]

I really couldn't believe that he got penalized. After a few earlier dodge ones i thought to myself "It can't get any worse." Too bad it did. I had to walk away from the TV in disgust after the whistle blew for holding the ball.

But what do you expect from a player who can punch someone 50m out of play and still play the next week?

[LennyBoy]

Umpiring aside, we didnt deserve to win. In summarising we also got some soft free kicks, so you can't complain, it happens every week.

[To the top]

Look at the ego-maniac at the top of the AFL and ask what his agenda is.

[Behind Play]

This is two weeks in a row now, is there some agenda against us again this season.

[Animal Enclosure]

Despite how inept we were, the umpiring was deplorable.

They are getting away with it more this year, probably because of the in the back rule allowing people to say 'don't blame the umps, it's the rules of the game committee'.

Has the AFL instructed various media to not report terrible umpiring? No stats given on free kicks, very little mention by commentators & nothing in the press. They are being protected more than ever under the old 'we can't recruit umpires' excuse (which wouldn't be the case if AFL umpires were instructed to show some sort of feeling for the game).

The whole competition is flawed in it's supposed aim to be even. Poor leadership on too many levels...it's like having friggin politicians in charge.

[CURLY]

The worst thing about this game was that it was a arm wrestle with no team giving each other a inch. Both teams fought for each goal and the last team standing was going to prevail. Then the stooges decide to farck it how on earth was that paid a free against Dal paid? Not only was he held before he took position hit high and no prior it was 35 meters out directly in front. To rub it in they pay that mark to Schmit after denying Roo a mark in the goalsquare when he had the same purchase on the ball and was hit high and front on by Jolly. Four goals from frees in such a tight game is a joke and if Gieshan says they dont change interpretations game by game hes a bigger fraud than any polition.

[spert]

As already said here, we didn't deserve to win and also got a few soft frees in our favour. Dont' let dodgy umpiring disguise the fact that we played crap footy.

[Eastern]

If people are unhappy with the umpiring (and we often are) why not write to Jeff Gieschen or Rowan Sawyers and ask for the details of the "Missed & Unwarranted" Free Kicks from the game.

Gieschen has stated publicly on a number of occasions that he has no problem releasing this information if people request it in a civilised manner.

Email would be the best method !!

[CURLY]

Spert we didnt play crap footy we played a game were every inch gained was critical to have a number of poor decisions payed against us put the balance in the SWANS favour and the result went there way.

[St DAC]

It sure looked like crap footy ...

[CURLY]

It does look like crap footy yes,but Sydney dont allow the game to be played any other way.

[meher baba]

Is it beyond the intellect of some people on this forum to appreciate that the statements

1. we played badly
2. the umpires gave some dreadful decisions against us

can both be true at the same time?

Yes, we should have won anyway: we certainly had enough chances.

But have a look at a tape of the game. There were at least 4-5 absolutely appalling umpiring decisions that probably cost us goals - either by giving a free kick to the Swans in front of their goal, or by stopping our momentum towards our goal - and these were not borderline, or based upon honest mistakes, but all classic examples of the umpiring tendencies GT identified a couple of years ago in his much-maligned - but totally just attack

1. not actually seeing what is going on, but trying to award a free kick on the basis of a guess (eg, the free kick awarded to O'Keeffe for Gilbert holding the ball)
2. showing off: eg, by spotting a "free kick" that the others missed (the free kick awarded against Leigh Fisher for a perfectly ok tackle that was deemed to be too high by the umpire at the other end of the field)

There is no excuse for such poor umpiring: particularly in the case of #1, which ought to result in an instant demotion to the VFL or wherever.

If I were in charge of the umpiring, I would instruct all umpires that I would be extremely lenient in the case of honest mistakes (eg, the failure to notice that Dal had been hit in the head: presumably the umpire didn't see this), but would comb through the tapes every week and come down like a ton of bricks on obvious cases of umpires guessing what was happening rather than using their eyes, or where they have clearly responded to crowd noise.

There is no excuse for professional officials to give "home" free kicks with the frequency that the umps do in AFL these days, especially for holding the ball and deliberately out of bounds.

Professional officials iin other sports (watch British football for example) pride themselves on shutting out the noise of the partisan crowd and, if anything, err on the side of being a bit hard on home teams.

Not in AFL: I reckon only Allen, Kennedy, Goldspink (but he has other problems) and sometimes Vozzo are immune from letting the crowd direct them into giving free kicks. The rest ought to be ashamed of themselves: there are lots of people umpiring junior matches who can do better than this.

[Grimfang]

Not having seen the incident myself (could only get radio coverage of the game), is it likely that Hall may have a case to answer at the MRP?

[Superboot]

Professional officials iin other sports (watch British football for example) pride themselves on shutting out the noise of the partisan crowd and, if anything, err on the side of being a bit hard on home teams

I agree with everything you have said, MB, but have you ever seen a penalty awarded against Manchester United at Old Trafford

[meher baba]

Not having seen the incident myself (could only get radio coverage of the game), is it likely that Hall may have a case to answer at the MRP?

Ought to, but it won't happen because the AFL wouldn't want to embarass the umpire that much (look at the tape again and see how close the ump was standing to the incident: it's a decision on a par with some of the things X did during the game).

[meher baba]

Professional officials iin other sports (watch British football for example) pride themselves on shutting out the noise of the partisan crowd and, if anything, err on the side of being a bit hard on home teams

I agree with everything you have said, MB, but have you ever seen a penalty awarded against Manchester United at Old Trafford

Well, a couple come to mind (and I have a strong recollection of the fans just about burning the stands down after a red card as well), but I take your point.

[CURLY]

Hall wont have a case to answer but it would be interesting to hear the umpires reasoning to why there was no free to Dal for to high then why he was pinned for holding it. There is no doubt in my mind that the umpires changed there interpretations of holding the ball for that game a couple on Jones were red hot. Also why pick a couple of infringements out on Richards when clearly every contest he infringed on Roo.

[Dal'sGal26]

Anyone have a link to footage of the incident?
Didn't get to watch it.

[loving_the_dal]

Anyone have a link to footage of the incident?
Didn't get to watch it.

yeah same. not sure if i really want to watch it though.
might go crazy.