you can only say that now that Bill Harrigan is retired.

Actually, now that you have 2 refs in NRL, it’s harder for any one ref to play ‘school master’, (as still happens in other single ref games).

reality is, even the umpires need a few rounds to get ‘warmed up’. Normally the interpretations start to sort themselves out, and the way the game is umpired in the latter half of the year seems better than early on in the year (likely too that the players have ‘adjusted’ as appropriate).

I hate 50 m penalties being paid for non-game related activity. (i.e. verbals etc, and perhaps we just have a yellow card for such offences).

Incidental contact has to return regarding body on body duals such as marking especially.

Benefit of the doubt needs to be formalised, especially for the poor bugger on the bottom of the pack – - way too many times, a guy is getting done on the technical interpretation rather than the ‘spirit of the game/law’ – - – which, fair enough brings grey area interpretation into it, but, it’s inflexible field umpire red tape that really drives supporters batty. We can handle the player stuff ups, and turn overs etc, but, umpires seemingly going out of their way to find a trivial free kick when we all just want a hard contest umpired like the Grand Final, i.e. ‘play on lads’, or ‘my ball lads’, and give us a bounce, a neutral restart and back into the fiercely contested footy.

The whole time, the offending player is standing there with this puzzled/p*ssed off look on his face as if to say “Hey, buddy, I know I f***in’ infringed so just blow the f***in’ whistle and quit the f***in’ lecture you trumped up little twerp who couldn’t get a kick in the juniors so took up umpiring instead, and now wants to exert some authority….!”

That’s Gold.

How many Carlton fans have jumped out of the woodwork, all of sudden their following the footy again not Victory, Storm Afgan Thirds…. typical bloody Carlton supporters. Can’t agree with you on the draft picks, they have to be meaningful if your going to try and even things up. Doesn’t mean a dynasty as the salary cap will put a break on their emerging stars. They might win one flag in the next 1-3 years, the year after they wont be able to keep the group together.

Redb

The ones that REALLY annoy me is when they blow a free kick and the player seems to be willing to accept it without argument, but they STILL feel the need to run up to the mark and lecture the bloke for the next 30 seconds about what he did wrong! “Mate, you were all over him, you never had eyes for the ball, you grabbed his shirt and never made an attempt to spoil, you’ve gotta have eyes for the footy…..” The whole time, the offending player is standing there with this puzzled/p*ssed off look on his face as if to say “Hey, buddy, I know I f***in’ infringed so just blow the f***in’ whistle and quit the f***in’ lecture you trumped up little twerp who couldn’t get a kick in the juniors so took up umpiring instead, and now wants to exert some authority….!”

It definitely doesn’t help player/umpire relations.

I do have to say there are two aspects of Bruce’s article I don’t agree with though. The head high tackle ruling is, in my opinion, becoming a complete farce. Teams are being hugely penalised (free kick in front of goal anyone?) for the most minor and unintentional of indiscretions. Two blokes go at it in a ruck contest, both with arms raised above their heads and inevitable a pinky finger comes into contact with someone’s ear and the umps give a free kick for head high contact! The players all look around like stunned mullets trying to work out what the hell was wrong with that particular contest and the recipient is surprised to discover his good fortune.

Surely the intention of the rule is to protect a player’s head. When the contact is so minimal and unintentional that the recipient doesn’t even notice it, it is ridiculous. It also encourages players to go to ground in the hope of attracting high contact, which is completely OPPOSITE to the intention of the rule. Players are actually happily endangering their own safety to win a free kick!

I know it would increase the interpreation required of umpires, but I reckon there needs to be some threshold of intensity of contact or recklessness or intent before the umps give these kinds of free kicks.

Secondly, I can’t agree that it is a good thing to see Carlton on top of the table. Not only because I’m a Pies fan, but mainly because it is a ridiculous outcome of the AFL’s system of over-rewarding poor performance. Everyone agrees that the teams finishing at the bottom should get the first picks in the draft, but priority picks and all that rubbish effectively mean that Carlton has been given the potential to build a significant dynasty purely because they were so bad for so long. If they win more than one premiership in the next 5 years I’ll dead set be blowing up!

Agree on Hirdy, what a legend.

Tigers? ………nuff said.

Swannies played the Hawthorn Under 18s.

Redb

But then you see them prance around during the game, calling players by their first name, making comments about the way the players are playing the game, and if a player should dare talk back? 50m!!! For me, it all started when James Hird made those comments about Scott McLaren on the Footy Show. Here was a champion player, who was an honest a player as he was a champion, making some concerned comments about a particular umpire. Sure, maybe not the way to go about it, but he was put through the wringer for it. The message was loud and clear, ‘We don’t care who you are, you are not as important as an umpire’. Respect from players to umpires from that day went out the window. The AFL tried to manufacture “respect” but this has only succeeded in increasing the gap between players and umpires.

I agree with your assersions. The best umps are the ones you don’t notice. The best games are those that take care of themselves. Rule in the spirit of the game. Don’t make yourselves the spectacle. Nobody pays money to see free kicks and no one listens to the radio/tv to hear your comments on the game.