AFL umpires: Pros or pretenders?
Roar Rookie By Tommo, 25 Apr 2011 Tommo is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- Adrian Anderson, AFL, AFL umpires, Essendon Bombers, Paul Roos
Related coverage
It’s time for change. Our AFL players are professionals, so is it too much to expect the umpires to be professionals too?
There has been an ongoing discussion debating the effectiveness of umpires in the ‘greatest game of all’. Paul Roos, respected and legendary former player and coach of the Sydney Swans, stated in 2004 that “umpires were amateur whistle-blowers” and something needed to improve.
Given the money in the sport, the extensive fan base and the constant criticism generated on this topic, it’s time to change now.
Umpires are part-time employees. Can we, as passionate fans, continue to tolerate and watch our game crumble with poor decisions as a result of lack of training and professionalism?
Currently umpires receive a mere 23 hours per week of training in rules, regulations, and everything they need to know in order to be ‘on-field experts’. It’s not enough!
A clear example of this came in Round 2 when Essendon took on the Swans at ANZ. In an extremely close game and one that came down to the final minutes we saw a terrible decision that everyone but the umpire saw.
Essendon’s Brent Stanton clearly deserved a free kick for a push in the back, but didn’t get it. The Swans ran the full length of the field and kicked a goal to win the game. People will say that’s just football, but why have we come to accept these shocking calls?
AFL Operations Manager Adrian Anderson states that the NRL has full time referees on its books and the AFL needs to “improve the output of its own officials.” Too right mate. It’s time to change.
To improve this dilemma viable solutions have been offered, such as identifying promising umpires and sending them to a purpose-built umpiring academy. University scholarships would be offered in order to improve the standard of officiating around the league. Why we haven’t done it already is a mystery.
One billion dollars in broadcasting rights are about to be paid to the AFL. This is big money, big business and big salaries for players. What about the umpires?
It is clear this money is not being distributed where it needs to be – to address the problem of poor decision making by underpaid, undertrained umpires.
Gary Ablett is being paid $1.2 million a year, while umpires get $60,000 a year and are relying on full time jobs outside of umpiring as their main source of income.
Why don’t we bump up their salaries to $150,000 or $200,000 a year and give them a proper career path? This will definitely improve the current inventory of errors I witness each week because simply, it’s just not good enough.
The time has come. The need is there. The solutions being advocated by most of us in the AFL community are now clearly achievable given the current financial security of the league through the broadcasting agreement.
As fervent fans of our great game we are entitled to watch our teams at their finest with the finest umpires that money can buy, so that we are not left robbed and in tears at the final siren.
The time for change is now.
The Crowd Says (2) | Page 1 of Comments
Have Your Say
- Explore:
- Adrian Anderson, AFL, AFL umpires, Essendon Bombers, Paul Roos
April 25th 2011 @ 9:50pm
Rob McLean said | April 25th 2011 @ 9:50pm | Report comment
Interesting article and a view that’s been mooted across several forums.
Strange that no one has commented on this piece, considering how much we share opinions of their on field work.
I believe they need to be full time. It can be entirely justified given the money in the game today.
April 28th 2011 @ 12:13pm
Bayman said | April 28th 2011 @ 12:13pm | Report comment
I guess it depends entirely on the result we get. Paying them more for the same performance just seems like a waste of money. I’m still trying to work out how that umpire penalised the player for deliberate out of bounds when it landed forty metres from the boundary line and then changed direction on the bounce. It was, at best incompetent and at worst, extremely incompetent.
It highlights, though, one of the problems of umpires, particularly today. For years I watched footy – with a completely different set of rules, I might add – and the umpire would invariably cop it for not seeing what we thought was obvious.
Today, no doubt with the Giesch in their ear, umpires are trying to read minds. They all seem to have that “I know what you really meant” attitiude and they simply guess based on….what? Their vast experience?
The rules committee have so changed the game, while largely ruining it, that the subtlety of interpretations and the frees given for virtually no contact are a constant frustration. Every rule change has been brought in not to improve the game but to make the umpires life easier. Presumably, to make decisions simpler and more obvious.
In doing so, the essence of the game has changed. Fans of the 60s, 70s and 80s do not recognise the holding the ball rule anymore. The one player to be penalised by this rule now is the only player going for the ball. This, apparently, is progress.
So, if we are going to pay them more money and make them full time then at least revert back to the rules of the 60s, 70s and 80s and make the buggers earn their money. I don’t wish to make life easier for umpires, I wish to make life easier for players and fans.
Do away with “chopping the arms” rubbish, get rid of the “prior opportunity” rubbish, play on when the ball is lost by the force of the tackle, penalise the guy who refuses to attempt to dispose of the ball and just takes it to ground, ignore the divers who deliberately fall forward in any tackle, ignore “in the back” free kicks when a player comes in from the side, award free kicks for all arms around the neck or over the shoulder instead of just the select few of today, ignore guys who duck their head into the oncoming tackler (if he breaks his neck it’s his problem) and get rid of any umpire who thinks he knows what the player was thinking – and guesses accordingly.
And get rid of Gieschen and the rules committee. The AFL is the only sporting organisation in the world who thinks it is mandatory to continually, annually, change the rules of the game. I assume these constant rules changes are merely an admission that the AFL has f**ked it up in every previous year!