The good, bad and ugly of AFL 2020

Nah, probably just because he's a Freo fan.

Nice first article, Jimmy. You have to start somewhere, and making strong statements is the way to go. Of course, I completely disagree with you about short quarters and unlimited interchanges. Endurance is a part of the game. Some players, like Bradly Hill, shine at the end of the game when everyone else is gasping for breath. Let's not take that away from them. The AFL actually made a lot of other leagues look silly this year. They handled COVID better than anyone else, with the possible exception of MLB. But baseball didn't start until the end of July, which was pretty unnecessary, IMHO. After the madness this springs, I was really worried AFL would cancel, but they kept their heads and made it work. Good on them!

Nice review Jimmy. About time someone else agrees with me about Roos and Lyon, I’m sick of their names being bandied about for the very reasons you give. Optus is just another sponsored ground that I can’t honestly tell you off the top of my head which city it is in. Too many sponsors names. Don’t get me started on the score review, there are plenty of umpires on the ground, leave it up to them. They might get some wrong, but if the broadcasters stopped playing replay after replay then people wouldn’t be as antagonistic towards umpires. Hopefully we’ll see both Essendon and North get their off field acts together, and it will reflect on match day performance

Good fun article. A Good read.

I'm going to respond to two of your posts in one here: This whole "there's no transparency with umpiring" quip that people like to pull out is just pure fiction. The umpires are mic'd up. We can hear every single word they say on the park. Every single justification for a free. Every single justification for a ball up etc. That's ridiculously transparent. We also learn through the assignment of matches during the finals that umpires are clearly being rewarded for good performances and not rewarded for error riddled performances. Razor Ray was not selected for umpiring the prelims because of his errors. That was transparent. Why should the umpires be "punished" for making a mistake? Are the players punished for making a mistake? Players can string 2-3 bad games in a row before a coach starts thinking about dropping them down to the two's. Should Buddy Franklin be punished for kicking 2.6 in a game that Sydney lose by under a goal? Should Matthew Lloyd have been punished for missing a kick after the siren to win the game - a kick he should have slotted for someone of his talents and salary? What a horrific workplace environment you are setting up if they are to be punished for mistakes. The fact you are a self-confessed horrific umpire should probably mean you know it's a demanding job and you should probably be quiet. AFL umpires are clearly better than you in the job.

I agree that it’s an exceptionally difficult game to umpire but there have been some absolute pearlers the last few years haha

I’ve done it before spruce and as I’m sure that many many many people are willing to do will tell you I am positively horrendous. I don’t like the fact that there isn’t any transparency with the umpiring and it damages the spectacle

The umps can't see because of OPSM (other people see more)

"....thrown..." :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Agreed. I find it incredible that people will rag on the $150k for a mistake, but it's completely ok for a $700k full forward missing from 25 out in front. I know who I would be more critical of if it was my money.

Spot on Spruce. I doubt many critcs of the umpires have ever taken to the field to officiate a game (at any level). There are 36 players out there and often within about 1/3 of the ground. No matter how well they position themselves, the umpires are not guaranteed a clear view of every infringement and have to contend with players moving in all directions. It's a tough job and there are plenty of couch potatoes (usually with a biased view) who like to think because they have the benefit of multiple slow mo tv replays, the umpires should have made a different decision even though they only had a split second to adjudicate. In a game of AFL football, there are hundreds of mistakes - made by coaches, players and umpires. I believe the umpires do a pretty good job considering the challenges thrown at them.

We all need to give the umpires a break. They work bloody hard, and get given a pretty raw deal from HQ both with the constant adjustment with the interpretation guidelines, and that they get rubbish pay for the abuse they cop. Let's not criticise people for doing something we won't do ourselves. And frankly, we really all could train up as umpires if we wanted to. It's a skill we can learn, not ones we need to be born with like players.

Maybe you should become an umpire Chuckakhan instead of ripping into them. Don't criticise someone for doing what you won't do yourself, yeah?

They are not on bloody good money, WCE. That's the problem. They are disgracefully underpaid. Umpires who umpire each week and get to the finals will pocket about $150k a year. That is not bloody good money considering the absolutely unfair abuse they cop from armchair whingers like you. Under no circumstances would I think that is a fair salary for the job they are doing. Now, if you think that is bloody good money and is more than you earn, then you go and train up as an umpire. If they were on bloody good money there would be more people who want to pursue that as a career path, and then maybe there might be a super elite group of people coming through the ranks. Otherwise, give them a break. It's a tough job and one that I guarantee they do better than you.

Nice article

It’s not an easy game to umpire mate, especially these days. There’s lots of different interpretations and definitions coming from HQ so that’s why they defend. As I mentioned in an earlier post the only one I have a real issue with atm is the HTM where the player takes possession, drops it and then the other guy completes the tackle and gets pinged for HTM. Fair enough you need to encourage the play makers but you have to dispose of it correctly surely.

I think you’ll find that Ripleys concerns are more with 50/50 umpiring decisions that go against WC, not the other way round.

I think the umpiring has been positively horrendous, and the AFL reflexively backing in their umpires is an outrage, what they should do I think is make a more transparent system of punishments for the umpires and any major mistakes they make, so we don’t have post gate or anything like that

Holding the ball was an interesting one this year. You can handle the odd difference in interpretation and a free not being paid but when a player takes possession, is tackled, drops the ball and then the tackler is penalised for holding the man? Yeh, nah.