Staging is a huge part of the game.
The connection to the umpire in Aussie rules is pretty emotional and robust.
They get told how to adjudicate constantly by virtually every single person at the ground. Often in high volumes and close proximity by our gifted Gods themselves.
They have the most difficult job in… hang on actually that’s not true. With so much grey area in rule interpretation, it’s pretty much an opinion job nine times out of ten.
It’s actually the easiest game in the world to umpire because you can’t really be wrong when the rules are so unclear.
It’s good for the controversy that is a monster slab of our emotional connection to the game. The umpires also play a huge role in society being maybe the only person in their lives where Aussies are allowed to express that little emotion called anger.
Clear your head and get back to work on Monday refreshed. It’s a cleansing of frustration on a national scale.
Andy Maher and Robert Murphy implore us to celebrate this venting as the true embodiment of our national character.
It’s important to be laughing at all the B/S and hooey while releasing our footy beast for its weekly feed. Yuk it up boys for however necessary the “Joie De Vivre” may be for one’s sanity there is a price to pay….. well maybe not.
Anyway back to Big Joe and his spectacular dives…
Leigh Mathews and AFL Football Manager aspirant Jimmy Bartel are in furious agreement that such dives are okay and that gamesmanship is to be acknowledged as just something all players use at various times.
The best ones can say they don’t and keep a straight face. Tim Lane is not amused, and yet he is constantly bemused by bluff and circumstance.
This is obvious to the true seekers of Aussie rules culture of play. The umpire is there to be bluffed for if you don’t do it to him he won’t respect you. The umpires instinctively know their role too is large part B/S and bluff.
The only time an umpire ever makes a mistake is the couple of times a year it’s mentioned in dispatches on a Monday morning by the AFL. Until then it’s all sheer conjecture and free advertising.
Yet we know they are pretty much stumbling around in the dark like all of us in respect to the subtleties of AFL adjudication. Razor Ray Chamberlain freely confesses to be befuddled by just how great is the variety of interpretations even just within the umpiring fraternity itself.
So back to Joe and his dive.
It was a five out of ten at best and probably less than that. By moving upward to gain exposure he crossed the line from high drama to slapstick vaudeville.
His previous work was far more subtle and ultimately successful. Dive down Joe, down, or if you do dive up at least smile so we can all get in on the joke.
Apparently “a player is allowed to exaggerate movement” to show the umpire what is going on but such movement is not to be excessive.
That’s such a laugh that one and yet it’s kind of necessary. Every backman worth a piece of Mathew Lloyd’s grass knows that his art relies on little shoves, blocks and hidden grapples.
All that gamesmanship stuff that makes up all the B/S we love to hate … and yet applaud ninety seven point five per cent of the time.
The hypocrites we are.
So get up on your high horses and condemn Joe and his comical antics but only if it’s worth the effort for you and your team.
More importantly celebrate our beloved B/S and its monster adjudicators.
Brendon the 1st
Roar Rookie
Nup, never did, I played League more than AFL, I didn't know how to fake contact, head down, elbows out, knees up. Believe what you want, I stand by it.
Maliwallah
Roar Rookie
I'm just glad he's Brisbanes problem. What he did at Essendon was also wrong - which is hard to say, when I had so much respect for his father & uncles. Seeing the 4 brothers play together, against the Saints way back in 1990, was an amazing day at Moorabin. I ca't imagine J*e will ever change for the better.
DingoGray
Roar Guru
I call BS on I never exaggerated contact when I played..... You may not have dived like Joe, but there would of been a moment that you would of got a free kick from a push in the back where you've gone down rather easy and not stood up..... To say otherwise just a blatant lie! It's everywhere. It's not just AFL. You watch all sports- it's players trying to get a leg up. It's on the officials not to fall for it- as the umpires in the Lions Saints game didn't fall for when Joe did his massive dive. You are completely and utterly living in denial if you think it be removed from the game.
Jason
Guest
A very good piece of writing. I really enjoyed it. :thumbup:
Dangersphere 10
Roar Rookie
Spot on Brendon, couple of hard fines and suspensions and you'll never see it again. It's certainly not theatre and most certainly NOT apart of either sport, anyone who has played would attest to that. At local soccer matches, which I played for years, you don't dive as it simply isn't rewarded. Not consistently enough to merit going to ground anyway. It's as simple as that. By changing the language around it to "gamesmanship" as Goalsonly has done here we are headed directly in the soccer direction. Take it from someone who use to love the sport, and had to give up watching/following it PURELY because of the constant diving, cheating and antics. It's not what we want creeping into the AFL, but with a 1k fine as it stands now, it will continue to happen with increased regularity.
Dangersphere 10
Roar Rookie
Poor form, defending his diving and trying to play it off as "gamesmanship".. coming from a soccer background I watched that sport be ripped apart by diving over the last 20 years, so let me ask you, is that the direction you want this sport to head in? Because if we make excuses for it, refuse to sufficiently punish it, and eventually, stop naming and shaming the culprits, we'll see 2-3 dives per game by 2025. It's funny that you felt the need to write this article, as I've been feeling the urge to write one that argues the exact opposite. Having seen diving creeping slowly into the game over the last 10 years I'm more certain now than ever that it needs to be stamped out with harsh absolution and certainty, before it can gain a foothold and become the norm. If you don't start handing out suspensions pretty soon you'll see it often, as "why not? it can gift my team an easy goal!" -And after that the language around it changes, from diving to "gamesmanship" to a little "exaggeration." Look at the soccer forums on this very site for a recent example, Sterling's shameless dive in the Euros semi's and the droves of misguided fans willing to defend it. Trust me mate, that's not what you want. This isn't a witch hunt for Joe, it's about much more than that.
Goalsonly
Roar Rookie
Yeah i get it too only I kind of admire it. It's footy smarts to bluff. It took me a lot of footy watching to accept that it's the way nearly all players like to play. They like the aggro and whack and thump and they love to win win win and if they have to get one over on the umpire or at least point out when he's missing one they will. What about fake attempted disposal ... banging away at the ball tucked under your arm... ever try that one? Maybe you never did play to the umpire personally. Leigh Mathews said he never thought about the umpires. Maybe the exception that proves the rule. You probably could have played without one if everyone was the same as you. If you want to talk about pure sport you are talking about a social exercise for pleasure and to bring out the best in each other. Winning and losing is kind of neither here nor there in pure sport. Of course you play to win... how could you not and still improve. Of course we celebrate the winning but that's becauswe we just love to win.... at anything. It doesn't stop players everywhere from playing the game even if they do lose a lot of the time. Because sometimes the winning comes in other forms. anyway... AFL and soccer are so different to compare them on the dive principal is a losing game. It's the dives we abhor but only because of the look. We let all kinds of similar acts go but we save our indignant moralizing for this one particular act. Something about going to ground. I say if you get a shove in the back then to resist it and hold your ground is playing into your rivals hand. If you go with the shove and exaggerate the forward motion from the pressure of the shove you may be playing to the umpire but that's what umpires are for. And it's you job to show them what's going on.
Brendon the 1st
Roar Rookie
I get it, but I don't like it. I can also say that I never exaggerated contact when I played. It's not theatre, it's sport, diving is essentially cheating, so why not just stamp it out all together? Not hard, couple of suspensions or big fines, voila I don't watch Soccer because of the dives, and I quite like the game itself. Sport shouldn't need WWF type drama to succeed
Power
Guest
AFLs Lowmen - Joe Daniflop, Joel Divewood and The Grimey Dylan should go and play sawka.