Statistics are pretty obvious ... ever since Gieschen (the umpires boss) apparently made comments that umpires should protect ball getters like Judd, Kerr and Cousinns and coupled at the time with Demetriou's comments on the Swans style of play we rarely get the "frees for - frees against" equation in our favour.
My beef is the 50/50 calls. I was at the game last night and don't begrudge some of the 50/50 calls that the saints got - but we just don't seem to get our fair share - there were some shockers on the docklands wing (in the backs, gang tackles that resulted in ball ups instead of dropping the ball as happened on the city wing against us, etc).
If you assume each free gives the team 2 clear possessions totalling, say, 60 metres a difference of 9 frees last night and every game is significant. In 2007 we had the 2nd worst "frees for - frees against" equation
The umpires last night were Michael Vozzo (2), Shaun Ryan (25), Scott Jeffery (29). Let's keep an eye on which umpires miss the 50/50's.
How do we get the AFL and Gieschen to ensure that our ball getters are just as deserved as Judd etc.
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