Get your hand off it Leigh!!!

[anniswan]

Just listening to Leigh Matthews who is really sucking up to the umpires.

He is saying that overall the umpiring is OK blah blah blah.

He criticised Colless about talking out about the umpires, and failed to answer the question about the Blions getting 4 frees that resulted in goals.

So all you stats gurus our there what is the go with the Blions frees this year, I don't think they have been hard done by but thats just my gut feeling, I would like to have stats to back it up.

[NMWBloods]

Your wish is my command!

Unfortunately I can't deliver the result you were after.

Brisbane is coming 16th in terms of net frees - 15 For and 18 Against, for a net (2.6).

We have Net +0.6, which is 7th.

Don't know about frees from goals - don't have that stat handy.

[floppinab]

Originally posted by NMWBloods

Don't know about frees from goals - don't have that stat handy.

That'll be the one that was in the Tele the other week FF in Forward 50 minus FA in Back 50. We were last by a mile in that one.

http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,10275549-23211,00.html

" The stats show that Sydney as a club has the worst differential in the competition (-24) when comparing frees for forward 50 and frees against back 50.

On top of the huge imbalance the Swans have had 29 goals from free kicks against them - the most in the competition - while they have kicked only 18 goals from free kicks equating -11. "

Be very interesting to see that.

[stellation]

Tim Morrissey
However, the stats suggest a paraphrase from George Orwell's novel "Animal Farm" - "all leading goal kickers are equal but some leading goal kickers are more equal than others".

That is the best footy comment I have read all year.

[sharp9]

Leigh Matthews may have been one of the greatest players ever, but seeing as I never saw him play that doesn't affect my judgement of him, which is, that I have no respect for his word at all. He lacks integrity with regard to anything he says pre and post match.....yet he plays on his reputation as a football God, meaning that journos and fans swallow it whole.

Witness his comments about Sydney flooding in Rd 1 which the media ate up.....except for the fact that the team which flooded was BRISBANE!!!!!!

Nice to see Roosey mentioning the Brisbane Flood a few times in passing. I notice that a couple of TV commentators have now picked up on that.

Next come his comments about Colless' comments where he says that "everyone gets the good and the bad side, blah, blah, blah.."

This is THE POINT, LEIGH.....

SYDNEY HAVE NOT HAD THE GOOD SIDE FOR TWO SEASONS (AT LEAST).....we are not whingeing, we are not saying that the umpires are cheats, we are just stating the FACTS which are that we have been poorly treated by the umpires in at least 15 games in recent memory, yet have not had the better end of the stick even once.

If, after the Essendon game, we had played West Coast and received 3 goals from umpire errors at Subiaco, then obviously we would be agreeing with you, Leigh....."everyone gets good and bad decision,"........but we don't get bad decisions in our favour in either the defensive or attacking fifties. This is not opinion, it is fact.

None of us has any idea why this should be so, but it is and the least we can do is say it out loud.

Are the individual umpires looking at our tapes and saying to themselves, "why did I give that free to Voss, yet not pay the bronco riding against Hargrave? Was I incorrect in my interpretation, or was I inconsistent, or is there some inherent bias I hadn't realised?"

Surely they must review our games sometimes and go, "how the hell did I miss that?"

I notice that the AFL say that 87% of decisions are right....let's be really generous and say 90%. In other words they reckon that 4 decisions a game are dead set errors. That's accross the whole game.....so when there are a couple of errors which AFFECT THE SCOREBOARD in a game this is apparently, normal. When the Swans play, 3 things happen

1) 3 out of 4 errors are in favour of the other team
2) 2 out of their 3 errors are in front of goal, none of ours are.
3) The other team receives 12 "Correct" soft frees, 2 of them in front of goal
4) We receive 6 "Correct" soft frees, none of them in front of goal
5) The AFL calls this 100% correct
6) They do not count the 6 soft frees NOT paid to the Swans, including our 2 in front of goals.

[bricon]

Maybe Lethal would like to consider the views of 530 players on the matter.

http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,10339224-23211,00.html

By Peter Bell - President AFLPA

"The frustration isn't about them not paying enough frees or too many - it's just the inconsistency."

The dogs are barking all over town on this issue, but people like Mathews and Demitriou can't (or more likely choose not to) hear them.

[sharp9]

Of those 8 frees 6 (at least) would be for out of bounds, or holding the ball, or a throw.

Someone pointed out in the media that Barry got a free kick last weekend......yeah when Keating hit the ball over the boundary on the full! And even then it was 20 seconds before it was paid....the players had to tell the umpires what had happened!

[boroboy]

Originally posted by sharp9
Leigh Matthews may have been one of the greatest players ever, but seeing as I never saw him play that doesn't affect my judgement of him, which is, that I have no respect for his word at all. He lacks integrity with regard to anything he says pre and post match.....yet he plays on his reputation as a football God, meaning that journos and fans swallow it whole

Believe me - having spent a fair bit of time with the man, there are few out there with more integrity - he's as honest as the day is long. And he's politically smart - look at how he handled the affair two weeks ago when criticising the pre game press conferences...and after the battering the Lions have taken financially in the last 3 months I'd say it was a smart move. Nothing wrong with being politically astute - our own Coach is developing nicely in that area!

As for him 'playing on his reputation of being a Footy God' - I'd say he's well placed to do so - voted player of the century and quickly making a claim for doing the same as coach. I personally enjoy listening to him speak - nothing to do with swallowing it whole, but just enjoying listening to someone who's forgotten more about the game than I'll ever know....

[TheHood]

Originally posted by boroboy
Believe me - having spent a fair bit of time with the man, there are few out there with more integrity - he's as honest as the day is long. And he's politically smart - look at how he handled the affair two weeks ago when criticising the pre game press conferences...and after the battering the Lions have taken financially in the last 3 months I'd say it was a smart move. Nothing wrong with being politically astute - our own Coach is developing nicely in that area!

As for him 'playing on his reputation of being a Footy God' - I'd say he's well placed to do so - voted player of the century and quickly making a claim for doing the same as coach. I personally enjoy listening to him speak - nothing to do with swallowing it whole, but just enjoying listening to someone who's forgotten more about the game than I'll ever know....

Normally what Leigh has to say makes sense, however after every Swans victory over the Lions he has blamed our accuracy, our flooding and even this week he had some things to say about the greasy dewy conditions at the SCG! I suppose he couldn't blame the umpiring because he would have been laughed out of NSW.

The gracious side of a loss has to be extracted out of him when finally he conceded that we were harder at stoppages.

Thanks Leigh!

[boroboy]

Originally posted by TheHood
Normally what Leigh has to say makes sense, however after every Swans victory over the Lions he has blamed our accuracy, our flooding and even this week he had some things to say about the greasy dewy conditions at the SCG! The gracious side of a loss has to be extracted out of him when finally he conceded that we were harder at stoppages.

You reckon? Here's what after he said after our Round 20 victory last year;

?The Swans have been magnificent at it all year, they've kicked 280 goals and 197 behinds. Their conversion has put them up where they are on the ladder. Everything else ? they run well ? but their accuracy has been a magnificent part of their season, it?s the reason why they?ve won four or five games. The Swans have been very good very often?.

Sounds pretty fair to me. And he's complimenting our goal kicking - not blaming it....

[BAM_BAM]

In the after match press conference he also admitted that we took him by surprise. He just didn't factor in how hard we'd come out of the blocks and just how intense were we playing threw him. or words to that effect.

[Thunder Shaker]

Originally posted by TheHood
Normally what Leigh has to say makes sense, however after every Swans victory over the Lions he has blamed our accuracy, our flooding and even this week he had some things to say about the greasy dewy conditions at the SCG! I suppose he couldn't blame the umpiring because he would have been laughed out of NSW.

As long as he continues to blame such things for the losses, instead of acknowledging that we played better, we will continue to beat them.

Just hope he doesn't work out why we beat the Lions - otherwise he'll counter it!

[anne]

Originally posted by sharp9
Leigh Matthews may have been one of the greatest players ever, but seeing as I never saw him play that doesn't affect my judgement of him, which is, that I have no respect for his word at all. He lacks integrity with regard to anything he says pre and post match.....yet he plays on his reputation as a football God, meaning that journos and fans swallow it whole.

Witness his comments about Sydney flooding in Rd 1 which the media ate up.....except for the fact that the team which flooded was BRISBANE!!!!!!

Nice to see Roosey mentioning the Brisbane Flood a few times in passing. I notice that a couple of TV commentators have now picked up on that.

Next come his comments about Colless' comments where he says that "everyone gets the good and the bad side, blah, blah, blah.."

This is THE POINT, LEIGH.....

SYDNEY HAVE NOT HAD THE GOOD SIDE FOR TWO SEASONS (AT LEAST).....we are not whingeing, we are not saying that the umpires are cheats, we are just stating the FACTS which are that we have been poorly treated by the umpires in at least 15 games in recent memory, yet have not had the better end of the stick even once.

If, after the Essendon game, we had played West Coast and received 3 goals from umpire errors at Subiaco, then obviously we would be agreeing with you, Leigh....."everyone gets good and bad decision,"........but we don't get bad decisions in our favour in either the defensive or attacking fifties. This is not opinion, it is fact.

None of us has any idea why this should be so, but it is and the least we can do is say it out loud.

Are the individual umpires looking at our tapes and saying to themselves, "why did I give that free to Voss, yet not pay the bronco riding against Hargrave? Was I incorrect in my interpretation, or was I inconsistent, or is there some inherent bias I hadn't realised?"

Surely they must review our games sometimes and go, "how the hell did I miss that?"

I notice that the AFL say that 87% of decisions are right....let's be really generous and say 90%. In other words they reckon that 4 decisions a game are dead set errors. That's accross the whole game.....so when there are a couple of errors which AFFECT THE SCOREBOARD in a game this is apparently, normal. When the Swans play, 3 things happen

1) 3 out of 4 errors are in favour of the other team
2) 2 out of their 3 errors are in front of goal, none of ours are.
3) The other team receives 12 "Correct" soft frees, 2 of them in front of goal
4) We receive 6 "Correct" soft frees, none of them in front of goal
5) The AFL calls this 100% correct
6) They do not count the 6 soft frees NOT paid to the Swans, including our 2 in front of goals.

The reason for the bias is because the Swans are Sydney and Melbourne has a huge complex about Sydney, the place, and this carries over into football. I am sure if the Swans were based in Hobart or Canberra etc it wouldn't happen. Melbourne and people from Melbourne ie umpires simply have an inferiority complex about Sydney.

[Nico]

Sharp9, as good as Matthews was with his skills he was the dirtiest footballer I have seen play the game, by a mile.

He was nothing but a sniper/ thug call it what you like, who delighted hitting/belting players off the ball, in front of umpires, and with full blooded upercuts in packs. If he was a current day player he would have been reported out of the game. He got away with murder.

Ask Bernie Evans if he remembers the 2 king hits on him, I am sure he has no recollection. Ditto for Giles of Melbourne and the daddy of them all, Bruns of Geelong.

I too have no respect for anything that comes out of his meely mouthed gob.

[TheHood]

Originally posted by Nico
Sharp9, as good as Matthews was with his skills he was the dirtiest footballer I have seen play the game, by a mile.

He was nothing but a sniper/ thug call it what you like, who delighted hitting/belting players off the ball, in front of umpires, and with full blooded upercuts in packs. If he was a current day player he would have been reported out of the game. He got away with murder.

Ask Bernie Evans if he remembers the 2 king hits on him, I am sure he has no recollection. Ditto for Giles of Melbourne and the daddy of them all, Bruns of Geelong.

I too have no respect for anything that comes out of his meely mouthed gob.

Agreed! He played with the body of Voss and the mind of Brown.