Tonight's Umpiring

[giant]

Spot on,i counted 7 five from frees and 2 from the 50's

And 5 of the first 6 - game over! I turned over and watched the Olympics at that stage.

[Nico]

I don't think Geelong needed much help to be honest.

That said, I thought the umpiring was very poor. As I've noticed in many of the Geelong games I've watched this year they seem to get a very good run with the umpires and are marked on a different set of rules to the opposition. It's almost as if the umpires are in awe of them.

I have noticed the same. Certainly with HTB rules there seems to be a different set of rules. There was 2 in a row last night, and even the Ch10 commented as such, where Geelong players had an eternity to dispose of it, were tackled and stripped of the footy, "play on". Yet when we had it for a millisecond with no prior opportunity it was a free straight away. Particularly umpire no.25. And Bevans superb tackle on Ablett went unrewarded. No whistle was heard on the TV. We did get the takeaway but that is not the point. Ablett got pinged for one he just let go of when tackled, but that is his ploy, and rarely gets pinged.

They seem to pay a free for the sake of it to Geelong.

All that said the frees didn't decide the game.

[TheHood]

I know the Cats are fantastic and all that, however the key decisions that put us behind the Eight Ball were poor...wrong decisions.

It's been a while since I've wanted to explode over the Umps but it was amateurish at best and sordid at worst.

The 50 was angried up the blood and the HTB was frustrating for ALL.

The crucial times at which the UMPS cruelled us was match turning.

I was proud of the boys, their effort deserved better from the officials.

[Rod_]

They wanted to have an impact on the game and did. At times I wish they would just put the whistle in the pocket. I had an alternative location, however I applied self sensorship.

Even if I do take off my Red and white sunglasses, being one eyed.

The frees in the first quarter ruined what could have been a good game. Long way back into a game like this after umpire free goals .... It is nearly cheating IMO.

We need to get a better umpire's liasion officer. Attempt to find out how we can improve our free count "for and against" A break even would be good.

Could be worth the 20K and do a James Hird didn't he get a record number of frees after complaining a few years ago?

At times I was wondering if the rules had changed? Seemed we should have received a couple of frees and it went the other way....

Poor game by the umpires and I hope that miss the grand finals as a result!

Rod_

[Melbournehammer]

i have been saying this for a couple of years now but the reaction of officialdom to our winning style in 2005 was to encourage play on and discourage players holding the ball and creating "ugly stoppages". the result has been an encouragement of players releasing/throwing the ball to the vicinity of team mates. this has been evident for a couple of years so that a spillage is less likely to be penalised than a player holding the ball

[connolly]

i have been saying this for a couple of years now but the reaction of officialdom to our winning style in 2005 was to encourage play on and discourage players holding the ball and creating "ugly stoppages". the result has been an encouragement of players releasing/throwing the ball to the vicinity of team mates. this has been evident for a couple of years so that a spillage is less likely to be penalised than a player holding the ball

Spot on. The maggots have been policy umpiring since 2006. Leads to inconsistency, decisions Kafkaesque (RWO special) and baffling and turning off potential converts to the game in droves. Those arse clowns Dimwit and Ando have a lot to answer for.

[AnnieH]

Those cardboard loudspeakers certainly came in handy when screaming "@@@@-ing useless maggot" every five seconds.

I think the game would be a much better game if there were no maggots at all.

Men in the white coats behind the goals only.

[Industrial Fan]

Ablett's kick looked like a goal.

I actually think the umpiring in the first quarter got us into the game - the crowd got vocal and the team lifted.

It was bad, and the Cats certainly needed no help to dispatch with us.

[Doctor]

The umpiring was an absolute disgrace. Most on this thread are being gracious and saying that it didn't affect the result, but when 5 of the first 7 goals were from frees, who's to say it didn't? We fought back brilliantly in the 1st quarter and were still 3 goals down thanks to the men in yellow. The mate I was with made the call that the umpires, especially Kennedy, were star struck by Geelong and I think he was spot on. It was game over after all those early frees, with the 50M being the worst of them.

[Lohengrin]

saying that it didn't affect the result, but when 5 of the first 7 goals were from frees, who's to say it didn't?

Umpiring around the ground was poor, but 4 of those frees resulting in goals didn't seem overly controversial.

[TheMase]

The problem on saturday night appeared to be that the umpires made different decisions for different teams.

It was okay for Geelong to hold on, take players out and get tackled with having had opportunity... but not for the Swans.

I can accept umpiring when it is bad but consistent. I cannot accept it when it is bad and inconsistent to one team.

[giant]

The problem on saturday night appeared to be that the umpires made different decisions for different teams.

It was okay for Geelong to hold on, take players out and get tackled with having had opportunity... but not for the Swans.

I can accept umpiring when it is bad but consistent. I cannot accept it when it is bad and inconsistent to one team.

Yeh, I agree - the early goals were mainly for justifiable (if soft) frees. The thing that really gets a crowd down (and is just @@@@ty for a market like Sydney) is when there appear to be two different interpretations of the same rule. Reminds me of the crowd reaction after the Bombers game last year when there was the Hird version of HTB and the Big Barry version.

[Darren Thomson]

I have said enuf about the appalling umpiring in other threads. Just disgraceful, one sided inconsistent rubbish. Still, not much hope of beating the Cats, but we did a better job than most