Special place for umpiring rant

[giant]

Let's save the match thread for crucifying our players. That umpiring performance was so diabolical it deserves a thread of its own.

I suggest numbering your favourite howlers - let me start:

1. HTB may be paid against a Swans player whether he disposes of it or not. As long as the Dees player has had a "dead set crack", that will be enough for us.

2. For one match only, we'll use the rugby rules for posters so that if it deflects inwards it will count for a goal - but only at the Dees end of course.

3. The rule says that if you deliberately try to take it through the pts but it goes OOB it should be considered deliberate OOB and FK paid - but this is such an obscure rule and we umps have sooo many other rules to remember that we'll let that slide this time.

Add your own!

[sWAns63]

Let's save the match thread for crucifying our players. That umpiring performance was so diabolical it deserves a thread of its own.

I suggest numbering your favourite howlers - let me start:

1. HTB may be paid against a Swans player whether he disposes of it or not. As long as the Dees player has had a "dead set crack", that will be enough for us.


2. For one match only, we'll use the rugby rules for posters so that if it deflects inwards it will count for a goal - but only at the Dees end of course.

3. The rule says that if you deliberately try to take it through the pts but it goes OOB it should be considered deliberate OOB and FK paid - but this is such an obscure rule and we umps have sooo many other rules to remember that we'll let that slide this time.

Add your own!

We still would've been smashed who cares about the umpiring today

[ScottH]

Yep. waste of thread Giant.
The umps missed many other frees against us. and no way did it influence the game.

A few dodgy decisions, but no more than the usual.

[BSA5]

Yeah, the umpiring was genuinely shocking in the first half, and almost all bad calls (or non calls as they case may be) went against us. It was far more even in the second half, not much to complain about, but the first half was possibly the worst umpiring I've ever seen. It wasn't even that 50/50s weren't going our way (though they weren't either), stuff like the poster, ROK's mark-called-OOTF, and the numerous, inexplicable HTB decisions when the Swans player had disposed of it properly, were just plain wrong.

Not the reason we lost, but if we'd played better, it could have been.

[Swans500]

I agree with your words Giant, but we managed to win the battle against the umpires in the previous 2 games...because, we WANTED to! OR, were we ALLOWED to? I personally have thought for years that the competition has a degree of rigging involved anyway. I really cannot take such dramatic reversals of form seriously!....

[ugg]

I'm more peeved off at the number of times we were called to play on after marking the ball and deviating slightly from the line.

[swansrule100]

I'm more peeved off at the number of times we were called to play on after marking the ball and deviating slightly from the line.

or when we try to pass the ball back to the guy to take his free

[Xie Shan]

We need an Umpiring Complaint Proforma!

[Jesse Richards]

Whether the poor umpiring contributed to our loss or not (and I don't think it did on this occasion) the obvious bias toward Melbourne is either conscious (=corruption) or unconscious (=ignorance). I'm not sure which is worse. Come on, Four Corners, time for the big expose.

[Matty10]

I re-watched the game this afternoon, and the umpiring did not look any better a second time around (particularly the first half). Sure, it is probably correct to say that we were so poor that the umpires had no real impact on the result, but you never really know, sometimes you need the rub of the green to get back into a game (or at least not have the rub going the other way). It was not likely to happen, but funnier things have happened - momentum is a quirky beast. All that anyone asks is that you have a level playing field - that is why you have umpires after all.

The reason for the seemingly biased decisions would have to be based on the umpires being influenced by the crowd, which although small was nevertheless vocal enough to roar loudly for the all the HTB free kicks when our players had either handballed or got boot to ball. There was a 50 metre penalty paid against McGlynn (which was probably warranted), that was not originally given, but as the umpire ran in the Melbourne fans made some noise and he appeared to change his mind (that was how it seemed at the ground).

If I were in the Swans football department I would (calmly and politely) question the umpiring department early this week about those holding the ball decisions, as the umpires needs to be held accountable for their mistakes - but then move on.

[GoSouth33]

I think it was in the last quarter, our forward fifty, Kirky takes what appears to be a clean mark only to have his arm chopped thus spilling the ball......play on is the call, instead of what should have been a set shot. It just seems all the blatant umpiring errors were against us and when you're already haemorrhaging on the scoreboard getting a couple of calls to go your way can't be that unreasonable.

[The Big Cat]

Actually, I think the umpires were sympathetic to the Swans. They were umpiring just as crappily as we were playing. I think it was one of those days where nothing went right - on many of the few times we were in position the ball just bounced inexplicably sideways or up in the air into a Melbourne guys hand. As Rex Hunt said on Victorian country radio - "Melbourne would win tattslotto today without even taking a ticket" All that said we were horrible. Roosy summed it up - We couldn't get the ball, when we did we gave it straight back and we didn't pick up a man.

[The Goodes]

I REALLY hate Sam Newman, but here's a quote from him that I think resonates well from Sunday, "It's not the free kicks that they DO pay, but the ones that they DON'T.". There were instances where Melbourne players should have been pinged for "In the Back", or "Holding the Ball", where even Melbourne players were looking around waiting for the whistle against them, which never came. Having said that-our boys were playing to lose. Umpires or not, 22 Sydney Players didn't make the flight to the MCG. I feel so bad for Jude Bolton. 250 games, and this is what his team mates thought should be served up to him.

[i'm-uninformed2]

I can't remember who, but some ex-footy player of the league variety once uttered a brilliant line (league/brilliant?! I know):

"People decide to become umpires when they throw a 21st birthday for themselves and no one shows up."

[swanspant12]

dont even get me started!!!!