UMPIRES - FREE KICKS

[Hotpotato]

The DATA is certainly telling.
To bring more awareness of it (as well as the scoreboard) maybe we (the cheer squad and others around the ground) could post the count on signs that are held up .
Who cares if it will be labelled sour grapes.
The Swans are simply not that percentage differential undisciplined to the mobs at the top of the free kick table.

[Beerman]

The DATA is certainly telling.
To bring more awareness of it (as well as the scoreboard) maybe we (the cheer squad and others around the ground) could post the count on signs that are held up .
Who cares if it will be labelled sour grapes.
The Swans are simply not that percentage differential undisciplined to the mobs at the top of the free kick table.

The thing is, that even if we are undisciplined, it doesn't explain why we get so few free kicks awarded to us. Other teams can be undisciplined too.

Also, while game style and personnel (ie. undisciplined players) influences the free kick count, for the discrepancy to be so consistent over so many years speaks to a deeper problem. We've changed the team and play style plenty of times in the last 10 years, but the bias just doesn't change.

I'd love to know what the AFL thinks of the data. They have acknowledged that crowd noise bias is a thing, but do they even acknowledge that there is a bigger problem for certain teams?

[lwjoyner]

it continued last night but we won, no thanks to umps,but thanks to a poor demons

[Hotpotato]

I’m (and others) are just swapping the word undisciplined for BIAS.

[barry]

But they don't *consciously* change their interpretations.

I believe they do.

The problem is it doesn't work. So what's the answer? I'm not sure, but I'm happy to hear your thoughts (remember "They're aware of it and should just stop it" is a proven failure).
.

I don't think the AFL or umpires have seriously attempted to stop it, and until umps are full time professionals and it becomes a KPI, they won't.

- - - Updated - - -

it continued last night but we won, no thanks to umps,but thanks to a poor demons

Yes. A game we totally dominated yet lost the free kick count by 8. Wow.

Umps will think, "great job"

[rb4x]

Melbourne even won the fantasy points 1557 to Sydney 1546!!!

[Beerman]

I believe they do.

You're welcome to your opinion. I believe strongly in Hanlon's razor - "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

I don't think the AFL or umpires have seriously attempted to stop it

100% agree with this. There is clearly a bias, and the AFL must be aware of it. Their efforts to address it are completely half-hearted and inconsequential. There just doesn't seem to be any desire from them at all to fix the problem. That's what boils my blood.

[Nico]

Melbourne v Swans 22/17, Carlton v Saints 14/22, Lions v Geelong 21/27, Adelaide v Collingwood 22/9, North v Port 22/17, Freo v Essendon 23/9.

Some big discrepancies in favour of the losing teams. I have noticed over the years this strange situation. When we became the clearance kings I noticed that often we get a lot less frees, and my thinking was that first to the ball gets sweated on and pinged for HTB and hard tackling by us resulted in more head high frees or frees for in the back against.

We were well down on numbers this week until the last quarter, but the Adelaide and Freo numbers are quite stark given the hidings they got.

To me it can't be just bad calls. There are so many variables such as home ground advantage, sides adept at quick throws out of the pack, dominant rucks, jumper colours, stagers, players deliberately falling forward, constant rule changes, poor player technique, speed of the game, the Duckwoods and simply letting go of the footy when tackled, that to me the answer is a pineapple, until someone has the time to analyse every free kick given, and split them into sectors to give some plausible explanation.

[Mel_C]

Melbourne v Swans 22/17, Carlton v Saints 14/22, Lions v Geelong 21/27, Adelaide v Collingwood 22/9, North v Port 22/17, Freo v Essendon 23/9.

Some big discrepancies in favour of the losing teams.

Does out on the full get counted in the free kicks? Brisbane kicked about 9 or 10 out on the full so that would explain why Geelong had so many more frees.

[Nico]

[QUOTE=Mel_C;783391]Does out on the full get counted in the free kicks? Brisbane kicked about 9 or 10 out on the full so that would explain why Geelong had so many more frees.[/QUO

Another variable I didn't think of. That could explain it in part if a team is prone to play down the line. 9 seems a lot of out on the full in a game. Not a regular thing. But there are 2 sides playing so an opposition must also have some out on full. Yet again no one has come up with an explanation of the massive discrepancies. Why wouldn't the AFL give a plausible explanation. Anyone out there prepared to have a close look next week.

[stevoswan]

Today's evidence.....Fairypups 17 frees Giants 5. The Giants had 5 frees near the start of the third so have not received another free for the rest of the game as the Dogs go crazy scoring at will. Now admittedly the Giants were insipid in the second half....about as insipid as the umpires were biased. It was 2016 all over again. Any team looking to play the 'pups in the first week of the finals should be very worried indeed.....and it could be the Giants again.

[Danzar]

Does out on the full get counted in the free kicks? Brisbane kicked about 9 or 10 out on the full so that would explain why Geelong had so many more frees.

No it doesn't get counted as a free kick. It's classified as a turnover, no different to kicking to an opposition player.

[Danzar]

Today's evidence.....Fairypups 17 frees Giants 5. The Giants had 5 frees near the start of the third so have not received another free for the rest of the game as the Dogs go crazy scoring at will. Now admittedly the Giants were insipid in the second half....about as insipid as the umpires were biased. It was 2016 all over again. Any team looking to play the 'pups in the first week of the finals should be very worried indeed.....and it could be the Giants again.

Is there any way to check the frees quarter by quarter? And by field umpire?

[Markwebbos]

Paul Roos calls for full-time umpires with Sydney and GWS sick of being on the wrong end of free-kick tally

Category: | Herald Sun

Former Sydney Swans coach Paul Roos and the club’s current administration have weighed in on evidence that Sydney clubs are disadvantaged by umpires when it comes to free kicks... The former premiership-winning coach called on the AFL to cut the excuses and make umpires full-time, while the current Sydney Swans administration also spoke out strongly to condemn the serious discrepancies laid bare in how the game is officiated across the league.

The Swans and GWS not only sit at the bottom of the pile for free kicks awarded this year, but over the past two decades they languish in the bottom three for free kick percentage...

Swans football boss Charlie Gardiner said home ground advantage was a @“reality”. “You can’t shy away from the numbers where this year we’ve got the worst free kick differential in the competition,” Gardiner told The Saturday Telegraph. “We’re negative 53 against our opposition for the year. If you look at Collingwood, they’re positive 90 for the year. It’s not only the (free kicks) that are paid, it’s also the ones that are missed."

[Blood Fever]

Paul Roos calls for full-time umpires with Sydney and GWS sick of being on the wrong end of free-kick tally

Category: | Herald Sun

Former Sydney Swans coach Paul Roos and the club’s current administration have weighed in on evidence that Sydney clubs are disadvantaged by umpires when it comes to free kicks... The former premiership-winning coach called on the AFL to cut the excuses and make umpires full-time, while the current Sydney Swans administration also spoke out strongly to condemn the serious discrepancies laid bare in how the game is officiated across the league.

The Swans and GWS not only sit at the bottom of the pile for free kicks awarded this year, but over the past two decades they languish in the bottom three for free kick percentage...

Swans football boss Charlie Gardiner said home ground advantage was a @“reality”. “You can’t shy away from the numbers where this year we’ve got the worst free kick differential in the competition,” Gardiner told The Saturday Telegraph. “We’re negative 53 against our opposition for the year. If you look at Collingwood, they’re positive 90 for the year. It’s not only the (free kicks) that are paid, it’s also the ones that are missed."

Nothing else has worked so this worth a try. Watch the backlash!