UMPIRES - FREE KICKS

[barry]

Leon Cameron should have made the giants refuse to come out after 3/4 time, until the umpires were changed.

It will take that sort of action.

[Sandridge]

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

Yes, there'll be backlash - especially from the teams that do well with the umpires. But thanks Roosy - at least the issue is out there!!

Must give credit where credit is due though. Well done Bulldogs! What a well drilled and disciplined team. For the whole team to commit only 5 rule infringements in a whole game of football today - marvellous! Almost as good as only breaking rules 8 times in a Grand Final!

[dejavoodoo44]

Yes, there'll be backlash - especially from the teams that do well with the umpires. But thanks Roosy - at least the issue is out there!!

Must give credit where credit is due though. Well done Bulldogs! What a well drilled and disciplined team. For the whole team to commit only 5 rule infringements in a whole game of football today - marvellous! Almost as good as only breaking rules 8 times in a Grand Final!

Yes, and even though they hardly broke the rules, they did manage to break Dan Hannebery for about two seasons.

[Mark26]

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."

Hallelujah! Who wrote the article for the Herald Sun?

[Markwebbos]

Ben Horne

[Doctor]

Leon Cameron should have made the giants refuse to come out after 3/4 time, until the umpires were changed.

It will take that sort of action.

Drastic call but it may take something like that. The Giants were royally dudded today by Stevic and co.

[Go Swannies]

"Good old Victoria forever, we know how to play the game . . " and clearly the foreigners from outside the state don't. The lopsided free kick count today was remarkable. Eagles slightly behind on frees and on the scoreboard. But GWS had a score differential almost matching the free imbalance. Freo did well - in Perth (23-9) - and Adelaide did well in, surprise, Adelaide (22-9). I'm glad someone has gone public because commentators clearly barracking for their local team certainly won't.

2016 killed my love of the game. I now go to games to appreciate the young Swans but not with any expectation that the competition is not rigged. It might be "unconscious" but the statistics are damning and need to be consciously fixed - if the AFL has any aspiration for a level playing field, rather than one that simply tilts heavily towards the MCG.

[KTigers]

"Good old Victoria forever, we know how to play the game . . " and clearly the foreigners from outside the state don't.

Except most of our & GWS' players are not from Sydney. I guess something happened to them on the flight up from Melbourne, and their
understanding of the game went out the window....

The fact that us and GWS are consistently receiving the least free kicks means that collectively the other 16 teams are playing in
a fairer and less careless style when they play against us & GWS, as opposed to when they play amongst themselves.
The actual likelihood of that is of course, zero.

[longmile]

2016 killed my love of the game. I now go to games to appreciate the young Swans but not with any expectation that the competition is not rigged. It might be "unconscious" but the statistics are damning and need to be consciously fixed - if the AFL has any aspiration for a level playing field, rather than one that simply tilts heavily towards the MCG.

That and the 2014 Goodes incident really flattened me. Been harder to support the AFL and be interested in other matches and going ons. Will always be a Swans fan tho.

[Industrial Fan]

I would discount the free count for gws in their first few seasons because they were a genuinely dirty team looking for relevance.

Devon Smith, Bugg & Greene in the same team..

[Boddo]

2016 killed my love of the game. I now go to games to appreciate the young Swans but not with any expectation that the competition is not rigged. It might be "unconscious" but the statistics are damning and need to be consciously fixed - if the AFL has any aspiration for a level playing field, rather than one that simply tilts heavily towards the MCG.

Everything is tilted to the big Melbourne clubs. From an inadequate draw that favours MCG home ground clubs to the GF at the MCG to northern clubs having to favour country Victorian draftees over metro draftees to the Melbourne NGA’s having better access to metro Melbourne and country Victoria indigenous players over the equivalent in WA & SA to third party deals to the local Melbourne media masquerading as national coverage and the list could go on and on.

It’s not a sporting league it’s a sports entertainment business to allow members of the Melbourne boys club to continue to profit from the entertainment industry. As a sport it’s a joke full stop.

[Blue Sun]

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."

Numbers don't lie. We now have 20 years of statistics telling us what we have long suspected. Its about time the AFL and media had it thrown in their faces. Enough is enough.

[AnnieH]

We can only deal with what we can control.
We can't control the umpires or their dubious decisions.

[KTigers]

The Sydney teams are going particularly badly in the free kick counts against..... drum roll..... the Western Bulldogs.
In the last 16 games between a Sydney team and the Dogs, the Dogs have won the free kick count 13 times, there was
one tie, and twice the Swans received more frees than the Dogs. In the last eight games between GWS and the Dogs,
the Dogs have received more free kicks in every game, including yesterdays 17-5 extravaganza. Quite a feat really,
only infringing five times in an entire game. Enough to win you a MCG Premiership some years.

[mcs]

The Sydney teams are going particularly badly in the free kick counts against..... drum roll..... the Western Bulldogs.
In the last 16 games between a Sydney team and the Dogs, the Dogs have won the free kick count 13 times, there was
one tie, and twice the Swans received more frees than the Dogs. In the last eight games between GWS and the Dogs,
the Dogs have received more free kicks in every game, including yesterdays 17-5 extravaganza. Quite a feat really,
only infringing five times in an entire game. Enough to win you a MCG Premiership some years.

Don't make my veins pop on a Monday afternoon KT - still get so angry about that day, and always will until we either get our revenge when it matters, or lift the cup again on Grand Final day. Its one thing to get beaten well and truly like 2014, but 2016 grates because it was such a close contest for such a large part of the game, despite us playing with a hand tied behind our back as the search for the fairypuppies premiership was in full swing. I still maintain that with a more even umpiring performance that reflected the actual closeness of the contest, it would of went right down to the wire, and we could have easily have been holding the cup aloft.

Ah well, I will go back to dreaming of our young cygnets tearing the competition and new one in coming years and lifting that cup again. I have a feeling that we are well on the right track - and even dodgy umpiring might not be enough to stop them.