hanno_7 wrote:Who's Ball? wrote:blackcat wrote:Mitcham up by 6 points, last kick of the game.
Absolutely disgraceful performance by both umpires but especially the female. I know it might smack of sour grapes but I dont give a fork. She single handedly cost Para Hills the game. Mitcham probably played better footy but you cant excuse the performance of the umps. GET IT RIGHT SHADIAC, no more academy umps in div 3, we've had enough.
Sigh
Another week, another person whinging about umpires
Hands up here who has actually umpired? And by that, I don't mean they've grabbed a whistle to fill in when their club has needed it, I mean actually umpired for a league, been through league training, and worked their way through umpiring juniors, under 18's, reserves and seniors? I have, I've done just over 200 games all up, and hearing people bitch about a decision costing them a game gives me the shits.
How many mistakes are made by your players during a game, which influence the result? The full forward who grasses a chest mark or who misses an easy set shot at goal. The backman who's tackle slips a little high, or who chops an arm and gives away a free kick which results in a goal. A midfielder who coughs it up to an opponent, or misses an easy tackle? Stacks of times. But 1 decision by an umpire is the reason you lost?? Fair go mate.
Where do you expect umpires to get experience? (And this next bit is an assumption, because I haven't umpired for the saafl), but I'm guessing that the umpires who are being trained in the academy have to work their way up through the leagues, and the better they get, the higher grade they umpire. Hence, PEOPLE UMPIRING DIV 3 AREN'T GOING TO BE AS GOOD AS THOSE UMPIRING DIV 1. Just like the players aren't as good in div 3 as in div 1. And if there is an umpire who is consistantly bad, they'll get dropped to the lower grades, where they can get a bit more experience, a bit more practice and move back up, the same as players.
Like it or not, we're never going to agree with all the decisions that get made on a weekend, I'm guilty of asking umpires about what I think are dubious decisions during a game, but once it's made, bitching isn't going to change anything, all that might happen, is that umpires get sick of doing a job that we need them to do, and quit, so that we're left with club umpires instead of league ones. Tell me that you'd rather have a biased club umpire doing your game each week than a league guy.
If you honestly think the umpires are that bad, and you'd do a better job, there's a simple solution. Head down to the saafl, sign up, do the training, get a whistle and prove it.
Consistency is all were after, heres one for ya our player gives away free kick they pay advantage handball on then handball bloke kicks for goal misses so the umpire brings in back and gives original bloke a kick at goal and he slots it now pin head in your wisdom of 200 games wat the f*ck would ur ruling be???
Almost certainly the correct decision. Here's the definition of the advantage rule I was taught.
To call advantage,
1. Play has to be continuous, ie it hasn't stopped. Sounds simple, but what it means is that if the umpire blows the whistle and everyone stops and the ball drops, one guy can't swoop in and grab the ball and play on, the way it works, is that if the free kick is blown, you can only play advantage if the ball keeps going the way that it is.
2. You can't call advantage from a mark, it has to be from a free kick. Simple again.
3. There has to be a greater advantage from the play on called, than if the player had gone back and taken his free kick.
Number 3 is the grey area which is open to interpretation, it's so that if you call advantage and a guy gets tackled you can call it back, if a guy throws the ball on his boot and sprays it to an opposition player you can call it back. If a guy runs 15 metres then sprays a kick you don't call it back, because the 15 metre run is considered a greater advantage than going back and taking a kick. I was taught (and given examples from my league) that if the free kick would have been a shot on goal, and the advantage resulted in someone missing a shot on goal, then you call it back. If the free kick wasn't going to be a shot on goal (ie it was 70 metres out), and a guy ran off and had a shot on goal and missed, then you didn't call it back.
I've lost count of the number of times in the SAAFL and AFL that a player has thought advantage should be called, has gone on to kick a goal and it's been called back. I've also seen it happen a lot of times where someone has taken advantage, and missed a shot on goal, and the play has been called back. I can't recall many where a behind has been left to stand. I think the AFL changed the interpretation of the rule this year, so that essentially any kick after the advantage call was considered a greater advantage, and a behind could stand, but that's the AFL, and I don't know for certain. Also, just because the AFL have decided to interpret the rules one way, this doesn't automatically mean that the SAAFL have to or will, and I know there are at least a couple of areas where they don't follow the AFL rules to the letter (25m penalties, send offs are a couple). So it wouldn't surprise me if this was another area. Don't quote me on this, because I don't hold an official or unofficial role with the AFL, SAAFL or any umpires associations, it's because of abuse from people like you that I gave it away.
Now, you talk about consistency. Did this type of decision happen twice in the one day with different results? I highly doubt it. What you have here is a decision which you don't like. Get over it. There will always be decisions you don't like, and there will always be decisions you do. I reckon if you think hard enough you'll be able to come up with a few close decisions which have gone your way over the years which have led to you guys winning matches.
