by redandblack » Mon Oct 04, 2010 10:46 am
Well done to the Bays, they were far too good on the day. Westies had a lot of players down and Grand Final nerves seemed to take over at times.
I'm really loathe to mention the umpiring, but it would have to have been close to the worst and most comical display I've seen for a long, long, time. I'll quickly say that it was the same for both sides and obviously didn't affect the result at all. I thought Glenelg were harder at the footy and far better than the Bloods on the day. However, I watched two near faultless displays of umpiring in the AFL GF's and although you don't expect that at U18 SANFL level, the difference was ridiculous. The umpires obviously thought they were the star attraction. I don't know how many frees were awarded, but it was a lot and the game was being constanly over-umpired.
The bloopers reel was extensive. Those frees which we all know are automatically paid (the player caught while running with the footy, etc) were just let go or paid the other way. The default free in SANFL (the unseen high tackle) was plucked out at regular intervals. At least the crowd weren't confused, they knew the free would be the opposite to the obvious result.
All in all, just embarrassingly terrible umpiring, which didn't deserve the high-fives the umps gave themselves at the 3/4 time break.
Having said that, there was some excellent footy played, mainly by Glenelg, but I've seen a fair bit of the Bloods this year and most of their better players were well down.
Another good season of junior footy, high standard and entertaining.
See I'm not too bad after all 
