NORTH EASTERN F/L

[whufc]

Another round in the books.

South Clare vs BBH
A return to the round 1 fixtures saw the exact same results as the previous meetings. South getting up in a close score line despite have ten more scoring shots. In the B Grade BBH continued their solid start to the season defeating the battling South by 10 goals.

BSR vs Southern Saints
A massive wind blowing straight down to the southern end saw a close contest in the first half of the A Grade, BSR going in 2pts up. However, the second half was probably the pattern most expected with BSR running out ten goal winners.
BSR kicked with the breeze first in the B Grade and kicked 6.6 to nothing which was always going to be hard to chase down. In the BSR won by 8 goals against a severely depleted Saints through injuries.

Min Man vs RSMU
Min Man continued their good form in the A grade beating a plucky RSMU by 9pts. RSMU now fall to 0-4 and in danger of having their A Grade season written off.
Min Man are arguably the hottest team in the B Grade comp right now and managed an easy 12 goal win over RSMU.

Blyth/Snowtown vs North Clare
Claimed this as match of the round in the preview and it lived up to the hype. Our first DRAW of the season. Not sure how it panned out and what the conditions were like by B/S came from a goal down at 3/4 time. Could be a valuable point or a point dropped as we get closer to the finals.
The B Grade saw the top of the table B/S win by 9 goals with Shay Clifford kicking a round high 6 goals.

[whufc]

Round 5, almost a third of the way there.

Min Man vs BBH
A Grade: Min Man by how much......may 15-20 goals.

B Grade: This one should be a bit closer but Min Man are playing really good footy with a young side vs the older consistent BBH. Expect the Bulldogs to be in this early but Min Man to run out comfortable 6-8 goal winners.

Blyth/Snowtown vs BSR
A Grade: Game of the round. A confident B/S will come up against a BSR side looking to make it five in a trot. BS have been the most impressive side this season and will love the challenge of coming up against the arch rival. Whilst i expect this to be close most would have BSR just sticking for longer and winning by 4-5 goals.

B Grade: Top of the table clash in the B Grade. A credit to BS they seem to have the most consistent side out of all the b grade teams. The blokes appear to be playing for Scotty Atkinson. This should be a relatively close game but wouldnt be surprised to see BS win by 5-6 goals.

North Clare vs South Clare
A Grade: First of the Clare derbys for the year. This should be a close game with South coming off a comfortable win against BBH last week. North are another side batting above their weight early in the season and will be confident of the win. North continue to surprise and this weekend will be no different with a close hard fought win. Although the Clare derby can produce any result.

B Grade: South struggling for talent big time in the B Grade, North to win easily.

RSMU vs Southern Saints
A Grade: This should be the most desperate, intense game of the week with both sides trying to keep their season alive. It appears Southern Saints have a few back on the park and after a very positive first half showing against BSR i would expect get the job done against the underperforming RSMU.

B Grade: 5 Names (Floyd, Schultz, Clarke, Kotz, Voight) back into the b grade which makes them as good as any b grade side going around. Would expect them to win by ten goals and start their rise up the table if they can keep them on the park.

[Dutchy]

Caught the last half of the game last week, 2 things Ive noticed in this league which wrapped up into one issue when the game was on the line -

> There is a very high number of sling and second action tackles in this league which is not umpired correctly, there is no protection to the player at all, some of the ones Ive seen would result in 2-3 game suspensions in town and other leagues.

> When the game was getting within 3 goals last week and BBH had control of the ball for a period, a young lad got slammed into the ground in a 2nd action tackle 30m out form goal straight in front, BBH supporters went off their tree when it was given as a ball up, however then the umpire signalled to the crowd and paid a free kick to SC for the crowd mouthing off at him, SC rebounded and kicked a goal and game was done. Is crowd abuse against an umpire considered a free kick in the NEFL?

[Arry Gablett]

Caught the last half of the game last week, 2 things Ive noticed in this league which wrapped up into one issue when the game was on the line -

> There is a very high number of sling and second action tackles in this league which is not umpired correctly, there is no protection to the player at all, some of the ones Ive seen would result in 2-3 game suspensions in town and other leagues.

> When the game was getting within 3 goals last week and BBH had control of the ball for a period, a young lad got slammed into the ground in a 2nd action tackle 30m out form goal straight in front, BBH supporters went off their tree when it was given as a ball up, however then the umpire signalled to the crowd and paid a free kick to SC for the crowd mouthing off at him, SC rebounded and kicked a goal and game was done. Is crowd abuse against an umpire considered a free kick in the NEFL?

Crowd abuse against the umpires coaches and players is considered spectating in the NEFL

[whufc]

Yeah umpires will be a free against for crowd abuse.

[wenchbarwer]

So, the umpires can affect the outcome of the game, but not be held accountable for being unable to officiate properly?

Sounds like whoever is running the league is next up to replace Laura Kane.

[whufc]

So, the umpires can affect the outcome of the game, but not be held accountable for being unable to officiate properly?

Sounds like whoever is running the league is next up to replace Laura Kane.

Yeah the crowd one is a bit of an odd one. I get the concept behind it but it doesnt work in reality. The other week we had one given away against us and none of us in the area even knew who the bloke was haha.

They probably could be tighter on the sling one but from our perspective as a club we have not had a single player miss a game from being slung to the ground in the last 5 years.

We did have one of our players suspended for 4 weeks this season for a sling tackle which we accepted and didn't appeal. So its never really been a concern from our end.

[whufc]

Round 5 locked away....

Min Man vs BBH
A Grade: As predicted a real comfortable win for Min Man, they are ticking over nicely since the round 1 blip and look to be the biggest contenders. BBH in worlds of trouble, going to be difficult to see where a win comes from.

B Grade: Slightly closer than anticipated but Min Man running out 22 point winners. Min Man looking a solid side in the B Grade.

B/S vs BSR
A Grade: Match of the round and a decent game. An inaccurate BSR winning by 27pts, given the outs (11 blokes) BSR will take the win and move on to a top of the table clash after the bye where they will expect 7-8 of those blokes to be back.

B Grade:The injuries to BSR just mounted up too much and lacked any players of the same quality as BS top end. Otten, Atkinson (250th game) controlled the game and they won very easily by 20 pts kicking 5.17.

North Clare vs South Clare
A Grade: North Clare by 24 pts, real important win for them and keeps them in the finals race.

B Grade: Nortth by 7 goals continuing to play well. South are going to struggle big time in the B Grade, not sure stacking can even help them this year.

Southern Saints vs RSMU
As predicted Saints got a bunch of blokes back on the park this week in both grades and as expected got wins in both grades. RSMU without a win in senior footy this year is extremely unexpected. They talked the biggest game in the off season and most felt they could deliver on it but that has not been the case.

[Arry Gablett]

So, the umpires can affect the outcome of the game, but not be held accountable for being unable to officiate properly?

Sounds like whoever is running the league is next up to replace Laura Kane.

Yeah the crowd one is a bit of an odd one. I get the concept behind it but it doesnt work in reality. The other week we had one given away against us and none of us in the area even knew who the bloke was haha.

They probably could be tighter on the sling one but from our perspective as a club we have not had a single player miss a game from being slung to the ground in the last 5 years.

We did have one of our players suspended for 4 weeks this season for a sling tackle which we accepted and didn't appeal. So its never really been a concern from our end.

Occurs because the NEFL umpires are either
Yoold and can’t keep up
Are biased
Have no feel for the game
Think they are bigger than the game

That said that’s who we have and many supporters saints included feel it is the right to abuse whoever they want
They do not put there hands up to have a go though

[Dutchy]

I don't like umpire abuse, players make 10x more errors in a game of footy than umpires do, however I understand the supporters frustration when they see an obvious dangerous tackle not get punished, to then get a free kick paid against them for abuse just topped it right off.

[whufc]

There probably is a small level of complacency amongst the league as well given the little player behaviour issues they have.

Games simply don't tend to get out of control, in my 6 years involved i have never seen a 'brawl' where more than 2 blokes get involved in a scuffle. I've seen less than one to two incidents that could be considered strikes, albeit when they did happen the suspension weren't adequate.

Even some of the hotly contested games between BSR and the Saints in recent times are nothing compared to what i will see coasting around on dartish looking at other leagues.

I'm sure the fact the umpires don't feel games are going to get out of control leads to a bit of leniency at times. Not saying that is right and should happen.