by blockie » Tue Aug 19, 2008 10:31 pm
JD, Nothing to do with a fear campaign, and that is just ridiculus to say that. You say the media campaign, I hardly see one comment in the Bunyip as a campaign, but if that's the way you see it. Sometimes we all need to get our heads out of our collective sand pits and look at the bigger picture, you might be surprised what could actually be achieved if we went down that path instead of being so negative when anything is suggested. It was purely a left field suggestion that might actually improve the finals games. The top four teams play, they generally tend to be the four quickest teams, the weather fines up in September we hope grounds get firmer and play gets quicker. Look at last years GF as an example. One would suggest that the two best umpires would have been selected to umpire last weekends game being 1 V 2, and to be honest even with slower play in the mud they struggled to keep up (naturally they were laso slowed by the mud but...). Shame you didn't get to see the game as it would be nice to get an unbiased opinion. You say we would need to do it at other times, agree that would be great, but as you well know we struggle to get enough umpires now to cover all grades. Finals would give the opportunity to implement or trial this idea. I have also suggested in the past that we should run a rotation of 3 or 4 umpires in the A Grade/Reserves during the regular season (ie the 3 or 4 umpires would end up doing some Reserves and some Agrade quarters during the day), one objection was that we wouldn't get consistency, but I don't see how that would be different to what happens now as every umpire seems to have a slightly different interpretation of rules, same as players, coaches and spectators, infact you could argue that by having the umpire sit out a quarter he might see the game from different angles and have a better understanding when his quarter comes around again, a great way for some of the lesser experienced umpires to umpire at the higher level and basically see if they are up to it. Interested to see what people think of that? As for Junior's that's sitting on the fence JD, everything we discuss can have two sides to the story, I think it would be an appropriate move for player retention and promotion into higher levels, ie SANFL and AFL. How do you see it as a hinderance, is that basing it from a club perspective or an assocaition perspective, as I said I think it should happen, so would liek to hear why people think maybe not.
