TOPIC:

.......... or are they (sometimes) just bloody hopeless?

Have a look at this classic - (correctly) described by the commentators as "absolute murder".

www.afl.com.au/video/2019-05-01/classic-...rder-absolute-murder

Unbelievable!

Very rare but in this case absolutely played to the home crowd and a rare example of umpires deciding the outcome of a game. But I don't believe for a minute that umpires cheat, I think it's a case of lack of ability and/or feel for the game. Remember the players make far more mistakes per game than the umpires ever do.

Do they cheat? No I don't think they do that, however I do recall that game and that it was highlighted at the time. To sit and watch it again, which I have done three times, just shows how incredibly poor the umpires were if they weren't cheating.
You could argue for a club like Fitzroy that what chance do you have when confronted by umpiring as appalling as this, there would have been public disorder in South Australia if this had occurred to them. In fact they would have called for a Royal Commission.

Having umpired myself for several years, albeit at country level, I’d say a definite no. Umps like players, have good games and bad ones. I umped with guys that were full of themselves, ones that couldn’t handle players back chatting them ones that were calm and quietly confident and one that should have been spectators. I can’t think of one that you would consider a cheat. Of course there was always the odd player that thought so.