swan42 wrote:
mikeh wrote:
Senior Seagull wrote:
mikeh wrote: I was in Melbourne for the weekend so I missed the game. Looking at the write ups it sounds like it was a step forward for the boys and certainly they got more reward for effort than they did last week. Hopefully Rudy did enough to get an extended run in the team, sounds like Faulkner played a great game. They need to take that improvement to the Showgrounds for the next challenge.
If the crowd listed in the West Australian (850) is accurate, that is very poor even though the weather was not the best I believe. There has been very little atmosphere at any games at Bassendean this year and you would have to conclude that many Swans supporters have just stopped going. I still think it is a malaise that has struck the WAFL in general though rather than just Swans.
As for the umpiring I agree with Dwert that confronting the umpires at half time achieves nothing and only serves to stir up already upset supporters. There are official channels that coaches can use and Harding should be on the phone to the Umpires boss today.
My question however is whether the AFL rule of a player deliberately ducking the head being deemed to be holding the ball applies in the WAFL competition? Hams and Schloithe have been accused by opposition supporters of being duckers for a number of seasons and surely the umpires would have discussed these guys style of play and paid free kicks accordingly if this rule if fact exists in the WAFL. Then again I was at the Collingwood v Geelong game at the MCG on Saturday and Joel Selwood still manages to get a lot of high tackle free kicks despite that rule.
Mike, I see the difference between what say Sellwood & Shuey do which is to keep the head up and back straight but bend the knees and flex the upper arms & shoulders to gain high contact as against the Souths boys simply ducking the head into the tackler. Big difference in my opinion and a blight on the game. As TOSG mentioned on this or another thread, it's inevitable that these boys will eventually get badly polaxed and get a nasty injury which will be of their own making. Also if the Swans people are not happy with their free kicks go look at Subi's free kick stats for the season so far, bit of an eye opener. In saying that when the count goes south we usually win but when it's close like against EF & WP we get done .... go figure.
I know that some of the Swans supporters on here would disagree but my personal view is that umpiring has a mimimal impact on the result of the vast majority of games. I think Subiaco's negative count proves that generally the better team on the day wins despite the decisions that go for and against it.
Also in nearly all games umpires make a lot less mistakes than players. Umpires decisions are also scrutinised by a coaching panel and I'm sure that any deliberate bias against a particular team would not be tolerated and the Umpire would not be around for long.
What perplexes me is why the umpires have not worked out what these two players are doing and agree on an approach of giving a holding the ball decision if they think that they are ducking. This may then force Hams and Schloithe to amend their approach if they are conceding free kicks to the opposition.
Mikeh it is a completely spurious argument saying that umpires make fewer mistakes than players. The problem is that with very few exceptions there appears to be no repercussions for bad performances by an umpire. The one possible exception is R Shelton. How many times is he relegated to the reserves after umpiring a match featuring Swans?
Also, it would make very interesting reading a breakdown of when and where Swans get their free kicks. It seems to be amazing the numbers of free kicks we get in the latter half of matches where the result has been settled. Conversely there is a dearth of frees when the match's result is in doubt. For example, in the match against Perth earlier this year in the last quarter it was 9 free kicks to Perth and 2 to us and the second free was awarded in the 23rd minute of the quarter.
Finally on an extremely wet day how could any umpire give a deliberate out of bounds on the wing when the player in question was within two feet of the boundary line when the ball slips out of the player's hands?
What are you suggesting? That there is some sort of vendetta by the umpires against Swans? I would find that very hard to believe. Maybe it might be better for Harding and his coaching panel to meet with the umpiring department to discuss why Swans are conceding these free kicks. If BH is correct and they have tried but have been denied such a meeting then I would join with you in condemning them as no one should be above criticism and feedback in this game.
As for the deliberate out of bounds, I didn't see the incident you refer to but my view is that this rule has been overused in general by umpires this season to the extent that they often penalise a poor kick by a player which skews out of bounds which is often not intentional. The opposition often will let it roll out as well when in normal circumstances they could retrieve the ball, in the expectation that they will be paid a free kick.
