TOPIC:

Dwert in fairness to Harding that is the first time he has questioned the umpires on the ground as he has been coaching from ground level although it is long overdue in my opinion as there hits a tipping point of enough is enough!
Having said that your mob were far too good, used the ball better, set up quicker even tho we got in behind a few times in the 2nd qtr, and were much cleaner in the centre clearances with our boys hopefully learning a bit about how to set up and execute from inside the cbd ..and my boy Marlon was as smooth as silk and clean as in tough conditions!

BH....SF would surely have to be faves for the flag now.....they have quality defenders in Pickett and Wilson......mids in Hockey, Cook, Hams and Schloithe and quality forwards in Shaw, Saunders and Johnson.....Higgins and Branchi more than competitive around the ground....where did you think SD improved on Sat.....selection table with Riddoch back in?...on the scoreboard with more goals?.....endeavour/effort?...though that seems to be their most weeks with the players........big game v Cl this weekend I reckon......lose that and heads could really drop......

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.

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.

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.

I do believe Dwert the SD football department went through the right channels and tried before to have a meeting with the WAFL umpiring department about some "interesting" umpiring decisions paid against us after viewing damning down the ground footage but were not even given the time of day, so it was inevitable that frustrations were going to come to head on the ground at some point!

Freezin wrote: BH....SF would surely have to be faves for the flag now.....they have quality defenders in Pickett and Wilson......mids in Hockey, Cook, Hams and Schloithe and quality forwards in Shaw, Saunders and Johnson.....Higgins and Branchi more than competitive around the ground....where did you think SD improved on Sat.....selection table with Riddoch back in?...on the scoreboard with more goals?.....endeavour/effort?...though that seems to be their most weeks with the players........big game v Cl this weekend I reckon......lose that and heads could really drop......

Sorry Freeze I can't make comment on SF on the SD thread mate it goes against company policy and all and I don't want some fella grassing me up to the mods for breaking it again
Although we could take the conversation over to Outers thread whilst he is blow drying the bouffant which means we would have a good few hours before he noticed!!

Beasley Hutton wrote: I do believe Dwert the SD football department went through the right channels and tried before to have a meeting with the WAFL umpiring department about some "interesting" umpiring decisions paid against us after viewing damning down the ground footage but were not even given the time of day, so it was inevitable that frustrations were going to come to head on the ground at some point!

BH if that's the case then that's disgraceful, just another example of making these guys untouchable regarding criticism. Every aspect of the game should be open to question and review.

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?

perception is a curious thing 42....what is obvious to one, not so to others.....I wonder if those free kicks were going SD way, would any of this discussion make the light of day.