TOPIC:

BC wrote:

swan42 wrote: With respect to DW and mikeh, of course if the ball is up one end much more than the other end one would expect an imbalance in the free kicks. However, and it is a very big however, using your analysis how do you explain the fact that Claremont received a total of ONE free kick in the last quarter and scored 6 goals 3 in that quarter? I will also point out that the free kick count for the first half was 14-4 with a score of 10.6 to 3.1 and in the second half was 4-7 with a score of 10.4 to 4.7 (Claremont - Swans). There were several obvious free kicks not paid to Claremont in the last quarter. We received ONE free kick in the forward line in the 30th minute of the last quarter 51 metres from goal.

Of course, Swans' supporters should not be happy with how our team is going this season. That does not preclude a discussion on the above topic.

42... it appears by your own admission that the free kick count had little or no effect on the score if Claremont kicked 10.6 in the first half after receiving 14 frees but still went on the kick 10.4 in the second with only 4 frees. this is further supported by the fact they scored 6.3 in the last with only one free....so what's your point?

BC I am not sure how you came to that conclusion. In fact I believe I said the opposite. I doubt whether any Swans' supporter who was present at the game on Sunday noticed much difference in how Swans played in the first half compared to the second half. Similarly, with respect to how Claremont played in the first half compared to the second half. Given that both teams played in a consistent fashion throughout the entire game and the weather conditions were not substantially different between the first and second halves it seems somewhat inexplicable the difference in free kick counts between the first and second halves for both teams.

It is not reasonable to assert that no free kicks should have been awarded to Swans in our forward line for the entire match save the last 5 minutes of the last quarter. Also, of the 10 first half goals Claremont scored 4 came directly from free kicks and another from a 50 metre penalty.

here ya go 42. an analysis of frees so far this year on a club by club basis with total frees for/against and the differential. source WAFL website

WP - 231/173 +58
SF - 203/157 +46
Cl - 209/165 +44
SD - 191/180 +11
P - 178/183 -5
EF - 172/187 -15
EP - 159/197 -38
PT - 137/182 -45
Subi - 162/218 -56

I'm not sure what you're whinging about as clearly the 2 aligned clubs and Subi are getting the short end of the pineapple.

Subi have had the old 'even up the frees in the last quarter' a few times. Against Souths at 3/4 time it was 26 to 5 I think, but we got a few soft ones late.
However, besides the usual neates head throws that sucked the umpires in, I thought the frees for claremont yesterday were all there.

The messiah at Umpire HQ has known full well for at least 5 years the tactics employed by the likes of Neates, Murphy, Richardson, Bradshaw, Schloithe, Hams & the O'Brien brothers and have done sweet fa in stamping that crap out with the umpires still paying these free kicks all of this time later ...if the umpires actually stopped paying them, those named & shamed above would stop doing that bullshit head back flick or dropping the knees & lifting the tackling players arm up whilst pushing the head back motion!
Over to you Umpire Messiah & your deciphles!

gotta agree with you on this one BH. where a player initiates a head high free by dropping his knees, ducking or lifting the tackling arm then umps must be instructed to call play on. genuine high tackles should always be paid but the likes of Schloithe, Hams, Neates and co should come under intense scrutiny by the umps to ensure they didn't cause the high tackle to happen.

mikeh wrote:

Dirty Weekender wrote: Inside50 CL 68 - SD 30 and as WAG stated only 9.8% of our possession I50 might be a good indicator as to why we received few free kicks up forward. Ball was up the other end a lot

Spot on DW. I wasn't at the game so I can't comment on the justification of free kicks that were given or not given but it is logical that if the ball is in one area of the ground for 70% of the game then it is probable that most of the free kicks are going to be given in that area. A better analysis would be in a game where the inside 50's were more even.

As Swans supporters I think we should be more focussed on how this team can become more competitive in the 2nd half of the season rather than what the umpires are doing because this has zero relevance to where Swans are at this moment.

No doubt we should be discussing what is happening with the team Mike but it would seem as only myself & 42 actually went to the game and witnessed first hand after a promising start by us a number of interesting free kicks in the Claremont forward line resulting in goals to the opposition stopped all the momentum we had to that point and they gained it and we were never able to arrest from there on in which is another debatable discussion point maybe for the game day thread or another topic altogether!

Ok, are we saying here that umpires are blatantly cheating against SD? Or just that they are inconsistent due to lack of ability?

Beasley Hutton wrote: The messiah at Umpire HQ has known full well for at least 5 years the tactics employed by the likes of Neates, Murphy, Richardson, Bradshaw, Schloithe, Hams & the O'Brien brothers and have done sweet fa in stamping that crap out with the umpires still paying these free kicks all of this time later ...if the umpires actually stopped paying them, those named & shamed above would stop doing that bullshit head back flick or dropping the knees & lifting the tackling players arm up whilst pushing the head back motion!
Over to you Umpire Messiah & your deciphles!

We cannot expect ump quality when the silly bastards are instructed to umpire the Victorian way from day dot , the deliberate out of bounds rule is the one that shits me off the most

The last 2 games, Subi have had Margetts umpiring, a well respected and experienced AFL umpire who is coming back from a serious illness. While not perfect by any means, what was noticeable was his consistency and that he was much quicker to make a decision, be it a free or a throw-up, this was important especially in our game against WP which was a massive stoppage battle in very wet conditions, so quick decisions were important, unfortunately his co-umpires didn't follow his lead. The game v WART was easy for the umps given the big gap in skills and commitment between the 2 teams so all 3 were generally unnoticed. It does show the gulf between AFL & WAFL umpires, but that same gulf applies to the players as well.

Senior Seagull wrote: The last 2 games, Subi have had Margetts umpiring, a well respected and experienced AFL umpire who is coming back from a serious illness. While not perfect by any means, what was noticeable was his consistency and that he was much quicker to make a decision, be it a free or a throw-up, this was important especially in our game against WP which was a massive stoppage battle in very wet conditions, so quick decisions were important, unfortunately his co-umpires didn't follow his lead. The game v WART was easy for the umps given the big gap in skills and commitment between the 2 teams so all 3 were generally unnoticed. It does show the gulf between AFL & WAFL umpires, but that same gulf applies to the players as well.

SS a couple of weeks ago when we played WART the best umpire by the length of Flemington straight over the 3 grades was Margetts who umpired the Colts that night, he tended to let the game flow and not pay any tiggy touchwood decisions, only paid the bleeding obvious frees and was quick to surmise the situations re when to ball up or let the players do what they do best and play football instead of worrying about positioning or swapping zones etc umpiring footy isn't rocket science after all.