TOPIC:

Week two of B grade and below finals this week and once again rain forecast.
Wettest season for a long time especially the last six or seven weeks with only one fine Saturday.
How have we enjoyed having panel and neutral umpires so far?

Very good in E3. Some club umpires are not too flash.

Had two young blokes at The Valley yesterday, I assume they were panel umpires. They were excellent, best we have had all year.

Dingo wrote: Had two young blokes at The Valley yesterday, I assume they were panel umpires. They were excellent, best we have had all year.

Yeah they normally do A & B grade so not surprising you noticed the difference!

Birdman wrote: Very good in E3. Some club umpires are not too flash.

Nice to hear that neutral club umpires are doing a good job.
Pretty much panel umpires for the prelims and the big dance.

After witnessing Aussie Rules across different states this year, I am happy to report the level of football is great.

The standard in B grade has definitely improved across the years as an example. The top 5 this year can all win on any given day.

The level of umpiring from what I have witnessed hasn't improved with it, even the panel umpires.
I feel that the league needs to look at recruiting people who have actually played the game to officiate and incentivize them accordingly.

Nothing against the umpires themselves, I am sure they are lovely people, they just don't have the skills or temperament required IMO.

Just my two cents.

The Panel umpiring has been very good this year.

The biggest issue I see week to week are armchair critics and players that just do not understand the rules of the game.

Nerve = hit

Generally I have found the umpiring to be pretty consistent this year.
The only gripe I would have, and it's a small one, is when there's an out of bounds on the full, no umpire I've seen this year places the man on the mark on the actual boundary line and never calls play on when the player enters the field of play.

The "A" grade umpires who did the Collegians v Kingsway game on the weekend were pretty trigger happy when it came to 50 metre penalties (2 of which gifted Collegians goals at a crucial time in the game for what didn't seem like much at all) and yellow cards

Obviously they both looked up to Razor Ray Chamberlain as they both needed to influence the contest the same way Razor Does