TOPIC:

Today I witnessed something I have never seen at the footy.
A club umpire took offence on behalf of a group of players from his club.
The opposition reserves grade were taking the mickey out of a couple of players from the umps said club and managed to hook a few bites from the players.
Ones dental work was highlighted, another's head band and of course one player who had not touched the footy.
The said players reminded the group of the score as they were well ahead.
There was some good funny banter with no malicious intent or swearing and then this came from the club ump in question.
At a boundary stoppage before continuing the said umpire warned the reserves group on the hill that if he heard any personal remarks directed to the players from someone wearing an opposition club shirt he would award a free kick to his side.
When quizzed if it was ok if not wearing a club shirt he just ignored it?
Is this a rule?
If it is I think I might go watch the netball next week instead?
Who are these twats?
It is time they just learnt the rules & umpired the game on its merits.
What do you think happens in an afl crowd of 100,000?
Community Footy is losing numbers fast due to these knobs.
Geezus!
Seen tougher banter in a supermarket over Tim Tams.

If the said player group were sitting on the bench or directly next to it then the umpire can pay a free kick and/or 50 against them. If the group was well away from the bench then the umpire has no power to pay a free kick...at the game I saw today a kick that was clearly going through for a goal hit the goal umpire who had straddled the line, and bounced back into play and was called a point. The WAAFL goal umpire told a few spectators to F off when asked why he didn't get out of the way. Didn't matter as the team won by 40 odd points but interesting to hear it from an umpire when they'd have issues if they'd been spoken to the same way from a spectator

Other side of ground

Its getting worse every season. I saw a Belmont umpire today give a 50m penalty against a Manning player for swearing at one of his teammates. It was infact a Belmont player swearing at one of his teammates though and when the umpire was made aware of the mistake he still would not reverse the call and both teams were like wtf? Its like they are on some strange power trip or they are just really socially awkward people that dont know how to deal with a situation.

But yeah Disco that is not a rule at all. Thats an umpire trying to do wayy too much.

You cannot pay a free kick for spectators abusing players. An umpire can pay a free kick if it is umpire abuse coming from the bench or in the vacinity of the bench.

In the Stirling V Kingsway game the umpire yellow carded a Stirling player for swearing at himself after kicking it out on the full......

The Major wrote: You cannot pay a free kick for spectators abusing players. An umpire can pay a free kick if it is umpire abuse coming from the bench or in the vacinity of the bench.

New game day strategy, wander in to the vicinity of oppostion's bench and start abusing the hell out of umpire only joking Major, leave the poor umps alone fellas, there is no future for our game without them participating!

i was under the impression that the umpire can in fact warn the teams about abusive spectators, some call it banter, but i don't particularly play footy on a Saturday to get abused by strangers who seem to think that a white line allows them to belittle another adult with no ramifications, wouldn't do it in a pub and not expect some backlash.
it's then on the club's officials to speak to the people in question and ask them to cool it etc, then if nothing changes the umpire can penalize a team, obviously within reason (not some random drunk that obviously has nothing to do with either team etc, then it's the home team's reason to act etc).
i remember going to some league meeting years ago when this was discussed, but it's been some time.

Hi Benny,

Thanks for your reply. All valid points I must say.
Really was harmless banter and nothing sinister.
Just think it was a bit over the top from the ump really.
He might have been related to them hahahaha

Benny wrote: i was under the impression that the umpire can in fact warn the teams about abusive spectators, some call it banter, but i don't particularly play footy on a Saturday to get abused by strangers who seem to think that a white line allows them to belittle another adult with no ramifications, wouldn't do it in a pub and not expect some backlash.
it's then on the club's officials to speak to the people in question and ask them to cool it etc, then if nothing changes the umpire can penalize a team, obviously within reason (not some random drunk that obviously has nothing to do with either team etc, then it's the home team's reason to act etc).
i remember going to some league meeting years ago when this was discussed, but it's been some time.

Some umpires do take things a little over the top, bit of adult common sense by them sometimes is lacked, they should just read the situation if it's just boys being boys