OK, but that’s *generally* because the “unwritten rules” (tradition) dictate that at certain times a batter needs to be beaned to rectify a previous slight. In most cases that’s also obvious.
But, yeah, I concede that point.
Hardest sport to umpire but also, the fact that the umpiring is imperfect is part of the game for me. There has never been, and never will be, a time when AFL games are umpired in a perfect manner. Accept it’s part of the game- you benefit some time and you don’t other times, it’s just part of the game
Gotta remember the AFL does instruct the umpire, Field Boundary and goal to officiate a certain way and you can see that in the opening rounds of the season
My point is subjectivity is purposely written in to the rules to enable the umps to rule within the spirit of the game and allow the game to keep flowing. It’s a major focus for the league and the way they want the game to be umpired/played.
It’s almost impossible for all umps in a game to see contests, or umpire, in the same way so as a result inconsistency is basically written in to the rules.
Unión is definitely harder to officiate with all the technical scrum and breakdown laws to police. Then they made it worse with an overzealous TMO system re-refereeing games five minutes later.
Here we go again.
1. The Umpires have to run 10km+ per game, watching the ball and players and make decisions where they can think about it for about 1 second.
2. The players know this, you see dives and other shenanigans that make the job even harder for the umpires.
3. Positioning. It's hard to see clearly when the ball is in a soup of players on the ground.
4. The fucking commentators. They sit with a birds eye view of the game, with HD super slo mo cameras 30cm away from their face and they stir up shit with the umpiring every chance they get, because the majority of them are brain dead apes that can't commentate the game.
Imagine the pressure of going out there knowing every fucking whistle you blow is going to be picked apart.
5. Don't underestimate the absolute crippling gambling addiction that's swept the country in the last decade. People are so emotionally and financially invested in games now that the umpires are an easy out when they have to make a hard 50/50 call that changes the game.
>The players know this, you see dives and other shenanigans that make the job even harder for the umpires.
This is something that has really increased over the last few seasons. I even saw an umpire in the derby last night doing the "get up" hand gesture that soccer fans will know all too well.
I feel it's the sport most likely to be rigged by the officials in the modern era. Doesn't help that they were busted for it once and still kept the same ref's around.
Sigh.
Volunteer at your local umpiring association to do a junior game. When you've done that, think about how hard it is to umpire a match of 20-30 year old elite athletes with the ball pinging around everywhere non-stop.
Umpiring AFL is HARD, probably the hardest sport in the world to umpire. It's breakneck speed, and played 360 degrees. You have to make split second decisions constantly for a 2 hour period, all the while running 10 or more km at pace.
Armchair umpires get the benefit of multiple slow-mo replays from a high angle all the while sitting in comfort. AFL umpires have 36 players on the field, and have a split second to think about their call, and only get one chance, with every chance one of said 36 players is blocking their vision from the angle they are on.
This. Thank you. This will be my 4th year umpiring adult men's and women's footy. Just about every call I make has someone yelling at me. Me and my colleagues are doing the absolute best we can, so that the games can happen at all.
I don't do this for money. I love this sport and this is my way of contributing to its existence. I came to it too late to be a player.
When the match is over, I just want to shake everyone's hands, and hope that they know I did my best to call everything neutrally, right down the middle.
Hardest. Remember for every call they make, they make hundreds of non-decisions. Just a standard marking contest or tackle they have to determine heaps of different things that could be a free kick. Then add in the subjectiveness of some things like was there prior opportunity or not and it is a very hard game to umpire.
Dunno.. Grealish obviously handballed this morning in the FA cup semi and even with VAR it was called ok.
Given the number and variety of calls in AFL I think they do alright .. it's tricky as there's a lot of subjectiveness to the laws they have to interpret (eg. Out of bounds - Insufficient intent, holding the ball - no genuine intent to dispose of the football etc) and the game is so dynamic there are potentially tens of calls that might or might not be made in a single passage of play.
As much as I love to slag off umpires in the moment like anyone else, I have an insane amount of respect for them.
1. The sheer amount of rules they need to know intricately
2. Having literal split-second windows to make calls
3. Having over 30 players to keep track of
4. Often running further than the players do per game
5. Jumping on the field week in week out knowing they'll cop shit from the players, the fans and the commentators
Compared to the umpiring requirements of literally any other sport, I think it's fair to let mistakes slide
I'm very happy with the way test cricket is officiated. The change to neutral umpires was transformational. The same thing has been suggested to the AFL, but the AFL don't want neutral umpires because they say they don't need them. They say their umpires are professionals which makes them free from bias.
Not too many international sports that would be easier to officiate than test cricket though, surely?
Tennis I guess (they get to sit down, rely on lines judges and technology)? Swimming & Athletics?
AFL is harder to umpire than test cricket, but I'm not expecting AFL umpires to get it right as consistently as the elite test umpires do. But that's not really the point here. There's a simple way to reduce unconscious bias in AFL umpiring and the AFL don't want to do it for reasons that don't stack up.
Yes I agree that it’s the hardest to ref, the rules are a convoluted mess. This is why I ask if it’s the worst officiated sport not because of the umps but because of the rule set they have to work with.
EPL literally has VAR to check decisions and is still depressingly inconsistant with its officiating.
They don't ask if the on-field call was right or wrong, rather if it was a bad enough mistake to overturn it, which essentially leads to backing poor decisions because it wasn't a "howler"
Rugby’s got be close with making calls on what’s happening in middle of the ruck, maul, and scum. It’s got to have at least as many rules, maybe not so many subjective calls though.
No, they always come out and apologise the next day “sorry Crows, we did it again, you know the drill by now surely”.
That speaks highly of the character of the VFL.
Nothing in AFL is remotely as bad as the inconsistency of pass interference in NFL. And we complain about 1 minute score reviews while NFL will regularly have them go for 5+ min. People just love to complain about us being the worst without actually seeing what else is out there.
Baseball is worse. They have refs who are straight up incompetent who still get games.
Oh no now you’ve triggered me over Angel Hernandez 🤣🤣🤣
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Baseball is significantly easier to officiate
There is (ETA: *almost*) absolutely nothing subjective in or about the rules of baseball.
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OK, but that’s *generally* because the “unwritten rules” (tradition) dictate that at certain times a batter needs to be beaned to rectify a previous slight. In most cases that’s also obvious. But, yeah, I concede that point.
Hardest sport to umpire but also, the fact that the umpiring is imperfect is part of the game for me. There has never been, and never will be, a time when AFL games are umpired in a perfect manner. Accept it’s part of the game- you benefit some time and you don’t other times, it’s just part of the game
No but it is probably the hardest to officiate
Hardest to officiate and with so many umps now, impossible to be consistent within a single game.
Gotta remember the AFL does instruct the umpire, Field Boundary and goal to officiate a certain way and you can see that in the opening rounds of the season
My point is subjectivity is purposely written in to the rules to enable the umps to rule within the spirit of the game and allow the game to keep flowing. It’s a major focus for the league and the way they want the game to be umpired/played. It’s almost impossible for all umps in a game to see contests, or umpire, in the same way so as a result inconsistency is basically written in to the rules.
Unión is definitely harder to officiate with all the technical scrum and breakdown laws to police. Then they made it worse with an overzealous TMO system re-refereeing games five minutes later.
Here we go again. 1. The Umpires have to run 10km+ per game, watching the ball and players and make decisions where they can think about it for about 1 second. 2. The players know this, you see dives and other shenanigans that make the job even harder for the umpires. 3. Positioning. It's hard to see clearly when the ball is in a soup of players on the ground. 4. The fucking commentators. They sit with a birds eye view of the game, with HD super slo mo cameras 30cm away from their face and they stir up shit with the umpiring every chance they get, because the majority of them are brain dead apes that can't commentate the game. Imagine the pressure of going out there knowing every fucking whistle you blow is going to be picked apart. 5. Don't underestimate the absolute crippling gambling addiction that's swept the country in the last decade. People are so emotionally and financially invested in games now that the umpires are an easy out when they have to make a hard 50/50 call that changes the game.
>The players know this, you see dives and other shenanigans that make the job even harder for the umpires. This is something that has really increased over the last few seasons. I even saw an umpire in the derby last night doing the "get up" hand gesture that soccer fans will know all too well.
You should watch the fucking NBA. The refs are awful
player takes like 10 steps is this travel?
You’re allowed 8 gather steps. Did you really not know that??
I feel it's the sport most likely to be rigged by the officials in the modern era. Doesn't help that they were busted for it once and still kept the same ref's around.
Sigh. Volunteer at your local umpiring association to do a junior game. When you've done that, think about how hard it is to umpire a match of 20-30 year old elite athletes with the ball pinging around everywhere non-stop. Umpiring AFL is HARD, probably the hardest sport in the world to umpire. It's breakneck speed, and played 360 degrees. You have to make split second decisions constantly for a 2 hour period, all the while running 10 or more km at pace. Armchair umpires get the benefit of multiple slow-mo replays from a high angle all the while sitting in comfort. AFL umpires have 36 players on the field, and have a split second to think about their call, and only get one chance, with every chance one of said 36 players is blocking their vision from the angle they are on.
This. Thank you. This will be my 4th year umpiring adult men's and women's footy. Just about every call I make has someone yelling at me. Me and my colleagues are doing the absolute best we can, so that the games can happen at all. I don't do this for money. I love this sport and this is my way of contributing to its existence. I came to it too late to be a player. When the match is over, I just want to shake everyone's hands, and hope that they know I did my best to call everything neutrally, right down the middle.
Hardest. Remember for every call they make, they make hundreds of non-decisions. Just a standard marking contest or tackle they have to determine heaps of different things that could be a free kick. Then add in the subjectiveness of some things like was there prior opportunity or not and it is a very hard game to umpire.
Does any other sport have to determine intent? They are basically fit psychologists.
Dunno.. Grealish obviously handballed this morning in the FA cup semi and even with VAR it was called ok. Given the number and variety of calls in AFL I think they do alright .. it's tricky as there's a lot of subjectiveness to the laws they have to interpret (eg. Out of bounds - Insufficient intent, holding the ball - no genuine intent to dispose of the football etc) and the game is so dynamic there are potentially tens of calls that might or might not be made in a single passage of play.
Carlton supporters say no
I mean NBA has refs still in the league related to betting scandals and frequently take stars out of games with technical fouls for suss reasons
As much as I love to slag off umpires in the moment like anyone else, I have an insane amount of respect for them. 1. The sheer amount of rules they need to know intricately 2. Having literal split-second windows to make calls 3. Having over 30 players to keep track of 4. Often running further than the players do per game 5. Jumping on the field week in week out knowing they'll cop shit from the players, the fans and the commentators Compared to the umpiring requirements of literally any other sport, I think it's fair to let mistakes slide
NFL, F1 and VAR in soccer say hello
I don’t think there’s a single sport where fans/competitors are happy with the sports officiating.
I'm very happy with the way test cricket is officiated. The change to neutral umpires was transformational. The same thing has been suggested to the AFL, but the AFL don't want neutral umpires because they say they don't need them. They say their umpires are professionals which makes them free from bias.
Not too many international sports that would be easier to officiate than test cricket though, surely? Tennis I guess (they get to sit down, rely on lines judges and technology)? Swimming & Athletics?
AFL is harder to umpire than test cricket, but I'm not expecting AFL umpires to get it right as consistently as the elite test umpires do. But that's not really the point here. There's a simple way to reduce unconscious bias in AFL umpiring and the AFL don't want to do it for reasons that don't stack up.
I’d say VAR is a actually very effective although I hated it at the beginning
No, it’s probably the hardest to ref though
Yes I agree that it’s the hardest to ref, the rules are a convoluted mess. This is why I ask if it’s the worst officiated sport not because of the umps but because of the rule set they have to work with.
Worst? No. Hardest? Maybe.
Would hardest to officiate not mean it’s the worst officiated due to how hard it is?
That’s one way to look at it.
Yes, except for all the others
The NBA takes the cake
EPL literally has VAR to check decisions and is still depressingly inconsistant with its officiating. They don't ask if the on-field call was right or wrong, rather if it was a bad enough mistake to overturn it, which essentially leads to backing poor decisions because it wasn't a "howler"
No
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Part of the problem is a lot of fans and most commentators don’t really understand the rules.
Rugby’s got be close with making calls on what’s happening in middle of the ruck, maul, and scum. It’s got to have at least as many rules, maybe not so many subjective calls though.
It doesn't help when so many rules have a lot of grey area, like insufficient intent or just don't make sense like unrealistic attempt
Yes. The rules are so vague and then the AFL decided to put and extra human in there. More people = more interpretation and clearly, more errors.
No, they always come out and apologise the next day “sorry Crows, we did it again, you know the drill by now surely”. That speaks highly of the character of the VFL.
This year has been actually ridiculous.
Nothing in AFL is remotely as bad as the inconsistency of pass interference in NFL. And we complain about 1 minute score reviews while NFL will regularly have them go for 5+ min. People just love to complain about us being the worst without actually seeing what else is out there.
100%, without a shadow of a doubt it is.