This is flat out cheating.

[Twodogs]

Standing here at etihad its obvious that the umpires are incompetent or they are cheating. It must be one or the other there is no other explanation. If I were Bevo or Bob I would refuse to play the second half. The umpires are going to ensure that West Coast will win so they can stick their game up their *!*!*!*!ing arse.
That is all.

[josie]

Umpiring today was appalling. They are incompetent. Call the obvious ones and put away whistle other times. It's just a crapshoot. There were some clear HTB against West Coast in last qtr and some clear holding behind play of our players with umpires in good positions to see. Having said that if we cannot beat a depleated interstate side with most of our good players in the side we were doomed to lose.

[AndrewP6]

I have said they are incompetent for years, and everyone howls me down, saying "You can't blame them" "Need to support them, the game doesn't happen without them" "support them so kids want to be umpires" and other such comments.

I call bullshit. They are paid to do a job, they either can't or won't do it properly, I'm going to say it. Some say they are only part time - I'm a teacher, I work part-time.... I still do my job professionally. And you can bet, when my clients aren't happy, I hear about it.

[The Underdog]

We got the short end of the stick today but *!*!*!*!ing hell, we had an awesome run last week. So maybe if we don't play like shit the umpires won't matter.

[anfo27]

Its not the umpires fault we only play a quarter of footy against a depleted flaky West Coast! Put a fork in us, we're cooked!

[always right]

Who is umpire 12? He was appalling and always looks like he's going to shit himself before every decision. Every time he was in the play we got shafted.

[The bulldog tragician]

Who is umpire 12? He was appalling and always looks like he's going to shit himself before every decision. Every time he was in the play we got shafted.

Andrew Stephen, who also executed a fine block in the 1st qtr.

[Sedat]

There is nothing more boring than talking about the umpires. Players would make 5 times as many mistakes as the umps but all we ever hear about post game is umpire mistskes from angry opposition coaches and supporters and nothing about the 20 odd times their own players miss a simple target from 15m away

The umpires are far less of a problem than the rules committee. All the umps are doing is applying the rules as per instruction from the rules committee - sure they make some mistskes but the problem lies with the degrees of interpretation for grey rules that should be black and white.

People that whinge about the umpires are as bad as the Scott brothers.

[always right]

There is nothing more boring than talking about the umpires. Players would make 5 times as many mistakes as the umps but all we ever hear about post game is umpire mistskes from angry opposition coaches and supporters and nothing about the 20 odd times their own players miss a simple target from 15m away

The umpires are far less of a problem than the rules committee. All the umps are doing is applying the rules as per instruction from the rules committee - sure they make some mistskes but the problem lies with the degrees of interpretation for grey rules that should be black and white.

People that whinge about the umpires are as bad as the Scott brothers.

So don't post.

It is my fricken right to bag the shit out of incompetent umpires when my team has just been beaten by a depleted team of flat trackers. Back off

[Sedat]

So don't post.

It is my fricken right to bag the shit out of incompetent umpires when my team has just been beaten by a depleted team of flat trackers. Back off
I respect yours and everyone else's right to complain about the umps, but for me it is misplaced anger that achieves very little. By all means vent away - it can be frustrating.

I'd like to see real attention paid towards removing all grey areas from the rules - this is what is really crippling the game IMO. Umps will continue to make mistakes but I don't blame then for inconsistency errors - it is an incredibly difficult game to umpire and it is made virtually impossible because of the wild variations in rule interpretations.

I'm also far more interested in why we are so poor at clearances and stoppages after being the best in the business last year. Issues like this are far more telling than the occasional ump howlers, and they are actually in our control.

[Webby]

There were some costly decisions today. Dahlhaus' free kick in the first quarter when he handballed to Dale (or was it Macrae?) who snapped a goal - only for it to be brought back for some inexplicable reason...

I fully expected a conference prior to the umpires calling all clear for the goal, but nope, they brought it back for Dahlhaus to take the shot from 45m on 70 degree angle. Of course, he missed and I remember thinking that would cost us.

It pisses me off that there was a media campaign against us during the week, and, as night follows day, they were always going to over correct today. They are precious like that.

It's right to point out that, if we were 10 goals better it wouldn't have mattered... However we weren't and the umpires can only piss you off when you feel they've impacted the result.

[Remi Moses]

Don't worry the media narrative will be about a flag hangover .
It only focuses on umpires when we win

[S Coast Simon]

Sadly we knew the game was going to be umpiring against us with all the talk leading up to it. I haven't seen a first half like that. Sorry if you think I'm complaining because I am. That was borderline cheating in the first half. The commentators could not believe what was happening. I lost count of how many frees we missed. This is beyond a joke. Why was the roof open. No one could see. Is it coincidence WC play a home ground that has that exact problem. I thought the game wax at Domain at one stage. The AFL must be filthy we won last year because they are trying real hard to not let that happen again.

[Remi Moses]

We copped the raw end , no doubt . Got more pressing issues than the umps though

[Remi Moses]

JJ is devoid of confidence and playing poorly, but the officials have to pay frees to players getting scragged and Barged into .

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Was always going to happen after the media circus last week. It was blatant "cheating" in the sense they came out with the intent not to "favour" us. Saw it coming as soon as Barrett opened his mouth. Hell even Brayshaw called it out as such in the commentary. Unfortunately this league has zero integrity

[LostDoggy]

There is nothing more boring than talking about the umpires. Players would make 5 times as many mistakes as the umps but all we ever hear about post game is umpire mistskes from angry opposition coaches and supporters and nothing about the 20 odd times their own players miss a simple target from 15m away

The umpires are far less of a problem than the rules committee. All the umps are doing is applying the rules as per instruction from the rules committee - sure they make some mistskes but the problem lies with the degrees of interpretation for grey rules that should be black and white.

People that whinge about the umpires are as bad as the Scott brothers.

Na, today was shit. Multiple times it happened right in front of them. We got stitched up on our own track. I'm not one to complain about the umpiring but today was disgusting.

[Sedat]

Na, today was shit. Multiple times it happened right in front of them. We got stitched up on our own track. I'm not one to complain about the umpiring but today was disgusting.
Have to take your word for it as I'm o/s. But that sounds like Horse after the GF or Don Pyke after our match against them last year.

[SonofScray]

Was pretty messed up. Even their last foray forward was a gift. The campaign against us has paid dividends and we are just not in any way, shape or form, in a position to shift it because of how poor we are with ball in hand.

[chef]

Not sure we should be complaining to much about the umps as we've had a dream run lately. That's the least of our worries too.

[merantau]

We copped the raw end , no doubt . Got more pressing issues than the umps though

Agree. Altough they were putrid we were responsible for the loss. You just can't win by playing 25 minutes of good football.

It's just so disappointing. We are now in the position of struggling to salvage something from the season. Can we? Can we? I'd like to think so.

[bulldogtragic]

Not sure we should be complaining to much about the umps as we've had a dream run lately. That's the least of our worries too.

Yep, take the high road and focus on the real issues. Going down this track only serves to distract about the things that have been constantly bad all year and especially today.

[LostDoggy]

Not sure we should be complaining to much about the umps as we've had a dream run lately. That's the least of our worries too.

Dream run? So yea, na we deserved that, we were owed that?

It's not why we lost, but that was as blatant as it gets. We have plenty of problems that need worrying about and if we don't sort it out we are done.

Still doesn't excuse today's crap.

[chef]

Dream run? So yea, na we deserved that, we were owed that?

I guess you can make up what i meant from my post to suit your rant.

To me with the umps you have to just take the good with the bad and imo we've had a pretty good run lately. Sooking about it wont change a thing though.

And its the least of our worries.

[Eastdog]

Agree with the sentiment here from woofers while I don't like to complain to much about the umpires today was awful.

[Twodogs]

There is nothing more boring than talking about the umpires. Players would make 5 times as many mistakes as the umps but all we ever hear about post game is umpire mistskes from angry opposition coaches and supporters and nothing about the 20 odd times their own players miss a simple target from 15m away

The umpires are far less of a problem than the rules committee. All the umps are doing is applying the rules as per instruction from the rules committee - sure they make some mistskes but the problem lies with the degrees of interpretation for grey rules that should be black and white.

People that whinge about the umpires are as bad as the Scott brothers.


It was as bad as I've seen it. The biggest issue was you could call the mistake or biased call they were gonna make watching the play, "eagles player drops the ball, bulldog player gets tacked head high, bulldogs player gets pushed in the back, bulldog player kicks it 60 metres towards his own goal and it turns at a right angle and rolls out of bounds with three bulldogs players within ten metres" yep he pays deliberate. And so on all day.

[LostDoggy]

I guess you can make up what i meant from my post to suit your rant.

To me with the umps you have to just take the good with the bad and imo we've had a pretty good run lately. Sooking about it wont change a thing though.

And its the least of our worries.

Ah I wasn't making up anything from your post Chef and I wasn't ranting. I also said it wasn't the reason we lost.

If the umpiring department want any respect or credibility they shouldn't be falling over themselves like puppets.

[always right]

TBH....it was really only the one umpire (Stephens). This is a bloke who deadset looks like he is going to shit himself every time he makes a decision.

Having said that.....we are to blame for losing the match. We were worse than the umpiring.

[merantau]

Having said that.....we are to blame for losing the match. We were worse than the umpiring.

Sadly too true. The umpiring was way below par but blaming them for the loss ignores the real problems we are facing - problems that have been evident all year and 15 weeks in have not been dealt with.

Not to even make the finals, after winning the flag, should generate some serious examination of our entire operation and result in decisive action so we can get back to our winning ways pronto.

[Twodogs]

This reminds me of Roy Hodgkin and his "go and tell your mate he's just cost me my job" remark to the fourth official in the World Cup game against Holland (think it was Holland, Robben destroyed the poms)