Umpiring v. Essendon

[Geek]

^ This.

Every set of fans scream 'ball' when the oppo is tackled. Essendon fans seem to think the umpire should agree with them though and get shitty when they don't.

[Cam]

The tale of the frees in the first quarter
Player - free for - location

Phillips - high - BP (advantage)
Langdon - held without -HF
Sidebottom - trip - BP

Merrett - high - C
Bellchambers - high - HB
Merrett - OOF against Scharenberg - W

Pendlebury - held without - W
Appleby - high - FB/CHB
Cox - pushed - CHB
Langdon - high - HB
Greenwood - Heppell incorrect disposal - C
Appleby - OOF against McKernan/McKenna HFF

Heppell - high - C

Thomas - held after disposal - C (advantage)
Sier - McDonald-Tipungwuti holding the ball - C
Daicos - Colyer holding the ball CHF/FF - Goal

Quarter Time Frees
Coll 12 - Ess 4

Coll received 5 in Back half, 4 in the middle, 3 in Forward half
Ess received 1 in Back half, 3 in the middle

after this frees
Coll 15 - 13

Only Langdon's looked 50-50, umpires missed some highs, Heppell incorrect disposal in our goal square, might have paid Stephenson walking over line as deliberate.

When they watch the tape the Essendon coaching staff would notice that their team was reactionary, usually second to the ball, and had it not been for Collingwood picking out their loose guys across half back, the margin might have been much greater.

[MJ23]

What a great post. I re-watched the game last night and saw exactly the same thing. Im stuffed if I know what Worsfold will discuss with the AFL as if they rock up with this detail he will look like a dick.
Whats worse, because the free kick "count" became a focus of the crowd, commentary team and then umpires - we were absolutely Dudded in the last quarter. Especially with late and high hits.

[E]

[Pies4shaw]

I mostly take little interest in the bias (or otherwise) of the umpiring. However, it did seem to me that the Bumblers spent quite a lot of that game holding players when it was impermissible and disposing of the ball incorrectly. There were a number of deliberate handoffs that should have been paid against them - I assume the umpires' position was that they couldn't call all of them or it would become embarrassing. Consequently, it seemed to me that Collingwood got the rough end of the pineapple.

The best commentary on the Bumblers' style of play came when the little slug chasing Stephenson did his hamstring because he was trying a little too hard to do something illegal - it was a direct consequence of giving away a deliberate free kick to slow us down and, in soccer, it would have been an automatic send-off.

Why does this happen? It happens because Essendon is way too slow, on the whole, and have to scrag and interfere to keep themselves in the contest against moderately good opposition. It might not be a problem every week - but it will be when they are chasing around a team full of classy midfielders (and Adams) who get first hands to the ball a lot (whether or not they effect the clearance). Some of the other repeat frees were inevitable - their "strong" and "fast" players kept trying to break tackles without success - three that come to mind immediately are Grundy taking down Long, Daicos' holding the ball goal and the defence making fun of Stringer. There were plenty of other occasions when Bumblers were turned 360 degrees in the tackle but got away with it, even though free kicks should have been paid.

Collingwood doesn't scrag (it doesn't have to - the players are, by and large, quick enough to keep up with their opposition fairly), so in a mismatch like that one you will typically get a lopsided free kick count, unless the umpires have a close eye on the numbers (and I suspect they did after quarter-time because quite a few howlers went against us in the last three quarters).

[eddiesmith]

They got rid of the 360 degree interpretation

[Presti35]

No where in the rules does it say the frees have to be level.

If the frees are there, they are there. But where they there?

[MightyMagpie]

https://shawryanalyst.wordpress.com/2018/07/10/umpiring-and-essendon-an-open-letter-to-essendon-and-other-club-people/

[MightyMagpie]

https://shawryanalyst.wordpress.com/2018/07/10/umpiring-and-essendon-an-open-letter-to-essendon-and-other-club-people/

[Dave The Man]

[AN_Inkling]

Essendon have been strongly in the free kick deficit for all of their last three games. Time to stop complaining and realise that you're doing it wrong:

vs Pies 17-27
vs Eagles 17-33
vs Kangas 11-21

[Brown26]

I suspect it has something to do with trying to come out hard and play physically, especially in the first quarter, when you're really not that sort of team. It was obvious in the Carlton game that they were told to come out and play "unsociable football" for want of a better word and, because they're not used to it as players, they gave away a lot of silly frees for high / late hits / in the back etc that were clumsy at best and dangerous at worst. How many high hits did Essendon give away in the first quarter? How many for holding? Trying to do too much physical stuff off the ball or illegal stuff when we had the ball, and cause they're not used to doing it they crossed the line too much.

To our credit usually we don't do much of that and so we don't give those frees away. It's also obvious we're not good at that sort of football cause, when it's required, we generally don't have anyone to play that hard role either. BUT if we don't try, we don't give away silly frees.

There you go Jonno, I saved Hayden Kennedy a trip to Windy Hill!

- Ben

[eddiesmith]

I saw a really good point made elsewhere, but could some of it be deliberate? It could be a combination of being too slow so they deliberately hold players up or whack them hard to slow the game up. Notice most of Collingwoods free kicks were not in dangerous areas, the only real free kicks we got in front of goal were HTB.

NRL teams give away deliberate penalties in undamaging situations to slow the game down. It can also be beneficial if the opposition isnt doing the same thing as umpires do realise when a lot of free kicks are going 1 way and will try and even it up.

[Brown26]

Ha I wonder if it is Eddiesmith - and worsfold is asking the umps for an opinion to take the focus from it

- Ben

[Presti35]

Essendon wins the free kick count Vs Sydney, 28 to 14.

Haven't heard any complaints yet...

Funny that.