The Scott Welsh incident at the opening of the Bulldog's fourth quarter against the Saints last Saturday night was a classic case of poor communication. And yet there was an area of abysmal communication — beyond the obvious — that no-one seems to be speaking about.
I wonder how many Bulldogs fans at Docklands stadium were in the dark over this incident? Out of nowhere, the umpire holds the game up and before you can say “Charlie Sutton!”, Riewoldt is kicking a goal from the goal square!
It's a feature of elite aussie rules in the noughties that three umpires are going to see infringements away from the ball. If you're a footy fan and your attention is on the ball and the near proximity, there's little chance you'll understand why a free kick is suddenly being paid (often when looking straight at an incident it's impossible to fathom the reason for the free kick!).
The umpires at AFL level are miked up and can fairly easily be monitored to ascertain the reason for a free kick. Surely the technology to show a screen on the scoreboard that explains why an off-the-ball free kick has been awarded can't be rocket surgery.
This is an issue the AFL administration has to deal with.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Communication failure
Labels:
scoreboard announcements,
Umpiring
The Scott Welsh incident at the opening of the Bulldog's fourth quarter against the Saints last Saturday night was a classic case of poor communication. And yet there was an area of abysmal communication — beyond the obvious — that no-one seems to be speaking about.I wonder how many Bulldogs fans at Docklands stadium were in the dark over this incident? Out of nowhere, the umpire holds the game up and before you can say “Charlie Sutton!”, Riewoldt is kicking a goal from the goal square!
It's a feature of elite aussie rules in the noughties that three umpires are going to see infringements away from the ball. If you're a footy fan and your attention is on the ball and the near proximity, there's little chance you'll understand why a free kick is suddenly being paid (often when looking straight at an incident it's impossible to fathom the reason for the free kick!).
The umpires at AFL level are miked up and can fairly easily be monitored to ascertain the reason for a free kick. Surely the technology to show a screen on the scoreboard that explains why an off-the-ball free kick has been awarded can't be rocket surgery.
This is an issue the AFL administration has to deal with.
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3 comments:
So you want ALL decisions or just some to appear on the scoreboard??
Crazy but it has merits. I remember the pre season game between Freo & West Coast and Freo where gifted a rushed behind rule (they said it was the wrong call) and all the way home on the train, everyone was asking others what the free kick was for.
There's a pattern emerging here, Jermayn. You think my post is silly, but then admit it has merit! ;-)
The Freo incident you mention is exactly what I'm writing about.
Of course you can't have EVERY decision explained on the scoreboard, but those that are off the ball, or interchange infringements for instance, where anybody following the flow of the game will miss the incident the free is paid for should be explained.
:lol: yes some of these ideas may seem silly at first but they make sense..
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