Master whistlers?

It’s not often that AussieRulesBlog sides with the AFL administration, but we think Adrian Anderson’s response to the suggestion of full-time field umpires got it about right.

 

Speaking on On the Couch on FoxSports, Richmond coach Damien Hardwick drew a comparison between the move to full-time footballers over the past decade and a half and the resolutely part-time AFL umpiring staff. The comparison suggests, and Hardwick spelt it out in plain English, that a move to full-time umpires would improve umpiring skills, as it has improved the skills of footballers — outside of goal kicking, of course!

 

It’s a superficially attractive proposition. Regular readers would be well aware that AussieRulesBlog doesn’t hold back when it comes to critiquing the performance of umpires or the AFL umpiring department. We should be jumping on the bandwagon enthusiastically — but we’re not.

 

With three field umpires on the ground, there’s rarely a time when umpires get caught out by the speed of the game, as used to happen in two-umpire and solo umpire eras. Two additional boundary umpires means that there are rarely times when there’s not at least one set of eyes reasonably well-positioned to9 judge out of bounds — a far different situation to solo boundary umps when the poor sods could sometimes be left trailing the ball by a hundred metres.

 

No, fitness and the speed of the game are no longer a factor in umpiring quality. The keys now are positioning and interpretation. The former was rarely a problem even for a flat-foot like Scott McLaren, and the latter is in the hands of the Rules Committee and Jeff Gieschen.

 

Hardwick was understandably looking for a way to eradicate the mistake that could be seen to have cost his side two points against the Saints, but the truth is that the blokes wearing the black guernsey with the yellow sash made many more errors that contributed far more materially to their team’s inability to win the game.

 

If footballers can be thought to have too much time on their hands, what would a full-time umpire do all day? The poor buggers would be bored to snores by Tuesday afternoon!

 

"There's a few things in the pipeline where we're looking at ways in which we can enhance performance." says Anderson. Dare we suggest Release the Giesch?? Go on, Adrian, kick the old duffer out on his ear and improve the game by 100% in a microsecond!