As we watched the painful demolition of the Bombers by the Crows last night, we couldn’t believe our eyes as a goal was overturned.
Let’s be clear from the start that this decision had absolutely zero impact on the result. It’s remarkable enough that the Upper Kumbukta West F-grade Reserves had been delegated the task of impersonating an AFL team.
No, The Giesch’s boys managed an even more remarkable event. A boundary umpire, who must have been at least fourteen metres away and on just about the worst possible angle for making such a call, managed to overrule a goal umpire who was within a metre of the ball, insisting, despite the goalie’s protestations, that the ball had glanced the post. The TV replay demonstrated amply that the boundary umpire was delusional.
We’re all for co-operative umpiring, although it was sadly missing in last week’s St Kilda-Geelong game when Steven Baker was harassing Steve Johnson. We’re all for co-operative umpiring when the guy charged with making a decision is unsure or was unsighted.
How or why the boundary ump got involved is a matter for conjecture since the TV director was busy giving us the ‘nose hair’ close-up of the putative goal scorer at the time.
All of this was happening as the whistle-blowers continued their newfound fascination with 50-metre penalties. This umpiring department has utterly and completely lost its way. The Giesch and his crew are now as adept at swinging to meet the breeze of public opinion as the most reactive of politicians. There’s only one rejoinder to this mess: Release the Giesch!!!
Posts
2 comments:
"We couldn’t believe our eyes as a goal was overturned." Sums up pretty nicely the horrific display of umpiring that all of the "Victorian" based umpires have been serving up not only this season but last as well.
Each year the AFL publishes the Laws of the game and are available for everyone to read, But for the week to week display from the Victorians it seems that they must get a different copy of the rules, one that is not available to the public who pay to watch, or available to the clubs who send out players each week to play by them. I have taken the following passages from the 2010 AFL Laws of the game PDF document which back up virtually everything you have said here and the comments on Kick 2 Kick.
The first, the Goal umpire overruling Shocker.
Law 8.2.4 Goal Umpire Page 25
(a) Duties
Unless otherwise determined by the relevant Controlling
Body, the duties of a goal Umpire include:
(i) judging whether a Goal or Behind has been scored;
(ii) signalling that a Goal or Behind has been scored upon being given the All Clear or Touched All Clear by a field Umpire;
(iii) recording the Goals and Behinds scored by each Team during a Match; and
(iv) reporting a Player or Official who commits a Reportable Offence.
(v) Assisting boundary Umpires to determine if the ball is Out of Bounds.
(b) Behind or Out of Bounds
Where a goal Umpire considers that a Behind has been scored and a boundary Umpire considers the football has gone Out of Bounds or Out of Bounds on the Full, the decision of the goal Umpire shall prevail.
For starters the Victorian Umpire has taken it upon himself to rewrite Law 8.2.4, still haven’t found where it says he can do that!
Know our Victorian mate is starting to blow up saying the Gesh keeps telling him on the field HE IS GOD, well he is not everyone knows Morgan Freeman is GOD and he is defiantly not a Victorian field umpire. So we now use the next law to shut him up and that is
Law 12.1.5 Goal Umpire to Judge Goal or Behind Page 39
(a) The goal Umpire shall decide whether a Goal or Behind has been scored but may, before deciding, consult with the field or boundary Umpires.
" THE DECISION OF THE GOAL UMPIRE SHALL BE FINAL."
The goal Umpire shall only signal that a Goal or Behind has been scored when the field Umpire signals “All Clear” or “Touched All Clear”, as the case may be.
On this matter the evidence is crystal clear the Victorian Field umpire and his mate on the boundary either can’t read or they need to go back to junior footy to learn the rules of the game.
One Pissed off Supporter
Save that the AFL's administration is located in Victoria, I think your assessment of the problem as a "Victorian" issue is pure hyperbole, OPOS or Anon.
The decisions are bad decisions or interpretations because they're bad decisions or interpretations, not because they've been made by Victorians.
Post a Comment