Quote Originally Posted by unconfuseme View Post
What I liked about Blight was his commentary on "that" umpire, who again wanted to be the spectacle, and managed to call a pre-determined holding the ball free against Tadhg, when he could not even see the ball!

Can't recall his exact words, but he gave it to him and basically said he has no understanding of the game, and shouldn't be umpiring, BUT, IMPORTANTLY, he never mentioned his name!

So in that context, he is a mile ahead of the other dopes, like Brian Taylor, who just keep "perpetuating the legend" ... which seems to be the only reason that particular umpire is out there!
Was totally relieved that there is at least one commentator that is prepared to call a spade a spade in relation to umpires and the rules. What posters have to realise with Blight is that he loves the game itself more than ingratiating himself with all the sycophants and toadies that dominate the commentary teams. Nothing subtle about him - thank god! I also like his complaints about the holding the ball rule and interpretations. They do nothing but confuse the game, do not reward merit and serve the opposite purpose to which they supposed to. They reward stoppage play. The only positive thing that has happened with the umpiring /rules has been the apparent decision to give players more time to get rid of the ball when caught, but even then we get the occasional "lightning death" htb decision. Blight is right onto these things and he is rightly frustrated at these large flaws in the game. They are easily fixed by anyone with reasonable intelligence in the positions that matter. But maybe that is the problem, there isn't anybody intelligent in the positions that matter. AFL has the potential to rapidly go international if the rules could be made easier to interpret. Far too much is left to the umpire's discretion. This leaves the game open to manipulation by gambling interests and only confuses first time watchers of the game.

Blight knows this and wants to advocate fixing it up and is prepared to upset people along the way. Good on him! BTW it was interesting that his comments on RRay's decision against Kennelly on the wing were (rather clumsily) sensored in the replay of the game on Fox Sports.