Last edited by neilfws; 8th October 2016 at 12:13 AM.
There are probably some 50/50 calls which they would be happy to call either way. (I'm ok with that. More than most sports, the rules of AFL require umpire interpretation).
Do you mean sub-conscious (ie. they weren't aware of it)? That definitely happens. It's pretty well established that the home crowd affects the umpires and the Bulldogs had the crowd well and truly on their side all week. I'm sure they try and ignore it, but it's very hard to stop things which affect you subconsciously.
I thought what Laidler did was plain dumb, but the non 50 to Jack early in the game beggars belief. Marks the ball and is hit by a player no where near being in the contest. He kicks that goal and we are off and running. How any club can have a +99 free kick differential in a season is very strange. No mention by the AFL of blatant rugby throws by the Dogs.
I like the idea of slapping the ball. Dogs were throwing it anyway so might as well make throwing legal as it seems it is almost impossible for umpires to detect. Would speed the game up and make for less congestion.
I once invented a game so an AFL team could theoretically compete with an NRL team.
The only real difference was that you could throw the ball but like in NRL & NFL it had to be "completed".
So passing the ball by hand wasn't allowed to hit the turf.
Get tackled anytime and don't get the pass away to another player (or kick) is holding the ball.
Imagine how simple umpiring would become.
give it to the game
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