Yes, we have been complaining a bit about free kicks in recent games. SEN has collated a free kick ladder after round 4 by computing frees for minus frees against and ranking the sides.
The relevant findings:
1 Western Bulldogs +40
...
18 Sydney -29
This will surprise absolutely nobody here.
Edit to add: I'm approaching this from a purely statistical viewpoint here, not to complain about the numbers in general.
"Unbelievable!" -- Nick Davis leaves his mark on the 2005 semi final
The Poodles drew the free kick count in their Round 2 game against Carlton, meaning that their +40 comes from just three games - one against us, of course.
6 non-Victorian teams in the bottom 8!
UmPiRiNg MaKeS nO dIfFeReNcE
happy-clown-laying-on-floor-600w-668316307.jpg
AFL Tables has collected the same information for seasons going back to 1965: Free Kicks - 1965-2022
Western Bulldogs
* The last season where the Western Bulldogs conceded more free kicks than they received was in 2013.
* Overall (since 1965), the Western Bulldogs has the highest number of free kicks received for every free kick conceded of all current teams (1.0664). The only team with a higher proportion was Fitzroy.
* Since 1965, the Western Bulldogs have received more free kicks than any other side except Collingwood. Collingwood is ahead by 37 free kicks (34754 to 34717, roughly 0.1%) and they are only ahead because they've played 81 finals since 1965 to the Bulldogs' 40.
Sydney
* In the last 10 seasons (2012 to 2021), we were ahead in 2012, 2014 and 2020.
* Overall, we're somewhere in the middle (1.0053 free kicks per free kick conceded). This is 179 more free kicks received than conceded over 57 seasons.
Home and away
* Free kicks tend to favour the home side. Overall, every side has received more free kicks than they have conceded when playing at home except for Hawthorn, who don't even come close to parity (0.9591, 15768 to 16440, a deficit of 672). This contributes to Hawthorn being ranked last on free kick ratio.
* When playing away, only two sides have received more free kicks overall than they have conceded: Fitzroy (1.0492) and Western Bulldogs (1.0110). We're ranked fifth out of 20 sides (statistics include Fitzroy and the Bears).
* The three sides that have the greatest free kick ratios when playing at home are West Coast (1.1638), Port Adelaide (1.1271) and Western Bulldogs (1.1236). We're ranked 12th.
"Unbelievable!" -- Nick Davis leaves his mark on the 2005 semi final
Sydney -29 18th
GWS -24 17th
Number of Sydney umpires? Are there any?
Number of Victorian umpires? Heaps!
Is it any wonder Sydney teams do not get any umpire love.
How many of the Victorian umpires grew up in Footscray?
Maybe Gil could leave a legacy in Sydney by getting some more umpires from Sydney.
Brett Meredith's parents support The Swans.
Maybe he has dysfunctional family dynamics?Originally Posted by Nico
Also - excellent thread Thunder Shaker
Taking an objective view on this (as much as possible), the reason we are at the bottom of the differential ladder is that we are giving away 7 more free kicks a game compared to last year:
- 2017 18.9 FF 20.1 FA
- 2018 21.3 FF 21.8 FA
- 2019 17.7 FF 20.5 FA
- 2020 17.1 FF 16.6 FA (shorter game time)
- 2021 19.6 FF 20.2 FA
- 2022 19.8 FF 27.0 FA
The main culprits in frees against this year are:
- Tom HICKEY 9
- Lance FRANKLIN 8
- Callum MILLS, Dylan STEPHENS, Sam WICKS 7
- Luke PARKER, Chad WARNER 6
- Isaac HEENEY, Josh KENNEDY, Dane RAMPE, Peter LADHAMS 5
Converting these to FA per game, and compared to last season, all but Parker are giving away more frees this season.
- Peter LADHAMS avg 5.0 FA (2021 1.2FA)
- Tom HICKEY avg 3.0 FA (2021 1.7 FA)
- Dylan STEPHENS avg 2.3 FA (2021 1.1 FA)
- Sam WICKS avg 2.3 FA (2021 1.1 FA)
- Lance FRANKLIN avg 2.0 FA (2021 1.9 FA)
- Chad WARNER 2.0 FA (2021 1.3 FA)
- Callum MILLS avg 1.8 FA (2021 0.6 FA)
- Luke PARKER avg 1.5 FA (2021 1.5 FA)
- Isaac HEENEY 1.3 FA (2021 0.8 FA)
- Josh KENNEDY 1.3 FA (2021 0.6 FA)
- Dane RAMPE 1.3 FA (2021 1.2 FA)
The breakdown of the types of free kicks is also interesting:
Holding the ball was particularly bad in the last 2 weeks, we lost the counts there 4-8 (WBD) and 4-13 (NTH). The biggest culprits are Luke PARKER 0-5, Isaac HEENEY 1-3, Josh KENNEDY 1-3, Lance FRANKLIN 0-2, and Will HAYWARD 0-2. I don't have the breakdowns for the rest of the teams in the league so I can't tell if our holding the ball frees for are low, or our holding the ball frees against is high.
Free kick type Swans count Opponent count Differential Holding the ball 15 29 -14 Holding the man 14 22 -8 Push in the back 3 9 -6 Blocking 3 8 -5 High contact 23 26 -3 Dangerous tackle 0 2 -2 Ran too far 0 2 -2 Chopping the arms 0 1 -1 Off the ball 0 1 -1 Striking 0 1 -1 Dissent 0 1 -1 Front on contact 2 2 0 Under the knees contact 1 0 +1 Kicking in danger 1 0 +1 Throw 2 1 +1 Late tackle 2 0 +2 Legged 3 1 +2 Push 6 2 +4 Insufficient intent 4 0 +4 Totals 79 108 -29
Interesting to hear Tom Hawkins admit he was probably lucky the other night but that in those circumstances it’s a bit of a gamble worth taking to gain an advantage. He said that his first reaction was to see which way the umpire was pointing when the whistle blew.
This seems to highlight that the players are aware that interpretation of some of the rules can be very subjective and hard to predict.
No wonder as supporters we get confused 🤔
Interesting stat in the Footy Live app's preview of the Eagles match
The Swans have scored 14.0 from free kicks this season - the most of any team.
We have kicked 56.29 this season so that's 25% of our goals. (and very accurate too!)
14 goals from free kicks is not true stat. We managed to kick every gaol, whereas other teams have missed theirs. The true stat should be the amount of shoots at goal.
Is this where we discuss the new interpretation of umpire abuse/dissent?
50 metre penalties are so damaging, I hope the club is drumming it into every player (I'm looking at you Tom Papley) to keep themselves in check from here on.
Personally, I don't have a problem with it, I was getting fed up of the constant appealing for frees, disputing frees, appealing for DOOB, it seemed almost every decision was being disputed. This will clean the game up. Let's be leaders here (please)
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