Talking Footy

I have only just finished watching the swannies game against Hawthorn and I just had to make a comment about the game. I could not believe the decisions the Umpire was making!! (Even the Fox commentators were making the same comments about the really bad decisions, they couldn't believe it)!! It would have to be the worst umpiring I have seen and there have been quite a few of those. (And this isn't sour grapes either because we lost). The umpiring was atrocious, so unbelievable for both sides in the match and once again the commentators can back that up. And some people will say "well it all evens up in the end", well it doesn't work that way at all!! (If you believe in that saying then you must believe in that there are fairies at the botton of your garden, woops, sorry fairies)!! We (the swannies) just seemed to be getting the worst end of the deal all night and particularly in the last 5 minutes or so. As an blairing example: we should have been awarded a free kick for hawks man holding the ball (swans made a great tackle {completely legal}, hawks didn't get the ball out at all) and then the next thing you know its a free kick to Hawthorn directly in front of the goals, umpire called it a high tackle - instant goal to the Hawks!! Does this umpire need glasses and to take off his shoes and socks to count how many seconds he had the ball for and didn't try to get rid of it?? What a disgusting and deplorable decision, one of many!! He needs to be repremanded some how, not payed, fined and dropped from the AFL games, no make that even to the Vfl games, no, maybe drop him to the under 10 games, until he knows the rules properly!! He can't umpire for nuts!! (And this was just one of his many bad decisions which he had for the game). The thing I really hate it is when the game is decided on by a bad umpiring decision or decisions, it is just total crap!!

Toh, as an umpire - from your your description it is just possible that the tackle was high. If the tackle is high, the player tackled can hold onto it for a fortnight - the protection free kick should always be paid first. Holding the ball is reliant on the tackle being legal. If it's not legal, it's not holding the ball.

Now I didn't see the game, but if you can show me (as Beau has done in the past) some of these decisions or non decisions that you say are so bad via You Tube, I'll give them a look and critique them properly.

I think your a bit harsh on the umps mate. I watched a fair bit of it and even though I'm not a Swans supporter, I wanted them to win. To say it was the worst umpiring display is a big call...there have been worse than that over the year.