Exactly. I've had it with those bunch of amateurs at the AFL. Especially after bending over backward to please that sniper Clarkson. First, holding the ball; then playing for frees. Did he get fined for any of his comments?

He ranked 17th of 44 players for meters gained. 12m less than Cripps, 3m less than Walsh. Gained more meters than Shuey or Curnow (they’re midfielders, yeah?) and nearly tripled the meters gained by SPS, who many have rated highly for his game.
Ranked first for us in disposals, third for marks and fourth for contested possessions.

Just the 1 clanger today too (Cripps had 7). For anyone who watched that game without bias, they would say Murphy was in our best 6-8 players.

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@cecil_anderson

Yep.
Very rare a coach hangs his laundry out at the presser.
There have been notable exceptions over the years, that's why they're notable.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Credit where it's due. He fired off one handball that was vintage stuff late in the game.
The problem is he is well past producing at this level regularly.
He needs to be managed, as does Eddie, who has not fired a shot for weeks.
Simmo seems to be able to go on and on, however.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

He is not a cheat. And we should be super careful of ever using that word for our umpires.
However, he us a poor umpire. I have seen him for years in the vfl and he pays a few terrible frees every game: he misapplies logic and way too often doesn't use common sense. What we used to call feel for the game.
His rationale to Plow in the goalsquare was that he had no choice but to pay the free against SPS. Of course he had a choice: ball up!
A classic case of young umpires being marked down in development leagues for not paying frees that are technically there. He is the worst in this regard and I hate it when we have him.
I hate feeling so powerless to do anything about the frees we do/don't get but we can't call umps cheats.
But gee my soft furnishings copped it yesterday.

SPS needed to go through with the facade of attempting to dispose of the ball. Pretend to hit the ball while Darling was holding him. That's the current interpretation and as professional footballers, they should know it. Then the umpire had no chance to pay the free.
The fact that another 20 occasions during there game no penalty was applied is the frustrating part.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Just heard an interesting stat on the radio. We laid 18 tackles inside our forward 50 and not one was rewarded with a free kick.

They didn’t give the full WCE inside 50 tackle stats but referenced two resulted in goals.

When Levi took that mark and the ball was taken off him because the WCE player faked the push in the back the free kick count was 13-7
They took it straight forward kicked a goal and went out to 11 point lead
Free kick count ended up 14-12 but when the game was in the balance it was lop sided

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

20 points up in the third quarter, 20 metres from our goals. Natinui takes the ball out of the ruck, tries to barge though as he does, gets tackled and fails to get boot to ball, play on!!!

Would have been 26 points up instead they get a goal immediately after this.

Nathan Williamson is a name we shouldn't store away for a rainy day.

He is a now conversation and should be the target of our vitriol for his blatant bias against carlton this year, not just this round.

I watched the game with some Weagles fans and they couldn't believe their luck landing Umpire No. 22 Nathan "Cheats" Williamson.
His inconsistency and bias was on show, but its nothing new.

Would love a campaign against him.
Something like, we buy memberships to support our club but will wait for ticket purchases till we find out who is umpiring. If its No 22 "Cheats" Williamson, we will watch it on tv under heavy sedation.

He is seriously anti Carlton...and its not just holding the ball.

Ban the prick.
These umpires are paid handsomely.
Don't worry, there's plenty lining up to replace him and collect the bucks.
There's no shortage of umpires wanting the big stage.
Give it umpires who don't have psuchological issues not condusive to a fairly umpired game.

I'm sick of the pathetic umpiring.
I'm sick of what the AFL Commission has done to Australian Rules; our game.

My kids are sick of it. They are the future.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

A lot of people saying Eddie needs a rest, maybe he isnt kicking goals, but damn I love his tackle pressure. And way up the ground. Our delivery to our F50 is the issue eddie isnt kicking goals, not his skills.

IMO

PS Im Setting up a GoFundMe to pay the fine for Teague to spray the umps.

That and Liam Ryan just dropping the ball after taking on the tackler (play on, goal) were egregious non-calls and they happened within 10 minutes of each other. There’s a 12 point swing in a game where we turned 11 points down at 3 quarter time. And then when you contrast that with SPS getting pinged for merely taking possession of the ball and no wonder we’re up in arms. I’m usually not that critical of umpires but the standard has been appalling across the competition this year and in recent games (vs West Coast and North most notably) we’ve copped the raw end of the deal. Wasn’t the reason we lost but it doesn’t help when you’re playing the best team in the comp, on their deck, in front of a partisan crowd and we’re down most of our forward line.

I could be wrong but from memory, they received 2 frees from 5 inside 50 tackles

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Correct. Absolutely no reward for the tackler, unless of course you’re Jack Darling and you tackle a player that picked up the ball a millisecond ago. And then we’ll give you 50 just to make sure you get maximum value for money. Very disappointing and a blight on the current game.

This. He's not a cheat, just shouldn't be umpiring at this level. Some umpires love the chance to make a big call, makes them feel important. I think he may well be one of those types. As has been said, they're well paid, plenty more who would like his gig. Our soft furnishings were safe. Just as well we live well away from neighbors though, there was plenty of noise erupting from our lounge room.

Superstar players have always got an easier ride with the umpires over more average players (same as top teams against lower sides). Nic Nat has always played the same, goes back to his junior days no doubt. Grab the ball, try to barge through, then drops it if tackled; play on. It's bugged me for years. I find myself shouting at the TV "but he dropped it!".

He has umpire 4 of our 6 losses and North game

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If you allow the Government to change the Laws in an emergency
They will create an Emergency to change the Laws

Two matters umpiring terrible
Aside from the obvious Samo htb which universally people think is wrong and particularly egregious example
No htb on Nic Nat cost us a goal to TDK
No holding the ball twice on Ryan gave them another
AFL really need to look at the umpiring in the West been terrible and biased for years
Secondly Murphy was one of our better players yesterday and if others had of played as well we would have got much closer
Don’t get the opprobrium here for him he has been a fine player and still is
Not above criticism but doesn’t deserve pile on here

Whilst some of us have been producing facts for discussion, you have been subtlely sniping. A good example is what you posted in the first quarter in the game thread. I had a giggle, but understood where you were coming from, so I made light of it.

You dismiss the facts put up for discussion, call the "rubbish talk" (facts that is) and have attempted to turn a discussion with actual numbers into a war between 2 camps: Pro vs Anti Marc Murphy performance. Its not about that. We were discussing form, his age, extending his contract and leadership. Its a complex discussion.

Show me where you have said Murphy was shit when he was. I can't find it anywhere. Marc Murphy went missing in a sequence of games this year, not long ago: the figures tell us that. I didn't read anything from you, and you conveniently dismissed the numbers in our discussion, but happy to call us out as anti Marc Murphy posters and baseless.

So, whilst you're asking questions, I will engage you with this, not to bag MM, coz its not, but to see where you sit on this:

Marc Murphy started the game well for us and by the end of the first quarter was or close to our BOG.
By the 6 minute mark of the 2nd quarter, around the time I responded to your post, not to "jinx [Murphy], after 22 minutes of playing time, Marc Murphy had 9 disposals and 2 tackles.
He finished with 22 disposals and 3 tackles. He had 3 Tackles by half time.

What were his stats for disposals and tackles for the remainder of the game: 42 minutes of playing time? I'll tell you, 1 more tackle in the 3rd, and 14 disposals for the more than 2 and a half quarters, after the good start. That's nothing to write home about...and wanting to compare those stats with others???? Who? The kids under 22 yo and under? There was 7 of them playing.

Marc had a good first 22 minutes. Really good. He had most disposals in a team that faded away, again.

The way you are carrying on asking us to compare Marc's output with other players, you'd think he willed us over the line for a win.

We got comprehensively smashed in the 2nd half. I didn't think anyone showed greatness after half time, including Murph. Did you?.

In fact, as many have reported, and some of us agree, our leaders let us down, again, and the 19 point lead turned into a 22 point loss. Another 5-7 goal turn around by the opposition. Can't blame the kids.

The leaders, Cripps, Simmo, Docherty, Ed, Murphy didn't stop the rot, they were part of it in the 2nd half; no doubt.

That's not Murphy bashing, or Cripps bashing, or Simmo.... That's telling you Murph, like the other 4 leaders (by experience and age) failed to stop a negative trend, during games, which we have seen this year, almost every week since round 1. We should be asking questions on how to solve this problem. Lots of questions, on all of the leaders, all the players, because we are making progress and we haven't got time to make the same list management mistakes we did before the recent rebuild.

We are bereft of good leadership, and whilst we need the older players around to help guide the young, because our list's age profile, we ave to evaluate their importance on field too and we are 4 wins, 6 losses with the 4th oldest list playing week in week out.

Something has to give.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

While I would never condone such stupidity, if I was silly enough to bet big dollars on AFL games, and witnessed this level of ineptitude, I could see how death threats and abuse are justified by those making them