_________________
This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Excellent stuff DB.

I'll see your Taoist umpiring and raise it with some Zen

_________________
Carlton - Nothing's changed
I still love you, oh, I still love you
Only slightly, only slightly less
Than I used to, my love

baa humbug Zen Umpires always stand on ceremony - beautiful bouncers of the ball but have no balls. Give me the rough and tumble of a Taoist umpire any day of the friggin' week.


oh and thanks for the comment

_________________
This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

I thought it was good DB - and I love the fact that the club lets you speak your mind about flat patches....

_________________
Now stalking Carlton on Twitter and Facebook!

Thanks for the geishan review...I haven't been myself after the umpiring effort last week.

The umpires should not be a factor, they should not be the central personality, they should not be the show. Let the players be the show and let it flow like you said DB.

Thanks for a great article...again.

Isn't it great to prdict a killing...with confidence. The article puts me in a time when we expected the win...every week,

Thanks again DB. Kick back with your family and brother in the comforts of your favourite seat and enjoy the TV this Friday night....I hope you have wide sreen.

_________________
Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Ta H and BB - Geish should be hung drawn and quartered....

_________________
This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

DB - well written. I loved the encouragement that you gave JR. Would be great if he delivered a BOG performance and a goal from outside 50

Who's Graig.............?


kindest regards tommi

_________________
that'siti'mnotchangingthistagain......!

DB - agree completely with the umpire thing, although not sure if the problem stems from Geishen or higher up (rules committee? commission?)

My thought for a couple of years has been that this whole issue stems back to television. Decisions have always been contentious, the interpretations grey, and many decisions wrong. The difference now is that every decision is replayed over and over, so that every time something is got wrong, the whole football world knows about it. In the past, it happened, no (or minimal) replays, and so we just forgot about it, and got on with it. Even the Harmes knock in the 79 GF has only ever been shown from one angle...imagine if there were 4 different angles? History would be different, one way or the other.

What seems to have happened is that because of this, because wrong decisions have been highlighted over and over, the AFL has tried to reduce the number of incorrect decisions. And the only way to do this is to try and turn grey decision making into, as you so rightly say, black and white. Hence, hands in the back, over the shoulder...all incidental contacts.

Never before have we had contact rules / interpretations that had nothing to do with either safety of a player, or unfairly inhibiting a player's ability to go for the ball. Now, we have. It flies completely in the face of everything our game stands for, and all so that we can try and make rules more black and white, so umpires don't get shown up. And what it has actually done is make the umpires mistakes more glaring and, in many cases, infuriating (ie umpire misses a blatant shove in the back during a marking contest down one end, and then pays an incidental finger nail in the back down the other end).

The AFL should smply say that the rules are grey, interpretations are grey, we are going to try and get consistency in interpretation, and that umpires will, and always will, make mistakes, and we just need to acccept that.

And get rid of penalising incidental contact!

_________________
Mens sana in corpore sano.

Bring back the laurel wreath logo!!!

yep!

And make a forward earn a fuckling goal!

_________________
This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Great stuff!

Thought I would just throw somethin in about the umpires. I know the Junior Development Officer for the SANFL umpires ( he follows the Blues too!) and it is interesting to note that they are telling young umpires over here not to watch AFL in terms of the way it is currently being umpired.
In fact they are being taught to let the game flow, there are many grey areas and that a good umpire is one that is NOT noticed. If you want to watch the footy and listen to someone bag AFL umpiring....you should hear this bloke!!
The few SA umpires that do umpire AFL games say they find it really hard when thay come back to do SANFL games because they are sent different messages by their bosses.
They let a lot more go during matches here and tend to just pick up the obvious frees. It is much easier to be consistent that way also as I guess consistecy is the main thing we want. Less often do supporters of SANFL clubs come away from grounds pissed of with the way the game was umpired. It is not about them...it is about the game.
I think one of the problems with AFL umpires is that they act like they are the main ones out there and it is all about them.

send that into the papers here will ya! Its spot on! Flow - remember that? Unnoticed - ahh the good old days - now Umpires are like tommi's and Deanos!

_________________
This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Good call Macka - the people don't come to watch umpires who should get through a game not being noticed. I wonder how thegame is being umpired at lower levels where the skill level isn't as high?

_________________
"our electorate seeks less to be informed and more to be validated." Sad times.

Cute and cuddly............?


kindest regards tommi



















ya can't say one eyed.................!





could ya.............?









surrrely not.................!

_________________
that'siti'mnotchangingthistagain......!

na I was thinking full of shit and one trick show ponies

_________________
This type of slight is alien in the more cultured part of the world - Walsh. Its up there with mad dogs, Englishmen and the midday sun!

Yup..........

i knew you'd get the "one" in there somewhere..............!

why iiii ORTA...........!


kindest regards tommii

_________________
that'siti'mnotchangingthistagain......!