Round 11 - Brisbane Vs Carlton - Saturday 31st May - Gabba

[Grazz]

I don't like to go on about the ump's and interstate side's playing in Victoria as it's kind of a boring debate for most and you always get those saying yep go on blame the umps and chuckling at you but the interstate teams do regularly fill half or more of the top ten for FA's. I do believe this has alot to do with the interstate clubs having to travel  regularly and the Victorian teams travelling less outside of Victoria. Is it the 19th man thing going on who knows im sure it has some affect as the crowds would have when the Vic teams are outside of Victoria. My only gripe is i feel the ump's should be better than this and not be influenced by crowd noise, maybe it's just human nature and the crowd influence on them will never be or cant be fixed because as humans we are prone to err here because we have 50k people yelling Ball etc. None the less it is something else that is real and something else the interstate clubs have to deal with when out of their state. Now i hear many Victorians already saying well so do our clubs when we are interstate which is true but you lot are not travelling every 2nd week and each week of travelling have an over whelming disadvantage in crowd numbers. I learnt along time ago that it's something you just have to put up with and it's not worth the effort whinging about it as whinging about the ump's is as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike but it is real and it does happen. When we the interstate clubs our outside of our home state we have to be better than the team we are playing and the umps and because we travel so much more than the Vic clubs we have to contend with it alot more. It does get trying at times but what the hell can you do about it, not alot. I honestly think that until the Vic clubs travel as often as we do there wont be a perfectly level playing field and that's just not going to happen due to the amount of Victorian teams. You Vics hate hearing it but due to factors outside of your control footy does favour the Vic clubs who travel far far less than we do.

[Nige]

Brisbane are getting more frees than 15 other teams in the competition. Hmm...

[Ringo]

Maybe just the umpires evening up the frees against ;) ;)

[FactHunt]

Thought I'd offer my two cents on the topic... if anyone's interested  :P
I reckon that the umps are pretty consistent and fair in all honesty.
Of course there's a few shockers that pop up any given week, I like to think that they go go both ways, i.e. no favouritism.
These shockers have historically occurred in clumps, often when new rules/rule changes are being introduced... and ultimately get ironed-out over time.
I think that when we see a particular side averaging more 'frees against', and conversely more 'frees for', it is generally warranted due to the side's play. As Rico said before it tends to be the more junior clubs, and the clubs that are not as strong, where we observe these anomalies. I have seen this in my own beloved Dons in 2011 when we were running at about 22 frees against per game... they were warranted as frustrating as it was to watch.
I honestly think the top tier umps do a great, fair and generally consistent job.

[Dudge]

It not about the Lions getting more free kicks than 15 teams Nige, its about when and where. So easy to even up the ledger when the games over

[Dudge]

I still have nightmares about the game in Tassie v North a few years ago

[Ringo]

I will make just a couple of further comments>

1. Brisbane is not a traditional AFL state and as such the 19th man effect is very minimal in Brisbane. So that also assists the interstate teams playing in Brisbane as fans are not as vocal. (I do my best). Saturday was the first time this year umpires have been booed from the field in Brisbane so that shows the level of parochialism amongst Brisbane Fans overall.
2. A lot of the inconsistencies occur with when frees are paid or not paid and not stating anything new here.  We see it every week and seems to be at crucial times in matches.
3. There are certain umpires and will not name them here whose style of umpiring does not appear to suit some teams no matter how hard they try. Once again not alleging a conspiracy but an observation there is one umpire when he officiates Brisbane games we have not had a favourable free kick count for 6 years,

And again re-iterating no conspiracies alleged and umpiring did not cost Brisbane games.  Really fot wound up on this issue when HS article was posted here only honing in on last quarter so discussion is Rico's fault for posting the HS article.

[Keeper27]

the umpiring was sh1thouse.
but that doesnt excuse how badly we played in the 1st half.

we didnt deserve to win it. a few late bullsh1t calls defo didnt help my blood pressure  >:(