No one likes an umpire until they need one…
– Anon
Umpires routinely get abused no matter what they do. According to the fans and the footballers, the right decisions are wrong, the wrong decisions are right. Technical decisions are correct if they’re given, but given the technicality, they invariably are wrong.
Umpires are often discussed by fans but rarely praised. Their sexuality is questioned, along with their parentage and intelligence. Fans accuse umpires of bias or suggest they’re blind. Fans and footballers love to umpire the game, what about his neck, holding the ball, that’s a mark, he threw it…
Why don’t you kick it for him???
Everyone knows better than the umpires. The players know better too, which is whyRichmond’s Brett Deledio received a 50-metre penalty at the weekend againstNorth Melbourne. Deledio’s impolite inquiry and the umpire’s advancement of the mark gifted Drew Petrie a goal.
Richmondlost by four points. In the aftermath of the game, most fans on various blogs critiqued the 50-metre penalty rather than the abuse Deledio offered to the umpire. That’s how fans are, and nothing will change that mentality.
The umpire did miss a free kick in the moments prior to Deledio’s abuse, but that is irrelevant. Professional footballers should not lose the plot.
When supporters of the losing team rag on about a game, special ridicule is accorded to men they can’t often name. Key decisions made by the unnamed umpires are analysed unfavourably. Mistakes made by players and coaches are also criticised, but the invective against the umpires is usually disgusting.
Fans of the winning team still hate the umpires but their post match abuse is usually tempered by victory, the umpires were shit but we won anyway. Such discussion implies the umpires were conspiring against the victors, just so they would lose.
It’s easy for discussions about umpires to shift to hysteria. I’ve seen fights break out in the crowd because of umpiring decisions.
It must be tough doing a job and knowing you’re hated, no matter the outcome of the game. The players hate you. The coaches hate you. The fans hate you and long after the game is over, Jeff Gieschen is going to pick out all your faults.
The negativity surrounding umpiring is staggering. Abuse from fans in junior ranks deters many kids from umpiring into adulthood. Who’d want to do it, seriously? It’d be easier to become a politician, where you’re only hated by half the country or state.
Umpires don’t polarise the AFL community, they are hated equally by all. It’s a traditional hate that kids learn from their parents, siblings or friends. The hate never dies.
When I was a kid I learned the rules quickly. At school, because I knew all the rules, my mates suggested I umpire instead of play. Later I quit playing to umpire, and I have supported the umpires ever since.
The years I spent umpiring influenced that attitude. What I hated were the days I was doing an excellent job and the rabid abuse never abated. When the game was over the abuse continued.
Instead of socialising with the players after the game, it was safer to make a hasty exit, occasionally without taking a shower or getting changed.
I try never to bag the umpires, and I never blame the outcome of a game on an umpiring decision. It aggravates some of my mates and leaves me vulnerable to the occasional barb, umpire lover, but I believe the players and coaches make more mistakes, and it’s those mistakes that influence the outcomes of football matches.
At the weekend, I received a text from a mate who was at Docklands, watchingGeelongplay Essendon. To ensure anonymity, I won’t divulge the Essendon fan’s name (it was Paul Turner) but I will reproduce the text exchange.
Let me know what you think of umpiring when you watch first half
Geelongran rampant and kicked the first four goals. By half time the lead was 27 points. When I watched the first half of the game, there were several decisions by the umpires that left me a little surprised or forced a noise from my throat, or forced my jaw to drop open. My response to Paul is below:
I love umpires. But they haven’t been
I couldn’t finish the text so I sent it mid-sentence. I couldn’t admit that several free kicks paid against Essendon for chopping the arms were incredibly soft. I didn’t want to acknowledge that some ofGeelong’s goals were from free kicks that I wouldn’t have paid. I didn’t want to blame the umpires for getting it wrong or admit they were having a shocker.
So I sat on the fence. The response to my hopeless text carved through my neutrality.
Mate you are correct. Fuckheads
The response showed how frustrated Paul was. I left my critique open ended, and that was the worst I could do. Geelongended up winning by 67 points. They were dominant, and the umpires can’t be blamed for Essendon’s insipid performance.
Still, the performance of the umpires left me unsettled. It has been years since I’ve seen such a pedantic, unsatisfying performance. Free kicks were paid that were barely there, and to be fair to the umpires, it happened to both teams.
As the weekend went on, it became clear the umpires had been instructed to penalise deliberate out of bounds infringements.
Long kicks that shanked out of bounds were penalised. Short kicks after winning the football in traffic were penalised. Players gaining possession who stepped over the line were penalised. It became farcical, and I love umpires.
At the weekend I watched four games of football. As a staunch supporter of umpires, I could not defend the performances. There were too many mistakes, more than usual, and decisions were paid without regard to the spirit of the game.
I’m not saying those decisions costRichmond, Gold Coast or the Western Bulldogs victory. I’m not suggesting they influenced the outcome of those games at all. I am merely saying the umpires didn’t do very well.
The best umpiring performance is one where the fans walk away from the game without recalling any bad decisions. Umpires, therefore, must officiate in the correct manner but they cannot do anything controversial.
Unfortunately they are in the business of controversy. No decision, according to the fans and the footballers, is right. Umpires understand that, yet at the weekend, it often seemed they were caught unaware on occasion, wondering aloud perhaps, if what they’d done was right.
The deliberate out of bounds interpretation is a major concern. The AFL must’ve made a unilateral decision before round 17 to instruct the umpires to penalise all occasions of deliberate out of bounds. The players, coaches and fans cannot possibly cope with such a radical adjustment in attitude.
Consistency is required, not mid-season tweaking. What was fine in round 16 can’t be scrutinised and penalised in round 17. If it is, then the tone is set for the rest of the season. Any player who kicks the ball out of bounds will be penalised, which isn’t right, because it isn’t always deliberate.
There must be commonsense applied by umpires. There must be consistency. If there isn’t, then the umpire will get demoted or sacked, just like a footballer. They are no different in that regard.
During theGeelongv Essendon game, Courtenay Dempsey flung the ball back to umpire Brett Rosebury after a stoppage. Luckily for Dempsey, Rosebury caught the footy. Unluckily for Dempsey, he conceded a free kick. It was stupid, he was lucky. Had Roseberry been hit with the football or dislocated a finger Dempsey would’ve been reported.
I believe Dempsey should’ve been reported for disrespect and suspended for a week.
Jeff Gieschen, during a regular program on the AFL’s website reviewed contentious decisions from the weekend and found little fault with the umpires. He wasn’t being flippant, and when those decisions are watched without bias, they weren’t as bad as they appeared when they happened live.
It seems it was the players and fans who were wrong, and I am guilty among the throng. Call it a bad weekend…
Umpiring is a thankless job. They’re to be seen and not heard. They’re rarely umpire in the media, either by interview or in a feature. No one gives a damn about their job or family, yet their job is one of the most important in football.
Players command media attention, which is fair enough, but if the fans were given greater access to the career of an umpire, they’d have a greater understanding and may exhibit a little more sympathy.
Umpires train hard. They get injured. They get scrutinised. Their peers encourage and drive each other. They mock the bad decisions and praise the good. No one sees how competitive umpiring is, how tough it is, how ambitious they are.
No one cares about the umpires. No one wants to know anything about them. They are there to do a job, that’s all. If any AFL organisation exists in an impenetrable bubble, it is the umpires.
Much of the blame must be apportioned to the media. Only poor or controversial decisions are analysed by journalists. A great decision in a high pressure game goes generally goes unrecognised. The theory is that’s it is an umpire’s job to get it right.
Umpires don’t appear as a guest on any of the commercial networks. Umpires aren’t interviewed before or after a game. They’re not interviewed during the week. I can only recall one interview with the umpires before a grand final, and that was with Ian Robinson about twenty five years ago.
Robinson umpired nine grand finals, including those in 1977. His career was exemplary and no one knows a thing about him. He could regale tales about great players, great games and what it took to be a great umpire.
Despite their relevance, no one writes books about umpires.
I have never seen one instance of a player offering praise to an umpire following a game of football. Not one captain in my lifetime has said I thought the umpires did really well today. Not one coach has ever deflected criticism from the umpires.
If the coaches and players offered praise, it might deflect the constant abuse and criticism. Instead, when players and coaches are asked about the umpires it’s usually because of a controversial decision. The silence is deafening before a standard response, I can’t discuss that or I’ll be fined. Coaches and players who take that stance should be fined anyway for being a smartarse.
The umpires must also take the blame for the blackout. They don’t seek publicity. They don’t seem to want it. They’re not all gay, blind or stupid. They’re tough individuals doing a tough job, and they should be respected.
