Free Kick count?

[Ghost Dog]

The biggest differential is that we don't give away a lot of high tackles and play fairly clean; we tackle around the midsection instead of the chest and we don't play silly buggers trying to work opponents over.

For sure and we broke a lot of tackles. Bailey Smith, Bailey Dale, Bont, all breaking through. Great core strength.

[Topdog]

There is no rule that the free kick tally needs to be close.
You get to the ball first, you play hard, you tackle clean and what do you know you earn free kicks.

[Raw Toast]

There is a pretty decent Twitter account operated by an umpire (supposedly) who goes through and rates each contentious decision as right or wrong. It’s called Has-the-umpire-made-a-bad-decision if anyone wants a look. Not much room for grey area or nuance in the way they are listed but pretty interesting. Lists them quarter by quarter, I would post but I can’t figure out how to put them up.

Wrong calls on the night were 7-7 from what I can see in the ratings. Interestingly the Essendon game has lots of missed ones for us that the account thought we should have got.

I find the inconsistency with the way umpires are judged frustrating. Generally ppl can’t decide if they want them to adjudicate to the rules or on “feel”. Kane Cornes on the footy show this morning is a prime example.

For those interested, the link to this account is here.

And I've put the free by free analysis from that account down below.

For what it's worth, I disagree on the Gardner free kick, and thought that the McCluggage holding the ball was fine at the end of the first half, while as a commenter to the twitter thread noted, we regularly get mark's paid like Bont's glorious take over the big O.

Nevertheless, that's all nit-picking. Clearly from an independent unbiased observer, the disputable calls in the game broke both ways, and were roughly equal. And I agree with MJP that arguably the biggest mistakes went against us.

Dogs_v_Lions_Frees1.jpg
Dogs_v_Lions_Frees2.jpg

[Happy Days]

VDM got driven to the ground in the back on the matchwinning point, just saying.

[Mantis]

VDM got driven to the ground in the back on the matchwinning point, just saying.

Given VDM's kicking I'm happy for the point to stand, but we would've been able to set the ground up better from a stop play situation.

[Ozza]

I really hate the narrative, predominently pushed by Kane Cornes, that the umpires need to let it go and not pay frees down the stretch. Thats completely ridiculous. He pointed particularly to the English free. That is a blocking free every day of the week and completely obvious. If a ruckman goes past the ball and doesn't touch the footy - it is a blocking free. It is black and white and paid every time that it happens. I've heard Razor talk about it multiple times when he's on Whateley. If you're going to go past the ball - you better hope you get the hit out because its otherwise a clear infringement.

The problem isn't the umpires - its the fans having a lack of understanding of the rules, or just being one-eyed. I thought we were penalised fairly harshly twice in the 3rd quarter without much or any prior and the lions probably missed out on a couple of tough calls in the last quarter - but the game was umpired well given it was a pretty frenetic contest.

[mjp]

He is beneath contempt. What sort of adult changes football teams? That's so weak.

I changed NBA teams when the 76'ers were tanking.

John from the Lystics podcast changed from Collingwood to Fremantle after deciding that Collingwood's 'behaviours' didn't match his personal values...

I think changing is OK (can't believe I am saying that) but I think there has to be a carefully thought out decision.

[comrade]

Blaming the umpires in a 1 point game when your team misses straightforward opportunities is just a defence mechanism to help you deal with the pain of defeat. Much easier to blame an outside force and direct your anger there then accept your side wasn't good enough when it counted.

[Happy Days]

Blaming the umpires in a 1 point game when your team misses straightforward opportunities is just a defence mechanism to help you deal with the pain of defeat. Much easier to blame an outside force and direct your anger there then accept your side wasn't good enough when it counted.

There it is. In the last 2 minutes Brisbane;

1. Gave away a completely horrible, unforced self-own free kick in a ruck contest

2. Failed to defend a ball geting out the back allowing a score (and being very fortunate to not give away an ITB free dead in front (okay maybe not dead in front but he's like a 80% chance to goal from there))

3. Lost a crucial one on one contest with their best and fastest player streaming into 50

4. Lost a stoppage situation allowing Caleb to clear and totally deliberately lace out Roarke - even if the kick was a fluke how did he of all players have that much space?

5. Punted the ball into the stands going inside 50 on the last possession chain of the game.

Remember the Cats game where we did everything wrong for 90 straight seconds and lost because of it? This was that but the good version of it.

[Vred]

Blaming the umpires in a 1 point game when your team misses straightforward opportunities is just a defence mechanism to help you deal with the pain of defeat. Much easier to blame an outside force and direct your anger there then accept your side wasn't good enough when it counted.

Couldn't agree more.

[Mantis]

There it is. In the last 2 minutes Brisbane;

1. Gave away a completely horrible, unforced self-own free kick in a ruck contest

2. Failed to defend a ball geting out the back allowing a score (and being very fortunate to not give away an ITB free dead in front (okay maybe not dead in front but he's like a 80% chance to goal from there))

3. Lost a crucial one on one contest with their best and fastest player streaming into 50

4. Lost a stoppage situation allowing Caleb to clear and totally deliberately lace out Roarke - even if the kick was a fluke how did he of all players have that much space?

5. Punted the ball into the stands going inside 50 on the last possession chain of the game.

Remember the Cats game where we did everything wrong for 90 straight seconds and lost because of it? This was that but the good version of it.

The 2 players who impacted the play for us (Smith & VDM) both had defenders goal side of them when the ball came inside 50 from English, but Smith worked harder than his opponent (Coleman) and VDM harder than Rich to influence the contest... it's the little things that you can control that matter in close games... not the umpires.

[Happy Days]

The 2 players who impacted the play for us (Smith & VDM) both had defenders goal side of them when the ball came inside 50 from English, but Smith worked harder than his opponent (Coleman) and VDM harder than Rich to influence the contest... it's the little things that you can control that matter in close games... not the umpires.

Someone working harder than Daniel Rich? No way!

[Boots]

Apologies if this has already been posted but here is a good short recount of the free kicks by a neutral reviewer from reddit. Good complement to the Twitter guy up-thread.

Summary:
frees.jpg

As I said in the game day thread, I thought the umpiring was abysmal throughout, really inconsistent and also insistent (ie there were way too many things being called). Inconsistency is bad for the viewers, but it's worse for the players. It's the real problem.

In general my feeling is that the Umps are part of the 'terrain' and need to be accounted for rather than complained about. Our guys seem to account for the umps better than any other team in the comp, and give very few frees away. I used to coach my students the same way when I was a fencing coach - if your ref won't call your attacks on preparation, you need to switch tactics and do something else - because they will never work. The answer to the whims of umpiring is capitalise on it by playing to the ump's bias. The best player - the one with more tactical depth and discipline - will succeed.

To put it another way, you wouldn't complain about the wind, you'd capitalise on it. Umpires are like the wind - capricious and unavoidable.

Saying your team lost because of the umpires is a sign of a tiny, feeble mind. This is the image I think of when I see anyone sooking about the umpires:

[bulldogsthru&thru]

Haha. Pretty much the same result as the ‘16 grand final. i.e we should have had MORE free kicks given to us!

Just confirms the sour grapes amongst lions fans and bizarrely amongst neutrals and the media.

Better sweep this under the rug else people will have to admit we deserve and earn our success despite being up against even greater odds than their entitled teams.

[bornadog]

The whinging and whining about free kicks is up there with playgrounds shut in Victoria during lockdown - just unbelievable.