So what’s the deal with umpires?
The display by Messrs Fisher, Dalgleish and Stevic last Thursday had most of us nonplussed and hot under the collar all night.
So are we getting the rough end of the pineapple from the men in high vis outfits?
Our overall free kick count stands at 266 for (good enough for 18th place) and 305 against (6th). Our differential of -39 is the worst in the league.
What follows is a breakdown of our free kick stats this season. I’ve broken the figures down into a number of different categories: Zones; qtr by qtr; home v away; jumper colours; day v night v twilight; margins, and the umpires themselves.
Zones
I’ve broken the playing field into 4 zones:
Zone 1: Forward 50
Zone 2: Area between forward 50 and centre
Zone 3: Area between centre and defensive 50
Zone 4: Defensive 50.
Each zone is specific to each team, ie. Zone 1 refers to both teams’ forward 50, etc.
Zone: Freo Free Kicks / Opposition Free Kicks
1: 33 / 50
2: 85 / 99
3: 106 / 105
4: 42 / 51
As you would expect the vast majority of free kicks are awarded between the 50m arcs and are fairly even.
Free kicks inside respective forward 50 show a significant discrepancy (-17). This discrepancy is widening at an alarming rate:
Zone 1: Freo / Opposition
Rds 1-6: 11 / 7
Rds 7-19: 22 / 43.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult for a Freo forward to win a free kick inside forward 50.
We have only two players with more than 17 goals this season: Ballas (41) and Pav (35).
Ballas has received 7 free kicks this season. By zone: 2/3/2/0.
Pav has received 18 free kicks this season. By zone: 6/5/7/0.
Both of Ballas’ forward 50 free kicks have come when the game was effectively over (we were leading by 33 and 50 points respectively).
Two of Pav’s 6 forward 50 free kicks have come when the game was effectively over (down by 34 and up by 66 points respectively).
Neither has received a forward 50 free kick since round 14.
v Carlton: Free kicks inside forward 50: Freo 0, Carlton 5.
Quarter by Quarter
Team: Qtr 1 / Qtr 2 / Qtr 3 / Qtr 4
Freo: 71 / 65 / 74 / 56
Them: 90 / 72 / 78 / 65
There’s no real discrepancy here. Confirms the long held beliefs that umpires award more free kicks in the first quarter (to assert their authority?) and ‘swallow’ their whistles in the last quarter.
Home v Away
Home: Freo 147 - Them 156
Away: Freo 119 - Them 149
As you would expect we receive more free kicks at home than away.
It’s a little surprising that we are losing the free kick count at home. We have lost the free kick count in each of our last 3 home games (40-54).
Jumper Colour
Purple: 153 - 150
White: 113 - 155 (includes Indigenous round jumper)
We seem to get a significantly better deal from the umpires when we wear man purple.
So why were we wearing white at home last week?
Day v Night v Twilight
Day: 101 - 120
Night: 116 - 130
Twilight: 49 - 55
They loathe us any time of day or night.
Margins
I chose 30 points as a reference point to check the ‘umpires square up the free kick count when a game is won or lost’ adage.
When we’re 30+ points up: 64 - 65
When we’re 30+ points down: 21 - 19
When the margin is less than 30 points either way: 181 - 221.
We do seem to get a better deal when the game is ‘over’.
Umpires
We have had 24 different field umpires officiate our games this season. Ten only once.
The umpires we’ve had on multiple occasions:
Umpire: Win - Loss Record / Frees For - Frees Against
Dalgleish: 5 - 2 / 113 - 133
Margetts: 5 - 0 / 72 - 64
Fisher: 3 - 1 / 56 - 81
Farmer: 2 - 1 / 52 - 47
Hosking: 3 - 0 / 49 - 34
Kamolis: 2 - 1 / 42 - 62
Mitchell: 2 - 1 / 33 - 49
Rosebury: 0 - 3 / 32 - 46
Stevic: 2 - 1 / 47 - 57
Chamberlain: 2 - 0 / 17 - 38
Harris: 0 - 2 / 32 - 41
Nicholls: 2 - 0 / 32 - 19
Pannell: 2 - 0 / 21 - 34
Ryan: 2 - 0 / 35 - 43
Surprisingly we’re 5-0 with Margetts and with a positive differential (+8).
We’re 2-0 with Razor Ray but he still hates us (17-38).
We’re 0-3 with 2013 GF umpire Rosebury (32-46).
We’re 3-1 with Fisher (56-81) although that’s probably more to do with the quality of the opposition (GC, Rich, St K and Carlton).
So there you have it. I’ll leave you to make your own judgements.
