In my opinion, It's all a state of mind.
FWIW I umpire games. I can only blow what I see. I get sprays from people when they see things another way, both from players and fans. What I get though is people are passionate and vent their spleens. That is just par for course. I don't take it personally, as generally it is all hot wind and blow, and is more about the decision / frustration. Some times it is very witty and funny and sometimes it is just blue. Usually when someone goes blue other spectators will intervene and remind people about the kids being present, so it is pretty self regulated as a whole.
I guess I can see peoples arguments here, but really anything can be offensive if you want it to be.
In reality, the crowd noises , responses are what makes being at the ground so much fun. I know what I am going to get when I go to a footy match to watch. I know what I am going to get when I umpire. That is why I go. If you don't want to hear people carrying on watch it on TV. or don't take the job on and don't give them your money.
But as an umpire, if I have a clown / flog yelling out at me I rarely even register it. I'm having fun running around enjoying the spectacle of the game and I often have the best seat to view some crazy athleticism.
To Shane's point, if you are going to make a stand on something, set the expectation and articulate the penalties for not staying on the program before executing the new rules. What has happened is all ar5eabout.
If this is the new direction of Football, then the AFL should start by giving umpires cards and allowing them to send off players who abuse an umpire and make the new culture abundantly clear - Abuse the umpire and off you will go and your team plays a player short for "X" amount of time. Then you can articulate to fans of the new AFL - Abuse of an umpire is not acceptable and you will be ejected from the venue. There should be signs put up advising / reminding people of the venues code of conduct and expectations.
Regarding other sports like Cricket, generally the umpires don't impose themselves on the game. More importantly, unlike the current AFL the rules are not vague / fluid / changing from week to week, and are pretty much black and white and understood by most of the punters. So when an umpire gives a decision, usually it is 99% clear why the decision was given and is usually pretty consistent through out a game. Yea they can get it wrong, but as a punter you can understand the rational.
