I don't think they do, jezzaargh.
I think what most people want is consistency. Both teams are supposed to play under the same rules but that is pretty hard to come by and has been for a long time.
The AFL have not addressed the inconsistencies just the optics. As long as they are not getting heaps of bad publicity, they take no action.
I, like a great many others I suspect, have no real problem with umps making mistakes if they make the same mistakes both ways.
We had an 11 - 1 free kick count in the first quarter and all of the kicks were legitimately awarded due to Hawthorn's thuggish behaviour. I can also point to a few that were missed. Hawthorn's behaviour continued for the rest of the game but the umpiring completely changed and Hawthorn got the majority of frees for the rest of the game.
Not only can we not get consistent umpiring across a season but we cannot expect consistency in the same game. We're always being told that we have to respect the umpire but given some of absolutely and obviously biased umpiring in game after game, that becomes an impossibility.
This is not any kind of rant about umps hating Freo. We play one game each weekend. The other eight games suffer from exactly the same problems. Some teams seem to get the rub of the green every weekend, some teams / players are allowed to do things that see other players penalised - look at Dusty with his high fend offs, Carlton with their blocking tactics and throwing, slimers with their never getting pinged for HTB
I don't care if the umps make mistakes. I do care if they're inconsistent to the point where one team gets a pretty big advantage.