Players have accountability — not just within closed walls of the club, but we are shown every possible stat for each player.
We, the poor plebs who pay buckets of dosh to watch a competition that is (hypothetically speaking) fairly adjudicated, do not have access to the accountability measures applied to the officials. Let's start by thinking about the boundary umpires — in the last season and a bit, we have seen balls clearly out of play that are not detected. If they are genuinely unsighted, I can forgive just a little.
As for the three highest paid officials, what I would like to know is, for each umpire, these stats:
i. how many frees given to each team by each umpire
ii. in what positions on the field (F50, D50 and midfield) was each free given by each umpire
iii. at what time of the match was each free given
iv. in each of i.-iii., how many of the decisions were either incorrect or marginal
v. how many frees were not awarded to each team by each umpire
vi. in what positions on the field (esp F50 and D50) were frees not awarded
vii. at what time of the match was was an identifiable or marginal free not given
These can all be analysed against the state of the game (score, momentum) at the time of each event/non-event.
Champion Data would have a field day with that lot, and I'm pretty sure that many of these i.-vii. are already identified by the umpire observers at each match.
Okay, so it will be Kingdom Come before we, the plebs, will be given access to this information, because the AFL doesn't want to give any idea that there are inherent weaknesses in the system. A few token 'this was right'/'this was wrong' analyses on Monday after the round will keep us all at bay.
So, giving up hope on that level of public accountabilty, I have a much more practical suggestion.
In addition to the observed errors, such as the ones described earlier in this thread, we have our very clear perceptions of inherent bias/incompetence/inefficiency for two of today's umpires.
This will be remedied if neither Margetts nor Dalgleish is allocated any game in which Fremantle or West Coast plays — let 'em do the Basil/Dennis trick and fly East each week.
