Three umpires operating under three very different standards seemed to be the problem (ie bloke up forward thinks different to the bloke down back), however the three realised it and made an attempt to umpire more like the other two blokes...which made it worse. One incident that stood out to me was when Margetts was controlling, and another bloke gave the eagles a free for a high tackle that resulted in a goal. Fair enough one umpire misses stuff another sees, but then after the goal was kicked Margetts was demonstrating what the infringement was...did he see it or not?
As for the other points: I cannot fathom why Johnson started up forward. I get that, with Tabs out, we need a second stringer, but a perfectly good half back was put made to look like a bad player, being put out of position. Lets not forget that Walters got a hit out a few weeks back. Naitanui makes it hard by clinging onto any tall opposing ruckman (and getting away with it).
Most squads would rest Sandi forward. I don't see why that's not an option. If nothing else, it makes a good tall defender be moved off another player. Yes, sandi had the yips a bit, but confidence would play a big part, and I reckon he's about as accurate kicking 50 m as he is kicking 15m. The thing is, though, getting a 15 m chip 5 metres off is much worse than getting a shot on goal 5 metres off.
Poor options happen, but there's got to be more blokes who get the ball inside fifty and want to give it a crack. Wilson lined up from 55 out and gave it a good go. Langdon knew he couldn't make the journey so pulled off some footy brilliance. You can't tell me that most of the squad couldn't at least hit the line from 50 out. With a lot of Freo's forward fifty entries you'd think it was the other mob scripting them rather than us.
