Tuesday, April 30

TURNS OUT UMPS DO MIND

Like everyone else at the moment, it turns out the umpires are also highly annoyed at the AFL’s new rules and are pissed off about the League’s refusal to speak up to support them after some contentious…or awful on-field decisions during the Essendon v Collingwood ANZAC day game. 

The Age this morning is reporting that this is the second time in season 2019 that League HQ has remained quiet about umpires being criticised and those involved in umpiring believe that the League “has backflipped on their promise to defend umpires publicly”.

AFL Umpires Association boss Peter Howe told The Age “The umpires look to the AFL to provide leadership and support in situations where there is some controversy around decisions and part of their role is to provide clarity to the stakeholders of the game,”

Who would have thought that constantly changing the rules in a sport that is hard to officiate and has a lot of grey area would lead to making officials frustrated about doing their jobs? 

BENNETT v BRONCOS - THIS TIME IS PERSONAL

If you’re looking for a solid sports read, look no further than Pete Badel’s yarn in The Courier Mail about how Wayne Bennett left the Broncos.

The three-part series explores how Bennett got the heave-ho from Red Hill and the absolute mess with hiring Anthony Siebold and the coaching swap.

This yarn has a future ESPN 30 for 30 written all over it, in fact odds on, it’s already in production.

 

ALL OUT WAR-rnambool

It’s the middle-aged bloke’s answer to Schoolies week and they come across their thousands down the Great Ocean Road for three days of Racing magic at the ‘Bool.

Some of you may recall the Warrnambool races was the place where AFL CEO Gillion McLachlan donned that now infamous mustard jacket.

Fashion mishaps from AFL Executives aside, Neds in-house profit prophet Jared Timms has studied the form and reckons he’s found a few winners to get day one of The ‘Bool off to a flyer.