Frees For/Against -- the facts

[Waltzing St Kilda]

Courtesy of Footywire.com, the season averages (the ladder itself is in disposals order):


Frees For/Frees Ag.

1 Essendon 21.7 21.5
2 Geelong 20.0 18.7
3 Hawthorn 21.2 20.5
4 Port Adelaide Power 21.7 23.0
5 Sydney 21.5 23.0
6 Carlton 16.7 19.7
7 North Melbourne 26.8 19.7
8 Collingwood 18.7 18.8
9 Richmond 20.5 21.3
10 Brisbane 21.8 22.5
11 Gold Coast 19.5 19.2
12 St Kilda 17.7 22.3
13 Western Bulldogs 20.8 21.8
14 West Coast Eagles 21.3 17.8
15 Adelaide 20.7 22.7
16 GWS Giants 21.0 21.7
17 Fremantle Dockers 22.5 21.0
18 Melbourne 22.8 19.2

You'll notice that most teams are pretty much even (except for North Melbourne, which is massively in the black). But the team that's easily worst off, with a -4.6 differential? You guessed it -- the Saints.

Second worst is Carlton, with a -3 differential.

This trend has been consistent since the overblown "scandals" (e.g., a jilted schoolgirl fantasist and a recruit who played not a single game for us) and suggests we lost a lot of glamour as result of all the media opprobrium.

[Greg T]

Thanks for post.
If you also take into account the ones we don't get,it's even worse.
I hate blaming umps,but this year I've thought they have been atrocious .
Good post?SW should take it up .
Friday nite there was some shockers clearly not given.Again at crucial stages.

[gringo]

Got the kicks on goal from frees for and against- that tigers game they seemed to get about 8 frees directly in front to 1 for us.

[noob]

The stat I'd rather look at is how many goals from free kicks. We've probably given up about 20 in the first 6 rounds.

[St Chris]

Love to know the stats for frees inside 50....I dont think we've gotten a single one, but we "give" plenty away....

[FQF]

I don't understand the perception that every team should be receiving equal numbers for both - did anyone possibly think that they reflect reality?

[Bernard Shakey]

Just goes to prove you can make stats say anything you want them to. Do you work for Labor or Liberal?

[BigMart]

Is there a correlation between how important a club is to the AFL and Fee Kick differential

Likely IMO

[kosifantutti]

Is there a correlation between how important a club is to the AFL and Fee Kick differential

Likely IMO

So the Roos are the most important club. Unlikely IMHO.

Free kick stats are meaningless. It comes down to are they making the right decisions?

If we have a large negative differential, a large portion can be attributed to undisciplined play or not understanding the way the game is being umpired. Something that should be addressed by the coaching panel.

[stevie]

Someone needs to correlate the stats to show which umps are making the most mistakes. Is it the same ones? Prolly has to be, because not every game has been decided by s*** decisions.

Do the poor ones f*** up when umpiring together? If there's two good umps, does the repeat offender fall into line and not f*** up in that game?

Anyone out there got the time to do some research?

[spert]

One of the reasons we are not doing so well in frees this season is our sloppy and undisciplined tackling- above the shoulders, pushing in the back, stupid 50 metre penalties. Teams that win usually play in front and have first use of the ball, and play a more disciplied brand of footy, but we are not doing this and trying to play catch up footy, so it is a lot harder to get frees, and easy to give them away. Sure we miss out on some obvious ones, but so do our opponents. If we are good enough ,we will win, and all the bleating about umpires won't change anything.

[CURLY]

One of the reasons we are not doing so well in frees this season is our sloppy and undisciplined tackling- above the shoulders, pushing in the back, stupid 50 metre penalties. Teams that win usually play in front and have first use of the ball, and play a more disciplied brand of footy, but we are not doing this and trying to play catch up footy, so it is a lot harder to get frees, and easy to give them away. Sure we miss out on some obvious ones, but so do our opponents. If we are good enough ,we will win, and all the bleating about umpires won't change anything.

How do you explain the free kick against Geary that resulted in a goal?

How do you explain two players landing onDal Santos back umpire no free?

How do you explain Wrights tackle on Cloke where he was spun 360 degrees and the dropped the ball no free Collingwood goal?

How do you explain Roo picking it up moments later getting tackled perfectly by Reid no prior gets pinned.

How do you explain Sipposs marking 70 meters out Collingwoods Dwyer jogs directly behind him no fiftty.

How do you explain Sipposs being taken front on no free?

Its all just bulls*** bias rubbish.

[spert]

If the umpire just stood there and gave us free after free, would still would have lost.

We lost because Collingwood played better- they kicked the ball better, handballed better, had a better defensive game and their best players were experienced players- Thomas, Cloke, Pendulbury, Shaw.. their older blokes all led by example and their younger blokes followed. We suffered from losing Hayes and later on Gilbert, the rest of our experienced players just played ordinary games apart from Roo.

[CURLY]

If the umpire just stood there and gave us free after free, would still would have lost.

We lost because Collingwood played better- they kicked the ball better, handballed better, had a better defensive game and their best players were experienced players- Thomas, Cloke, Pendulbury, Shaw.. their older blokes all led by example and their younger blokes followed. We suffered from losing Hayes and later on Gilbert, the rest of our experienced players just played ordinary games apart from Roo.

Thats bulls***. If that free to Pendlebry wasn't paid and the Cloke holding the ball was we would have still been well and truely up.

[st_Trav_ofWA]

maybe bacause we are second to the ball and often undersized in the contest and genrally not as good as the comp we tend to break the rules a bit more often ??

we get the bad rub and we notice it cause its our team but the fact is most teams get the bad rub from time to time

[felix]

136 frees against 106 Frees for that's the biggest difference in the league for the year so far .what does it mean are umps cheating are we careless when tackling ? We need is an umpire coach at the saints because these decisions against us are killing us as a team and as supporters.

[SaintWodonga]

It's not just the frees, it where the opposition are getting the frees, it's us missing out. It's when we have momentum, it's the commentators completely ignoring them. Sometimes it feels like the AFL does not want us to win.

[GSG]

maybe bacause we are second to the ball and often undersized in the contest and genrally not as good as the comp we tend to break the rules a bit more often ??

we get the bad rub and we notice it cause its our team but the fact is most teams get the bad rub from time to time

Look at Port Adelaide. They had 23 less free kicks in this weekend’s game. Port played very well this season and in previous games had slightly more free kicks than the opposition. Now all of a sudden they are so bad that they give away 23 more free kicks than North!! Pull the other one!!
Let’s face it, they only lost by 10 points. Could Port have won with a more even free kick count? It’s very very hard to win if your game is continuously interrupted by free kick after free kick after free kick against you.
Are umpires unbiased??? Do we believe in the tooth fairy?

[avid]

I'm as happy as anyone to stand up and scream at the umpire for missing a free kick to us.
But if you are trying to objectively verify that there's a an actual umpiring bias against us, a St Kilda supporter is very last person to ask.
Do you think we're not biased ourselves??

[Teflon]

I don't think there's a bias against us and I do feel we have some dumb players and players undersized , learning positions who are going to give away free kicks. But what I can't stomach is when I see the same incident replayed in our forward 50 and zip!

Hasn't Sippos got a head??? FFS and Cloke was caught - but yep, inconsistencies rule,,, that is just unprofessional umpiring in the nations biggest sport for mine

[spert]

We all know the umpiring is hopelessly inconsistent and the AFL is tinkering too much with the rules, but it wont make us play any better if they were totally biased in our favour.

[mickey]

My first post after years of reading & I'm a huge fan unfortunately living in bias Adelaide.
A lot of it has to do with the crowd & Collingwood always outnumber many teams. Believe me I've heard nothing but whingeing about umps all week over here & that's due to the clown Stephen Rowe on 5AA - Gieschen even had to apologise.

I will say this, all year I have been driving my wife mad because I say we don't get any frees inside our 50 but we just touch or run near someone & it's a free or 50m penalty & shot at goal. To be honest I don't think the umps are intimidated by our crowd so they aren't worried if they upset us but they are scared for their life against the Pies or interstate teams playing unsuccessful sides.

Ever wondered why the team that is struggling & needs a bit of luck always gets the harsh calls & the teams that already tasted success seem to be looked after ?
I do & have for years ..... but I'll come back for more

[St Ick]

If the umpire just stood there and gave us free after free, would still would have lost.

We lost because Collingwood played better- they kicked the ball better, handballed better, had a better defensive game and their best players were experienced players- Thomas, Cloke, Pendulbury, Shaw.. their older blokes all led by example and their younger blokes followed. We suffered from losing Hayes and later on Gilbert, the rest of our experienced players just played ordinary games apart from Roo.

Thats bulls***. If that free to Pendlebry wasn't paid and the Cloke holding the ball was we would have still been well and truely up.

Hate to harp on it but I agree. The Cloke and Pendles situation was a disgrace. Especially considering they pinged Roo and ignored the Dal in the back very soon after. Thats a 24 point differencial, couldn't have been much more than the final margin really.

[Mr Magic]

Maybe the umpires are reading/hearing/watching all the 'experts' continually tell everybody that our defence is undersized and therefore are looking for our 'undersized defenders' to infringe against their bigger opponents?

That doesn't explain why we're continually missing out at the other end of the ground though.

Also doesn't explain the shocking decision against Geary.
BUT that could just be an error?

[Eastern]

Going by those stats, I'm NOT looking forward to playing North Melbourne in 3 weeks time. The Free Kick count will be something like 30-5 in their favor !!