Females in the AFL

[Nevah play JJ]

Like I said, I never mind being corrected.

I call bull****.
Who are you, what have you done with Caroline?

Bahahahahahaha... now now Caleb.. you know I am always the first to admit when I am wrong!
But it happens so rarely, it becomes something that is difficult to recognise.. LMAO

[Nevah play JJ]

Hi Kentish..
Thanks for your input.

I don't step back from what I said. Sorry you were offended, but unfortunately they are my opinions, as I stated twice.

I have done the hard yards and I have no doubt unless you broke into your field over 20 years ago, I did it long before you chose to do so.

I was the butt of humour because of being female and I put up with some pretty harsh work place bullying because of it. So I am not talking as someone that has not been there done that and fought the good fight!

I still stand by my comments. If you chose to take that as a slap in the face, then that is your choice.

The comments in regards to Samantha Lane and Kelly Underwood come from the fact I have watched many many many hours of them. You have to question how much of Tim Lane's influence got her the job. I also stand by the fact she is on a show based around comedians and their take on football. Samantha Lane offers absolutely NO comedic value to this show at all.

Kelly Underwood spends more time screaming into the microphone causing ears to bleed with that boring monotone voice, getting names wrong and is often so far behind the play it ruins a great game of football. There has been a public outcry in regards to her ability to call a game and channel 10 refuse to take her off air, this leads me to question why?

I still say it is a mans sport played by men.
Good on you for playing in High School, sincerely, I think that is awesome. But lets be realistic, there is a reason there is no weekly games of Womens AFL being played on TV. Guess that reason for yourself if you so wish.

I never said I am for non-equality that is your view on what I said..
I just think equality has its place. I might be old fashioned with my thinking.

I should have said that I believe there is a place for women in the sport, eg: Doctors, physio, fitness management. I just do NOT believe Women belong on the field during the time of play, whether umpiring or commentating.

There are reasons why there is a separation between Men and Women in most sporting events, eg: Olympic sports.

But again, thanks for your comments. It is nice to have a healthy debate with someone. But I don't stand back from my thoughts and opinions, nor do I appologise for them.

[trishan]

Your friend would say that.

Is experience the only thing? what about talent? "Ive done it for longer, therefore i deserve to be in the AFL" is not a valid argument.

How do you know if people are 'more qualified'. Surely all AFL goal umpires do the same sorts of training and groundwork before being selected in matches.

Why did you not mention that you had 'inside information' from a friend who was an umpire in the OP? Would change the whole argument, and just proves that the only reason you post threads like this is to stir some sh*t and nothing else.

You were misinformed in that you basically were making incorrect assumptions about how goal umpires are trained and selected, and you made out as if this particular umpire was 'new and inexperienced' when in fact 6 years of experience is probably more than most.

Do you really honestly think that the AFL, persistent in 'pushing' inferior standard female umpires into the AFL based on tokenism would be stupid enough and stubborn enough to continue to do this for probably ten years now if it wasn't working? Are you saying that a multi-million dollar organisation would continue with some tokenistic experiment at the possible expense of the professionalism of the biggest sport in Australia?

You really are living in a fantasy land on this one mate.

I think there was a study somewhere that it takes 10,000 hours of practicing a skill before you can call yourself a master. Experience usually relates directly with skill. But if your point of view of the issue is that female umpires can be trained to standard then I respect your opinion.

The whole point of the thread was to see what other people thought. Do females bring a different perspective to adjudicating? Does this make up for any lack of experience? Someone else I was talking to brought up the issue that female field umpires may struggle with the physical demands of bouncing the ball.

I think the AFL brought female umpires into the game in order to increase its appeal and widen its audience among other things.

The thing here Matt is that we can all have different opinions about the matter and there is no such thing as a right or wrong opinion. I will respect anyone who backs their opinion with logical reasoning and argument.

Personally I just think that making sure you pick the right candidate for the job based on skill, experience and qualifications is main thing. If the AFL have done so then there is no issue. I chose my wording pretty carefully throughout this whole thread. I said "it seems" the AFL is not choosing candidates on their merits but if in fact they do then I have no problem.

[maccatak11]

I think there was a study somewhere that it takes 10,000 hours of practicing a skill before you can call yourself a master. Experience usually relates directly with skill.

So you are saying that little Johnny goal umpire has been practicing for years and years since he was a little kid only to have his deserving spot taken by one of them 'females' with less credentials? Your argument is getting sillier. Its not like goal umpires with 20 years experience are 'plucked' from somewhere because they have been doing it for ages. Goal umpires decide to go to trainings, practice at lower leagues and their training would fast track them to higher levels pretty quickly.

I have seen this happen many times with junior field umpires. a 16-20 year old, with probably 1-2 years or less experience decides they want to be an umpire. They pretty much volunteer to be a part of those training squads, are intensively trained and taught and are pretty much fast-tracked to higher levels. The training they receive by the correct coaches would far far outweigh the long term benefits of experience.

Its like saying that the scrubber who played 25 years in the B grade is better than say Mike Pyke or Kurt Tippet who come from sports of a different background. Intensive training and coaching gets these guys up to the level amazingly quickly.

Hell i even had the opportunity as a 16-17 year old to follow a path in umpiring. I had umpired junior grades for a few years and got asked by the umpiring coordinator for the barossa region if i wanted to attend trainings etc. He said within a year i could be umpiring lower grades in the SANFL with the possibility of going higher, but i liked playing too much to do that at the time - so i didnt do it. Would someone in this situation be better than the country scrubber with much more experience. An overwhelming yes in my opinion.

Do females bring a different perspective to adjudicating? Does this make up for any lack of experience? Someone else I was talking to brought up the issue that female field umpires may struggle with the physical demands of bouncing the ball.

OMG this is one of the silliest things i have heard in a while. Can you or i bounce a football? Yes. Is there females who with training professionally (as field umpires do) who would be fitter and stronger than you or i? Of course yes, so why the hell couldn't they bounce the ball. If a woman can bloody pole vault 4 metres or run a marathon they sure as hell will be able to bounce a footy!

I think the AFL brought female umpires into the game in order to increase its appeal and widen its audience among other things.

I don't disagree with you here, but this does not equate with female umpires being inferior. That is flawed logic.

Personally I just think that making sure you pick the right candidate for the job based on skill, experience and qualifications is main thing. If the AFL have done so then there is no issue.

You have presented no evidence to suggest that they aren't!

[trishan]

Do females bring a different perspective to adjudicating? Does this make up for any lack of experience? Someone else I was talking to brought up the issue that female field umpires may struggle with the physical demands of bouncing the ball.

OMG this is one of the silliest things i have heard in a while. Can you or i bounce a football? Yes. Is there females who with training professionally (as field umpires do) who would be fitter and stronger than you or i? Of course yes, so why the hell couldn't they bounce the ball. If a woman can bloody pole vault 4 metres or run a marathon they sure as hell will be able to bounce a footy!

I didn't say I agree with the bouncing thing, it's just another opinion I have heard from people. Apparently bouncing a ball isn't as easy as it looks. I have never tried seriously myself.

[smittdoggy]

Just the thought of having female umpires out on the ground makes me cringe.. not coz there female as a whole but just the difference in the gender make up.
the blokes that are out there now struggle to keep up with the game i.e a man runs 100m in around 10 plus sec a female in around 13 plus sec ) how many more umpires will they need on the ground to keep up as umpires are to far away and in wrong positions to make the calls now??? put some females out there and all of a sudden you need twice as many.. i mean this in a nice way as i think the males are bad now!!!!

plus a male umpire gets knocked by accident and all hell breaks loose at the afl what sactions would there be with a female and the male umpires nearly pass out if they get bumped ...god knows why? not like it was a real knock maybe the girls could take that better hmmmm ??? but you put more umpires on the ground = more collisions so i couldnt see this working at all ...but i love having the ladies behind the goals they can do just as a good job there as the boys there eyes work just as fast if not better!!!
but on the field i think at afl level a big NO NO only local stuff i think there
smittdoggy

[Russ]

Playing Under 17s and then a bit of A grade footy in the BL&G the best umpire I've come across in our comp is a female.

[bennymacca]

Just the thought of having female umpires out on the ground makes me cringe.. not coz there female as a whole but just the difference in the gender make up.
the blokes that are out there now struggle to keep up with the game i.e a man runs 100m in around 10 plus sec a female in around 13 plus sec ) how many more umpires will they need on the ground to keep up as umpires are to far away and in wrong positions to make the calls now??? put some females out there and all of a sudden you need twice as many.. i mean this in a nice way as i think the males are bad now!!!!

people should really get their facts straight before they shoot their mouths off.

the women's 100m record is 10.49, the mens is 9.58

of course you need to be nowhere near this mark to be an umpire, but they DO have minimum standards. and to think that the standard would be lowered just because the umpire is a woman is just ignorant

Playing Under 17s and then a bit of A grade footy in the BL&G the best umpire I've come across in our comp is a female.

yep, sarah jamieson was great - she regularly does A-Grade games in the barossa, and is much better than the average standard.

[bennymacca]

I didn't say I agree with the bouncing thing, it's just another opinion I have heard from people. Apparently bouncing a ball isn't as easy as it looks. I have never tried seriously myself.

its really not that hard - i can do it semi consistently, we used to try quite a lot back when i also umpired juniors, although never in a game.

it was hard to get it to go really high, and every now and then i would do one that would go sideways and hit someone in the nuts, but with the proper training, it really wouldn't be an issue.

furthermore, the bounce isn't an important part of the game, so if the game has to change to only throwups, then this wouldn't change the game in any way.

or the umpire could just not bounce the ball - throwups around the ground, and if they still want to bounce it in the centre square, then one of the other umpires could do it.

[smittdoggy]

i am talking about general running not oylimpic sprinters here!!!!

just making a point that women will not be able to keep up unless there are more on the field and the more on the field the more caos for the players... and obviously the further they have to run the more that they will fall behind i am only talking 100m there, a umpire would cover at least 15 or more km in a game .. the more km the more far behind they become unless they put more out there which is bad in its self.
can you not see the point?

i think the league boss of umpires whats his name geasham needs to look at the ones he has out there and they should be trying to get in better positions and not up players arses.then maybe they could see the correct call.