All the average fan wants from the three umpires looking after their team’s game is consistency.
One thing that was a free kick in the first quarter should be a free kick in the last quarter. A free kick one week should be a free kick the next week.
It seems simple enough.
However, former AFL umpires boss Wayne Campbell believes the quest for consistency is “unachievable and unattainable”.
“I reckon it took me two years in the umpiring job to work out one thing. What’s the one thing we all want from umpiring? Consistency,” he told SEN’s Bob and Andy.
“It’s absolutely unachievable and unattainable. It’s not happening and it’s for three reasons.
“First reason – We all bring the team scarf that we’re wearing to any decision. We just do. We barrack for the Bulldogs, we say that’s holding the ball, even if it’s not, but we think it is.
“Even if you’re not barracking for a team, you might favour one team.
“The second one, and I include myself in this, we don’t know the rules. They change a bit and they’re complex. I played for a long time and until I got into umpiring I didn’t have a clue about holding the ball.
“Now, I didn’t care either. I didn’t sort of bang on about it because I didn’t know.
“And the third one, which kills everyone, is umpires make mistakes. They just do.
“You’ll look at one and it’s just an error. We don’t know that at the time. Until Hayden Kennedy comes out on Monday and says ‘we got that wrong’, you don’t know that.
“This whole consistency thing, it’s impossible. It’s a great thing to search for but in my experience, it’s completely unattainable.”
Campbell took over as the head of umpiring in 2014 prior to joining GWS as football operations boss before departing the club in the wake of last season.