Mythical Creature wrote:Agree Jack. Doug should be doing the A's but he didn't do much last year either. Still the best one going around by a mile in this league. Little Angus is fast getting a good reputation too. I hope he goes onto umpire bigger and better for his own sake but he has quickly earnt the respect of most teams. As a bonus he bounces the ball in the middle too. It makes for a quality contest when an umpire can bounce the ball up well. Shows they have confidence.
I'll be the second to second that MC and Jack. I'm pretty sure Doug has some serious knee problems and so he feels the other umpires will be better suited to the pace of an A grade game.
Sorry MC but I cant agree with your initial call on Angus. While I do agree that bouncing the ball is better, we have had him for all bar one game this season and he has been absolutely deplorable, especially at times when things get a little heated he goes to water. Its one thing to be a young up and coming umpire but unlike playing where you learn the skills and your teams structures, as an umpire you need to have experience, ideally through playing, but essentially at least spent a few years watching and following the game to learn the correct depictions of rules. I mean the holding the ball rule at the moment is completely confusing young Angus because he has no idea what prior opportunity is, because his interpretation is that straight off of a piece of paper, rather than through experience.
Right I'm glad I got that off my chest........
I totally agree with Jack though, we need them and it is great that Doug as Coordinator has faith in our current umpires. Personally I think the best two umpires in the APFL are Josh Minn and Brenton Prouse. They both just get on with the job and call it as they see it!!
