Firstly,
I think quite a few of the offensive contacts called against Mes in particular were correct.
Soft…yes. But probably correct.
NZ style is to stand in front and have their arms out to hold the player behind.
A lot of international umpires call NZ players for this exact play. Usually over the course of a series or tournament they have time to adjust to this though.
I find a lot of international umpires tend to penalise more static movements like arms out or holding compared to a physical momentary body on body contest.
So internationally as a whole, umpires do need to try and get more consistent across the board as to what is a contact and what is just holding your space.
I think it was a result of it being the first game the new umpire umpired in the series. THAT part I think was wrong. The players had played 3 games already under umpires who they had a chance to adjust to. I do not think the umpire should have been bought in for the last game and such a big game and not have the players have a chance to “get a feel” for what was going to be called.
Basset also got called for a few offensive contacts. They just weren’t all in a space of 3 minutes.
For the record, I do think that umpire in particular was a bit out of her element, her calls were often a second or 2 late, and she was a little hot on the held balls. But for both teams.
For the record, I think umpires should be selected from the top 5 best umpires. No matter where they are from. But again, we would have some variances in interpretation of the rules to deal with. But also, much more experienced umpires who can alter the way they umpire to suit international netball and all styles.
Additionally I don’t under stand the big drama about the umpiring in the last game versus the umpiring in previous games.
Yes it was game 4 I understand this.
But what about game 1 where Ekenasio went 2 metres offside to get a tip right at the end that effectively won the game for them.
Burger also knocked the ball out of Thwaites hand in the last few minutes. Awful umpire calls or non calls that won or lost the game for a team.
I didn’t see LA in the media calling for heads.
I didn’t see NT in the media saying it was awful umpiring.
I think it would have been addressed behind closed doors. As this should have been.
Can you imagine this poor umpires head space right now reading all this. It would be crushing
I do agree the umpiring as a whole was substandard to the skill level of the players. But you cant pick and choose when you are going to complain depending on whether you got the win or not via bad umpiring.
NT also needs to take a lot of responsibility for the shooting combo she started the game with. This definitely did not work and resulted in a loss of timing for NZ. Not saying Mes shouldn’t have played, just saying why change a starting combo that has delivered every time so far.
A little too convenient for my liking that the inexperienced umpires efforts mask the fact that NT made a really bad coaching decision. That first qtr decision effectively set up the win for Aus.
Just my thoughts
