Neutral Umpring... Something needs to be done

Image courtesy of Zimbio.com

After sitting through Monday night's match in the Constellation Cup series, I feel like enough is enough, neutral netball umpires need to be kicked into touch. The fact is plain and simple, they are not up to the standard of Australia and New Zealand and in Monday nights match they were a detriment to our fantastic game. 

I have always questioned the need to have neutral umpires for the best two netball nations in the world and I feel like now is well and truly the time for this to be reviewed by IFNA. Surely for the two best netball nations the game deserves the two best umpires in the world, not just for the players but how about for the umpires from our two countries who work tirelessly to reach the top level but are not rewarded with the top games.

For an umpire from New Zealand or Australia the best game they can hope to umpire is a 3rd/4th playoff at either a Commonwealth Games or World Championships. Not exactly the best motivator to increasing the level of umpiring in either country. 

It can be argued that amongst other sports, neutral umpires are part and parcel of the game. However when you have a sport that has clearly been dominated for almost the entirety of its existence by two nations, the option for neutral umpires is not justified.

This may seem like a one eyed opinion, you may think its because the Ferns lost. I can honestly say I have never witnessed such an inconsistent display of umpiring. I felt as though the contest was taken away, nothing the Ferns did either on attack of defense, was not followed by the shrill sound of the whistle, resulting in a loss of possession or an easy penalty shot for the Diamonds shooters. It was this view that was also shared by many Australian supporters over the ditch via social media. A clear indication that the umpiring needs to change.

By the end of the match, Maria Tutaia and Shannon Francois had both given away four contact penalties, with the majority of these being while on the attack rather than defense. It felt like our attackers were unable to perform a simple front hold on there defenders without incurring a penalty, while the Australian defenders continued to literally climb all over our girls without any whistle.

In any game of sport we hope for consistency, even at this level the calls will never be spot on but at least if both teams receive similar calls it makes for an even game. Something that sadly on Monday night we were not privy too.

Surely if both teams agree to one Australian and one New Zealand umpire perhaps the strange, bizarre and at times mystifying calls can be avoided for the sake of the game. I honestly cant remember the last time we had a trans tasman clash and the poor standard of umpiring was not mentioned post game. The system is set up for the neutral umpires to ultimately fail, 2 or 3 games of top netball a year will not be enough for them to improve, the speed is simply too fast. Perhaps a possible scenario is having more neutral umpires work there way into the ANZ Championship season and use them as qualification matches for the international season.

The coaches and players can only say so much, with the majority of the time it only being a subtile hint that the umpires were not up to the standard we all deserve. So its up to us, the fans and long time supporters to make a stand and demand for this to be reviewed. 

What did you think of the umpiring? 

Do you think it needs to be reassessed? 

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