Well it's season over for the Borough.
Essendon were just a bit more clinical and the Borough squandered opportunities in front of goal that were the difference in the end.
The game was poorly umpired, with Port supporters (including me) absolutely filthy / disgusted by the apparent bias in umpiring, with every 50/50 decision seemingly going Essendons way.
The wind was taken out of Port's sails with a 100m penalty resulting in a Bombers goal and putting the margin beyond reach.
I can think of multiple other decisions that were not paid as well that had could scarcely be believed.
The replay will make for interesting watching.
I hear that Harvey Hooper is likely to miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury from last week and he was sorely missed in the middle.
Im not one to usually complain about the officiating but yesterday was poor and one wouldn't be criticised to assume that it was purposely against Port with as you said the 50 being the highlight of the lot. It appeared that when the game was out of Ports reach the officiating went back to being balanced. Would we have won if the umpiring was better ? Most likely not, the 4 posts didnt help and they were probably a tad better but to see that poor standard and perhaps bias was infuriating for the fans.
Is it my imagination or is their a pattern ? Umpiring is balanced at the start of the game then favours AFL clubs to tip the scales in their favour in close encounters? This isnt the first time this has happened this season or in seasons gone by with hardly a time i can think of when we walk away winners and say we got lucky calls. Maybe some confirmation bias on my behalf. The fact that stand alone clubs are helpless in this situation may deter fans from coming. I wonder how any neutral who saw the game yesterday feels about the calls.
This seasons over for Port (in reality was over a few weeks back), looking towards next season i wonder what next seasons coach would have on his wish list? I think we missed red and Hoopers pace yesterday ? Is it some more pace we need ? Its hard to pin point (for me anyway) because when it does gel all on field play their roll with no glaring deficiencies.
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THE VFLS MOST SUCCESSFUL CLUB - THE MIGHTY PORT MELBOURNE BOROUGH!
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I concur that there is a definite bias by the umpires towards the AFL clubs - when Willi played North at Arden St in round 1 last year you could hear the umpires calling the North players by name but on the rare occassions that Willi got a free kick they were only referred to by their number - all the 50/50 calls seem to favour the AFL teams