St Kilda Coach Alan Richardson has labelled it ‘the noise of affirmation’, referring to the West Coast Eagles’ historic free kick advantage at their home base in Perth.
Speaking on Fox Footy’s AFL 360, Richardson didn’t point the finger at the wide 8-23 free kick discrepancy for St Kilda’s 19-point loss on Saturday night, but did draw attention to the Eagles home ground advantage which is leading to lopsided free kick counts.
According to statistics recorded since 1999, West Coast receives the biggest home ground advantage in the AFL receiving 3.58 more free kicks than their opposition when playing at home against sides other than cross-town rivals Fremantle, adding further weight to Richardson’s belief.
“From my perspective, it is (affected from an umpiring perspective). I call it the noise of affirmation,” Richardson said on AFL 360 on Monday night.
“Our game is very grey, particularly from an umpiring perspective and it’s one of the beauties of our game, but particularly with issues like holding the ball.
“You go in there (asking yourself) did he duck? Did he have prior opportunity? Did he dispose of the ball correctly? The umpire has to weigh all this up.
Monday Wash-Up: Round 2 v West Coast
“And then there’s this incredible noise that potentially gives the umpire some form of affirmation. Or if you’re an opposition player there is no noise, there is no affirmation that the umpire is receiving. My experience is the no calls that are the bigger issue.
“We were frustrated and disappointed with some of the sloppy stuff in terms of tackle, but on the flip side some of those that are like for like that we could have got we didn’t get and I reckon that noise.
“And it’s only Perth. Enough of our fans travel to SA and enough of our fans travel to Queensland to perhaps have that noise and influence and noise of affirmation.”
Richardson dismissed the emotional theory by some supporters that St Kilda loss was due to the free kick differential, instead the Saints coach said his side's inaccuracy in front of goal and inability to play four quarters led to the loss in Western Australia.
“Fans get caught up in the game, they get caught up in umpiring but I can only talk about the way that we reviewed the performance internally,” Richardson said.
“We missed opportunities. We gave ourselves every opportunity to win a game of footy on the road against a quality team and we’re disappointed.
“Conversion was one aspect of it, so was our inability to be able to close out the game and continue to play our way. So that’s the way we reviewed it.”
