Game #972, Round 12, 21/6/2008, Hamra Homes Oval
Centrals 12.10(82) def. by Glenelg 15.13(103)

The worst umpiring of the year had Dogs fans ready to jump the fence. Glenelg received 9 of the first 10 frees of the game and 43 to 22 overall. Or look at it this way: Glenelg were getting a free every 2 minutes plus an extra free in time-on.

But you can't blame just the umpiring. The Dogs had a shocker. There was a complete lack of intensity and Centrals players were rarely first to the ball. Glenelg played well, but keep in mind they won the game because of a 39-point lead established in the first quarter. They certainly didn't dominate play after that. Thankfully the Dogs woke up in the 2nd half and put some respectability on the scoreboard. When the margin was reduced to 15 points halfway through the last quarter, it looked like the Dogs would pinch the game. But ofcourse more poor umpiring disrupted that momentum.

The game reminded me of 2003 when West Adelaide beat us at Richmond. West players and fans carried on like they'd won a Premiership. I was heartened to see Glenelg players and fans behave in a similar fashion. Glenelg fans even cheered as the umpires came off the field. That was a little wierd.

The Dogs have got the talent, but the line up is far from settled. With a few stars missing, it's hard to gauge exactly where we are. I don't think the loss to Glenelg says much. The umpires were blowing their whistles every 30 seconds, so we didn't get much of a chance to see any free-flowing footy.

Stats:
Glenelg's first win at Elizabeth since 1992. I can handle it if we only drop one home game to Glenelg every couple of decades. :)

Addendum

The game certainly fired up supporters on the CDFC forum. It's not often you get an almost unanimous reaction to the umpiring. It's not often you see Police positioning themselves in and around the race to protect the umpires as they leave the field. It's not often a club's CEO gets reported for questioning the motives of the 'men' in white. By the way, good onya Kris!

But one Centrals supporter took a different tack. Here's Callum's philosophical reflections a few days after the Round 12 fiasco:

Callum writes:

I've been pretty busy lately and have just managed to have a look at everyone's thoughts on Saturday, one thing about the Dogs losing is that it fires the forum up! Blimey.

I think the day got off to a bad start when Rowston lost his contact lenses, the desperate search by Centrals players was unsuccessful:

Things just kept going downhill, James did his best to get on side with Rowston but it didn't help.

Dey was shocking as always, I often wonder what goes through his mind at times, but I have a rough idea it would have been something like this....

Cheer up Dog fans, there's always something positive to come from it all....errrrr...
there was a rainbow towards the end of the game!