I've always bemoaned when we get fixtured to play Geebung in Sleepy Hollow, because I've always assumed that it's the parochialism of the home crowd which sways the umpire's decisions against us there. While this is true, the problem is much, much deeper than that for us unfortunately. There is no such thing as reciprocation for us when we get to play them on the G. Far from pandering to a large and very vocal Richmond crowd, the umpires will go out of their way to rile us up. Sometimes, like on Saturday night, I truly believe that they get a sadistic kick out of it.
But generally, the truth is that they umpire to reputations. In their eyes, Geelong are (one of the) modern day champs, and we are the upstarts, and we must be kept in our rightful place. This has been happening to us for so many years against not just Geelong, but all the so-called power house clubs, that it has become ingrained in us as supporters to expect it. I always shudder when the whistle blows in a 50-50 situation.
The Catch-22 for us for so long has been, that to receive the same kind of preferential treatment afforded to the more successful clubs, we have to start knocking them off and become successful ourselves. But we have no chance of doing this when we cop umpiring like we did on Saturday night. Welcome to Groundhog Day -33 years and counting.
