Opposition supporters certainly can’t claim that Essendon is being looked after by the umpires this year. After seven rounds of the 2003 season, the Bombers are last in the competition in terms of free kicks for, they lead the competition in terms of frees against and on top of this there are only two sides that have given away more 50m penalties. Supporters will obviously raise their eyebrows at these statistics. But what should we read into these figures?

Essendon assistant coach Mark Harvey said the football department is having a close look at the discrepancy. “The discrepancy is really quite significant – you wouldn’t mind if you were leading free kicks against if you were mid-table in terms of free kicks for but to go from the top of one list to the bottom of the other suggest something isn’t right. Either way you really don’t want to be leading the competition in free kicks against,"" Harvey said.

“There could be any number of reasons for it. Perhaps our technique needs addressing in a couple of areas or perhaps we are just second to the ball at the moment – we will keep looking into it. There is no doubt that we have been undisciplined at times this season but I don’t think that explains the discrepancy. The discipline seems to have been a bit of a problem early in games. In their enthusiasm some players have just pushed a bit too hard.”

Essendon has four players in the top 100 in the AFL in terms of frees for and surprisingly it is Matthew Lloyd (7) who heads the Essendon list. Jason Johnson (6), Mark Johnson (6) and Dean Solomon (6) are the others in the list.

In terms of frees against, the Bombers have seven representatives in the top 100. Solomon (13) and Joel Reynolds (12) lead the way with Adam McPhee (9), Mark Johnson (9), Sean Wellman (8), Steven Alessio (7) and Damian Cupido (7) the other main offenders.

FREES FOR:

West Coast 126
Fremantle 124
Carlton 123
Richmond 121
Adelaide 119
Melbourne 119
Western Bulldogs 119
Port Adelaide 117
Hawthorn 116
Sydney 114
St Kilda 104
Collingwood 101
Geelong 100
Kangaroos 99
Brisbane 99
Essendon 93

FREES AGAINST:

Essendon 135
Carlton 131
Port Adelaide 125
St Kilda 121
Melbourne 115
West Coast 114
Collingwood 112
Richmond 111
Brisbane 111
Sydney 110
Fremantle 110
Geelong 109
Kangaroos 104
Adelaide 102
Hawthorn 102
Western Bulldogs 81

50 METRE PENALTIES

Fremantle 11
Geelong 11
Essendon 10
West Coast 8
Port Adelaide 7
Kangaroos 6
Melbourne 6
Western Bulldogs 6
Carlton 5
St Kilda 4
Hawthorn 4
Collingwood 4
Brisbane 3
Sydney 3
Adelaide 2
Richmond 1