The standard of refereeing in the A League

[skilbeck]

the standard in refereeing in the a league seems to have degraded in recent weeks. over the last few weeks there has been many issues that were mishandled by referee's most notably breeze not sending griffiths off after sexually assaulting his linesman.

Now fast forward to this week with Peter F**kface O'Leary who seems all too keen to pull the red out of his pocket and then on he made stupid calls all night most notably he missed heaps of hand balls by qld players. I dont get it, why porter is sent off and griffiths isnt.

At risk of sounding like a drugby league head I recommend we should get a video ref and an an extra official to monitor it because it means that decisions dont have to be made impulsively and i also reckon that a ref should have to justify his cards to a committee after the game and there should be more sanction to refs that are proven to either unfairly give cards or hand down decisions inconsistently. Porters card was wrong and should have never been given that is the bottom line.

[Nah.]

Agreed. That was bull.

[omni]

I think it's more making the referees more accountable, those guys know they'll get a game next week, regardless of what the Assessor says every week. The training really needs to improve, this is the national league, these guys should all be full time referees.

[greenpoint]

Geez, I thought it might have just been me and my Mariners impartiality. It's reassuring to know that everyone else thought O'Leary's game was absolutely atrocious tonight.

I wonder about the mechanism for monitoring and penalising poor refereeing in the A-League. It's not like bad refs can be dropped to reserve grade for a week (until the B-League gets a start!). Do you reckon O'Leary will be sitting on the sidelines for a week or two after tonight's farce?

[Ursus]

I just watched the replay on Fox Sports news. I doubt the challenge was even worth a free kick let alone a card.

He dished out cards for minor offences yet missed major ones in both directions.

O'Leary will never officiate in senior football again.

[Foriegnmariner]

O'leary is a kiwi so he's full of tripe

seriously though a refs really need to improve in both a decision making, positioning and wellbeing.
He wasn't in the correct postion to make a rash decision on porters tackle, at around the 85th min mark hutcho was lining up for a interception just outside out D and the ref ran straight into him which lead to 1 of the counter attackers and they need to take care of themselves wen being sexually assulted.

[yellowcake]

Why can't we get some old, wiry, balding, bushy-eyebrowed ones, like those that you see frequenly officiating (very capably) in the EPL.

Seriously, you've got to know you haven't run a good game when you need a police or security escort to help you leave the playing field.

[djebella]

I went up to Peter Turnbull at the after match function and asked how bad the refereeing was from the diretor's box cause it looked shithouse from Bay 16. And he said "worse"!!!! Made me feel a shite load better!

Has there ever been a game in the A-league where the officials have been marshalled off the field by security? Seriously, did that happen anywhere else this weekend? If not , why not? Is there something more to the appallling performance? Even the Meow players stayed on the field long after the game had ended.

[thesandman]

The appointment of HAL referees is way too political.

You've got our top 3 who are never going to get dropped. Ever. Look at Williams last season - I wouldn't even put him on a SPL match he was that poor, but he still got regular games (for the record I like him as a ref, but he had major problems last season).

O'leary shows nearly every time he referees that he is no good - yet he keeps getting ames. WHY??

On the other hand, we have a female referee who is officially the best female ref in the world - she reffed the Women's WC final. Yet she isn't good enough for the HAL??

The HAL has refereeing problems, but it always has. A lot of this comes from media pressures, referees being told to change the way they ref for the good of the viewers. Coaching structure is insufficient, and we're also faced with the problem of differences between inspectors (referees are inspected every match), which leads to refs being told different things. I've met several HAL inspectors, and even been inspected by them - and make no mistake, just like referees, you get inspectors who also don't know what they're doing.

Perhaps a lot of the problem comes from the fact that there are no professional referees? Referees are flying in, possibly on the morning of the game, doing their job then flying out? Try doing this on top of working full time and having a family - it would equate to a lot of stress. Refereeing takes a tremendous mental effort, so perhaps these 'part time' referees are as good as we'll ever see until we can afford full time referees?

The fact of appointments being highly political is still a major factor. I have no doubt that there are referees better than Mark Shield (and is he really THAT good? I don't think so. So why is he being promoted like that?) running around doing state league. Like any job, who you know can count for a lot more than what you know.

A 2nd tier competition will go a long way towards referee development. State league straight to HAL is a MASSIVE jump, and especially if you only referee it irregularly, it's going to be extremely difficult to become comfortable and referee it to the peak of your ability.

After season 1 the FFA put out a DVD of referee blunders for education for all referee associations. Many of the blunders were absolutely disgraceful and inexcusable. Even this season, we have players being cited in video review for incidents that the referee clearly sees (remember the Qld match from Rd 1?)

Fox news are putting the refs under fire too - but they are making a balanced discussion out of it.

I know that in the NRL, appalling refereeing (and judiciary) have driven fans away from the game in droves. This cannot happen here.
Video referees are not the answer as the game doesn't lend itself well to video refereeing.

[~Floss~]

Good points above. Structure is the key to having enough experienced, qualified refs competing for games.
Until then you're stuck with whoever you can get.
But if it doesn't improve soon, the refs continually being in the media for their mistakes and for copping abuse will make it a pretty unpopular career choice.

[greenpoleffc]

Even Okon said it wasnt really a foul let alone a red - and he is a scummer!!!

The HAL will do nothing because they are a spineless bunch of wankers.

[roylaw]

Not only was it not a red, it wasn't even a foul - just like Vidmar against Adelaide which ultimately got him sent off too. Mid way through the second half I thought I was at a wedding there was so much confetti of yellow cards. Why do referees hide behind the yellow when all they have to do is award a free kick? I rarely blame referees and I rarely get angry but today I did both.

[midfielder]

There have been a number of questionable decisions this year. Two that have effected us in the last two weeks have been Griffiths not being sent off and Porter tonight.

It happen right in fron of us and to be honest was a not even worth a free kick.

Last week Ben Buckley backed down to his and I think the game's reputation.

This week we need Ben Buckley to do something to recongize number of poor decisions being made. But if the ref is still appointed next week without any action then my guess is uncle Frank will start to question Ben Buckley's leadership.

Ben show some leadership, for the first time a ref has been booed off at both half time and full time at the Central Coast and even Fox have questioned his decisions.

So come on FFA & Ben do something

[skilbeck]

i must say cheers to Lawrie for keeping calm with the decision, it cant have been easy for him. There are a few managers out there who wouldve blown up and been suspended for a few weeks

[apolloworm]

i believe lawrie done extremly well to keep calm under the circumstances, the referee had some bad calls which over shadowed the match between the loud roaring roar and the mighty mamouth mariners. i have seen better refereeing on the coast, a great up and commer by the name of chris wells is really going places which has seen him be selected to referee the NSW under 16 state titles, hopefully with a good performance here we will see him in the A league in years to come

[radar]

That tackle happened right in front of us in Bay 6, and I honestly thought he went for the wrong pocket. The tackle was totally fair, one Mariners foot VS two QLD feet and was all ball.

You know it was a poor decision when even Danny Tiatto tells the ref he got it wrong

[RECKY]

I was totally gobsmacked at the complete ineptitude of that o'leary bloke, my boy is a ref and he couldn't beleive what he was seeing either...solutions?...how about about dumping the lot of whistle blowers we have at the moment, getting the #1 female ref off the line and into the centre and importing some of thse sergeant major style refs from the EPL. get some poms here for the later part of the season , the semi's and the GF...sheilds, o'leary and their game stuffing mates can just go read the rulebook and re-think their choice of part time job

[Bearinator]

radar said:

You know it was a poor decision when even Danny Tiatto tells the ref he got it wrong

I must have missed that. Even THE PENIS thinks it was harsh, that IS saying something

[RECKY]

I actually heard a bloke behind me in bay 27 wonder out loud if Laurie was considering taking the team off the pitch due to the crap reffing....did o'leary need the thin blue line to get him off the field last night?

[radar]

He had the fat yellow line i.e Bluetongue Stadium security met him in the middle