Recent content by Russell Jones

More backbreaking than groundbreaking 😊

No. If you have access to MOAS, you can always check using the ‘Fixture Search’ function 😊

It’s like ‘whack a mole’ … when we stop time wasting in some situations, the issue will inevitably pop in in the other relevant scenarios 🤨

The clip is a beautiful example of why the law change was introduced in the first place.🥇.

Given the type of creek we will likely be inhabiting, I’d suggest investing in a large number of good quality paddles …..

We know the bar for a second yellow is (slightly) higher for all of us. That’s even more true in big business entertainment like the World Cup. The argument on this occasion would be that he got lucky, because, whilst he certainly fulfilled the first part of the criteria, there were in fact no...

Two thoughts on this (from hard earned, bitter, experience!). Think of them as competitive matches not friendlies … generally they are not remotely played in a ‘friendly’ spirit. Being far more lenient on tactical fouls is, IMO, fine. However I’d make clear pre game that my threshold for...

That would just be desiccating the game of football ….

I disagree. They certainly gave the impression of doing very little, because their primary rationale was simply to give comms input on penalty area decisions. Now that punters are way more used to the idea of comms, I think the idea might be better received. Regrettably though, as others have...

Thus far in the tournament, all the various ‘time saving’ law changes seem to have been implemented sensibly and achieved the desired outcome. I very much hope this continues to be the case. However, the real stress test will be the upcoming 31 ‘winner takes all’ matches, where the incentive...

In the context of this match and this substitution, I completely back the lack of action from the officials. But worth bearing in mind that, unlike the amendments to the throw in and corner kick restarts, the substitution change does not explicitly give officials much leeway in choosing when /...

The law puts the onus on the outgoing player to leave by the nearest point unless the referee says otherwise, not the other way round

77th minute substitution of the uninjured Mexico GK. Outgoing keeper takes 20 seconds to leave the FOP. Therefore, in law, incoming sub should stay off for 1 minute. But teams are not allowed to play without a goalkeeper …… hmmm 🤔 🤔 Obviously we wouldn’t expect the officials to get “busy” in...

Unless, as on our one this year, the medical team rock up 75 mins late and then there’s a further delay because of, you guessed it, a medical emergency!

Absolutely. It was a common theme in our 7-6-5 coaching visits last season that refs were being caught out of position at GK punts because of starting the count in a position that was too deep. Think next season it will be incumbent on refs to get to their desired restart positions promptly...