France - Spain

[DavidObs]

Yes, I'm a much better AR than I once was due to the 'less is more'
Indeed, that's exactly what I indicate to my AR's. I don't want them busy. I also don't want them to get excessively safe by favouring the defence. This irritates the life out of everyone. 55/45 bias is more than enough, yet that slight bias is very important. Just got to nail those numbers

So less is more, but the best ARs will have the minerals to indicate when a referee is the only one in the ground to have seen something
TBH, if I'm on good form, I'm already running to the AR with the best view when I sense I'm in that boat, regardless of a signal or not. It's a phony conversation which lasts a nano second after which I can say 'he/she put me right', 'sorry, I've lost the plot'
I don't really buy the idea the AR can't signal from far way. That feels like a tried and tested idea that hasn't worked over the years. Like I say, right outcome and I couldn't give a monkeys about how we get there, as long as it's quick and correct and it fits with my pre-match instruction

Much I could relate to above especially your last sentence, though it’s my experience there have been many occasions when the tried & tested idea/method hasn’t been used & there has been all hell broken out because of the AR’s flag from so far away & going against a decision made by the closer/angled position Referee (I’m not referring to any L2 with Comms). You are different from the norm (but there may be quite a few others) in what you inform your AR’s & follow through on the FoP. To a certain extent it’s refreshing, but I don’t think it will take over from best practice in the short term.

 

[Big Cat]

Much I could relate to above especially your last sentence, though it’s my experience there have been many occasions when the tried & tested idea/method hasn’t been used & there has been all hell broken out because of the AR’s flag from so far away & going against a decision made by the closer/angled position Referee (I’m not referring to any L2 with Comms). You are different from the norm (but there may be quite a few others) in what you inform your AR’s & follow through on the FoP. To a certain extent it’s refreshing, but I don’t think it will take over from best practice in the short term.

I think there's one accepted way to referee a game and we're all judged against that creed what underpins in the observer manual
We're all coached to be safe referees. We're all coached avoid taking risks and I'd say we're all afraid of the game in a way
In our efforts to be consistent, there's no scope for natural selection by trying new approaches. That's partly why nothing ever really changes... although standards of refereeing and expectation are more dictated by what we see on TV.

That's not a model for improvement in anything in life. It's holding onto status quo. . I think it's easy for me as I have no realistic scope for progression. It means I can try a few things without fear of failure. Odd times, I do something different that works for me, but don't get me wrong, these occasions are not frequent as I realize that deviating from the creed in a maverick and reckless manner is not wise