A&H

Severity of Foul

JH

RefChat Addict
I often find myself in games after a strong challenge (but not reckless) calling the player in for a public rebuke and basically saying be very careful or you'll end up with a caution. In my mind, the player has then immediately climbed the stepped approach ladder if you will, skipping just a FK and FK with a quiet word.

Is this the best way to deal with that situation?

How do you best deal with strong challenges that don't quite merit a caution, but you know are not run-of-the-mill careless challenges?
 
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A quick "you're walking a thin line" immediately after the whistle does it for me. Don't back yourself into a corner.
 
I'd just go with the quiet word rather than the public rebuke.

By the very fact that you're publicly "rebuking" the player and telling them that the next one will be a caution, for me, you're basically sending the message out that you should have cautioned him anyway?

Not trying to be overly critical these things are often in the "you had to be there" bracket. :)
 
Contradiction here though with a strong successful challenge that was legal that you did not penalize.

In this case I’m much more likely to comment quickly to the first opposition player I get eye contact or whose mouth opens ”OK for me, just, keep it clean” or something like that, because imminent revenge is the problem. I don’t want to be ”coaching” the ballwinner.
 
A quick "you're walking a thin line" immediately after the whistle does it for me. Don't back yourself into a corner.
I'd just go with the quiet word rather than the public rebuke.

By the very fact that you're publicly "rebuking" the player and telling them that the next one will be a caution, for me, you're basically sending the message out that you should have cautioned him anyway?

Not trying to be overly critical these things are often in the "you had to be there" bracket. :)
No stepped approach?
 
Never really thought of this subject. I have;
1) Warning
2) YC with the usual warning
3) YC with a strong warning
4) RC
I like the phrase, 'that is the limit of my tolerance'. However that phrase might be used
 
I think you also have to take into account the temperature of the game and be mindful of what you are trying to accomplish. Are you speaking to the player because he needs to hear it? o because the opponents need to see that you saw it was borderline between careless and reckless? are you speaking to him because you want everyone to know that the you know the game is heating up and are on top of it? do you expect the player to be receptive? do you expect the other team to accept the rebuke or are they demanding a caution? are you concerned about retaliation? All of those factors weigh into how public you need/want to be--as well as whether to tip to giving a caution for game control on the close call.
 
@santa sangria asks a valid question: are we talking about a foul that doesn't quite meet your threashold for a yellow, or a challenge that you judge to be fair, but that could have been nasty if it went wrong?

For the former, I think your approach is pretty good, although I always avoid saying anything along the lines of "next one is a caution". If the opponent's hear that and he then commits an entirely innocent careless trip or something similar, you'll either upset his team by giving what looks like an incredibly soft caution, or the opponents by not cautioning when "you said that was his last chance ref!". Tell him he's on thin ice, tell him that you've got an eye on him or that he needs to be careful for the next bit of the game, but don't make definite threats.

If it's the latter, a quiet, even friendly word is the one. Something along the lines of "That was a bit risky wasn't it #10?" or "I thought you were going to be in trouble when you went in for that tackle!" can let them know you're watching them and they need to be careful doing what they did. Depends on the temperature of the match, it's sometimes necessary to be a bit firmer/more formal if the temperature's rising.
 
Play on, if you thought it was a foul you’d of dealt with it, you didn’t so move on! Keep it upstairs though for the next one that you do think was worthy of a chat or worse!
 
@santa sangria asks a valid question: are we talking about a foul that doesn't quite meet your threashold for a yellow, or a challenge that you judge to be fair, but that could have been nasty if it went wrong?

For the former, I think your approach is pretty good, although I always avoid saying anything along the lines of "next one is a caution". If the opponent's hear that and he then commits an entirely innocent careless trip or something similar, you'll either upset his team by giving what looks like an incredibly soft caution, or the opponents by not cautioning when "you said that was his last chance ref!". Tell him he's on thin ice, tell him that you've got an eye on him or that he needs to be careful for the next bit of the game, but don't make definite threats.

If it's the latter, a quiet, even friendly word is the one. Something along the lines of "That was a bit risky wasn't it #10?" or "I thought you were going to be in trouble when you went in for that tackle!" can let them know you're watching them and they need to be careful doing what they did. Depends on the temperature of the match, it's sometimes necessary to be a bit firmer/more formal if the temperature's rising.
I was specifically talking about a foul, not a strong-but-fair challenge. A foul that is strong but not quite reckless. I take your point about not mentioning the caution, I am guilty of backing myself into a corner with what I say.
 
I don't quite follow the OP tbh

What I do take out of it, is there is no definite answer, it can be whatever it takes at the time, which might be a shout, it might be a "careful" or it might even be nothing at all.

As another poster says, or implies, what maybe is effective with dealing with one player, might have no effect on another

if the OP means, there was a strong fair challenge that you did not penalise, then, is there really anything to see here?

again as above, depends, who, what, where, time, score, ability, attitude, reputation, how you are feeling, etc etc etc

be flexible, and adapt to whatever the situation dictates.
 
If you have a public warning with a player that sends out the message, whether you meant to or not, that the next foul he commits is a caution. Whereas a quiet word means you can then get away with a public one next time and climb the steps one at a time rather than jumping straight up it.

In terms of fair challenges, an assessor once said to me that if you are going to tell the players to be careful going into a challenge, why not praise them when there is no foul. I now do that all the time "well done guys", "fair challenge", "great tackle", etc. Means I spend the whole game talking but the players seem to like it even at my now lowly level.
 
If you have a public warning with a player that sends out the message, whether you meant to or not, that the next foul he commits is a caution. .

I don't agree with this--I think it depends. If it is after a hard (border line yellow) foul, I don't think anyone expects the yellow for an "honest" foul. Of course, if you do the pointing to prior fouls, its sets up the expectation of a caution for persistent offenses.
 
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