The Ref Stop

Terrible coach tonight

santa sangria

santa sangria

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Really tough game - loads to do - lots of messy challenges - intense - 4-3 going into added time.
Home coach had a first warning for whinging and had been encouraging players to complain.
A few cards, few warnings but no major dissent problem - just a lot of decisions to make. Good ARs, good offsides, good foul calls. One earlier penalty DOGSO-R downgrade YC for hacking down a player turning to shoot 1 yard from goal.

EDIT: there was a potential head injury. I stopped play, told it would be DB and signalled for the trainer. What I got was the home coach and a bag, and him screaming that I couldn't call the trainer on without getting the injured player's permission. I very politely told him, no...

Then 92nd minute, two players end up challenging, falling into the home bench. It's a minor foul for home, but the bench and coach go mad. Cue mass con.
Coach shields foul player. Lots of handbags. One away YC for the most incessant attempt to interfere even with me in his face blasting on the Valk. And then a RC for VC for an away so desperate to confront the fouled player that he softly punched the coach. Also a second yellow for the fouled player for the retaliation (very difficult to see in the dark and mass of bench bodies), as he'd had a YC earlier.

I'm trying to work out what I could have done better. The game had been bubbling a bit - two fiery teams used to RCs so a flare up was expected. I think I handled the con well, calmly, with the right cards. ARs couldn't influence much. They followed the pre match which was ace. AR 1 came close but made sure the away bench didn't come. AR2 came all the way across and put his 6'5" frame to good use. But neither saw anything extra.

In the end I feel that the home coach bears a lot of responsibility for the dark side of this game...


...Of course, he's one of my referee colleagues, one of my favourite refs, absolutely ace with the whistle, really can't speak highly enough of him, amazing attitude... total schizoid as a coach! Ha!
 
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The Ref Stop
One thing to suggest with respect to the injury scenario...

When you called on the team official, get away from the location of the injured player. That way if the team official comes to dissent to you, it's a very simple "tell"... as in "deal with your injured player, this is not the time to address me." If they do not listen, it's a very simple removal at that point in time.

Not assisting an injured player when they are on the field of play to do so is a simple example of irresponsible behaviour.
 
Well done for getting through the game and the self assessment.

One thing I can tell about the coach, if he is an ace referee but a pain coach, deal with him the text book way. His first complain, ask him to behave. Second complain, tell him to behave or else, third companion, else and behind the fence. Of course all of those could be in quick succession. If he is still being a nuisance from behind the fence then get a club official to get rid of him from the ground. Any non compliance and game is abandoned. And reports to go in accordingly. He would know this process and can't fault it. The sooner you either get rid of him or get him to behave, the easier it is to control what is happening on the field.

About the mass con, if you are expecting it to be a fiery game, and you haven't done this already, adjust your positioning slightly in favour of being closer to play, especially for anything around the TA. You have to get in quick for any half decent challenge to prevent escalation.
 
AlexF said:
One thing to suggest with respect to the injury scenario...

When you called on the team official, get away from the location of the injured player. That way if the team official comes to dissent to you, it's a very simple "tell"... as in "deal with your injured player, this is not the time to address me." If they do not listen, it's a very simple removal at that point in time.

Not assisting an injured player when they are on the field of play to do so is a simple example of irresponsible behaviour.
Click to expand...
Great point. I’ll use this.
 
one said:
Well done for getting through the game and the self assessment.

One thing I can tell about the coach, if he is an ace referee but a pain coach, deal with him the text book way. His first complain, ask him to behave. Second complain, tell him to behave or else, third companion, else and behind the fence. Of course all of those could be in quick succession. If he is still being a nuisance from behind the fence then get a club official to get rid of him from the ground. Any non compliance and game is abandoned. And reports to go in accordingly. He would know this process and can't fault it. The sooner you either get rid of him or get him to behave, the easier it is to control what is happening on the field.

About the mass con, if you are expecting it to be a fiery game, and you haven't done this already, adjust your positioning slightly in favour of being closer to play, especially for anything around the TA. You have to get in quick for any half decent challenge to prevent escalation.
Click to expand...
Agreed.
On the 1-2-3 ask-tell-eject for coaches, I talked about this in the pre match with AR1 thinking he might have to use it. In the first half this coach got official warning 1 from me. And I made sure the ARs were on the same page at HT. I now think I could have given him the tell warning after the medic whinging incident.

Good point about the positioning. I was thinking the same in the game and I did that, getting close to the wing play and sacrificing some other zones. But yep, could have anticipated the aggro as the first challenge came and got closer.

Could have also visited each bench at HT to calm them a bit and remind myself about the characters there in case one of the others was going to need dealing with in the 2nd half.

Perhaps in this game I would also rather have had my 6’6” AR2 on the other side instead if tidy but shy AR1. Slight difference in presence!
 
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I'm trying to work out what I could have done better. The game had been bubbling a bit - two fiery teams used to RCs so a flare up was expected. I think I handled the con well, calmly, with the right cards.

You have probably answered your own question right there, i think us refs certainly myself are our own biggest critics, you will know if you go home and sit down afterwards with a beer and reflect if you have had a good or bad game.
 
If you need a couple of wingmen to watch your back you’ve only got to ring the Bat Phone Santa 🎅 ..... I’ll let matron know at @Mintyref ’s Rest home that he may be taking a few days away! :stig:
 
Sheffields Finest said:
If you need a couple of wingmen to watch your back you’ve only got to ring the Bat Phone Santa 🎅 ..... I’ll let matron know at @Mintyref ’s Rest home that he may be taking a few days away! :stig:
Click to expand...
Bar's packed just hanging on the line.....as for the post....sh1t happens.....deal with it as you did, could you have stopped it...probably if you'd abandoned......
 
....total schizoid as a coach! Ha!

I have the same exact person. Are they body doubles or are there just this many idiots in the world. This referee who was coaching, actually asked me who I was and to go sit back down in my chair but told him I am our referee admin, assignor, and instructor, Mind you I was 4th official, on what I knew was going to be a heated U18 game and got up because he was screaming at the referee. He does well with the whistle but not with the clipboard. He actually asked me if I wanted to fight him twice and earned a two-game suspension. Of course no apology.
 
There's nothing from your post here to indicate what you could have done better. A foul crashing into the bench is easily problematic.

Could you pick a Moment of Truth?

If you look back, was there an incident that turned the game?

Here's a hint - it's often not what you think it is. For instance (hypothetical game), the moment of truth isn't necessarily when one player elbowed another one in the head - it may have been the minor dissent 20min earlier that was left unchecked that influenced a bunch of other players to start mouthing off, then loss of respect to you started leading to aggression and you were forced to play catchup on match control.

sometimes you can pin the entire game down to one moment, and that one may be innocuous but highly influential. Have a think about that.

Sometimes, games just turn to crap. Sometimes when the game is bubbling it's hard to find ways to let the pressure out, and given the nature of the teams perhaps keeping it in check as much as you did was actually the best possible outcome and perhaps you're the one that kept it from turning really nasty.

Have a think about how players were responding to messy challenges - were players routinely complaining about challenges they thought were fouls that you thought were fair? Sometimes it's worth thinking about that.

Sounds like it was probably just a tough game though.
 
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