U12's - An inactive Sunday assistant!

[santa sangria]

Crickey I am so glad we don't have CARs.

We do middles on our own up in Santa land up to getting our colleagues on the lines.

I have played 15 years in the highest (still pretty low) league here with only a ref and no assistants and it its torture as a player when the ref patrols the centre circle. However, these games are not full length (35 mins each way) and if I can take a wide diagonal and get a great view of most offsides it is do-able for most of us. Of course, depends on the quality of the play and speed of transitions. But lord, the distraction of a partisan CAR with no review mechanism or accountability - no thanks.

 

[Mooseybaby]

Pretty sure this has been discussed many many times before, the age old CARs are (Brilliant/helpful/ok/useless/waste of space/claim to be a ref themselves/AN Other - tick as appropriate).

Fairly safe to say most of us have had a mixed experience when working with CARs, there are good ones, ok ones, hopeless, damn right dishonest and you never know what you are going to get from week to week. Run the line occasionally for my son's u14s. Manager knows I am a referee as I ref'd a few of their games over the years when my son played against them for other sides etc. I will go over to the referee at the appropriate time, say hello etc, but never inform them that I am a registered referee unless specifically asked. One parent from my son's team did ask why I didn't tell a referee that I am one myself, to which I replied some referees like it, others don't and today I am a just a dad/club helper. Unlike some CARs, who just walk off after games, I always seek out the ref after the game to shake his hand and say thanks, even if he was biased/useless/centre circle hogger etc as a professional courtesy.

 

[GraemeS]

Crickey I am so glad we don't have CARs.

We do middles on our own up in Santa land up to getting our colleagues on the lines.

I have played 15 years in the highest (still pretty low) league here with only a ref and no assistants and it its torture as a player when the ref patrols the centre circle. However, these games are not full length (35 mins each way) and if I can take a wide diagonal and get a great view of most offsides it is do-able for most of us. Of course, depends on the quality of the play and speed of transitions. But lord, the distraction of a partisan CAR with no review mechanism or accountability - no thanks.

You are the review and accountability. If you're in a position to make the call and overrule the CAR, do it - if not, go with him. If you think he's either dishonest or incompetent, you can modify your movement to be more down one side than the other, position yourself on the defensive line at dead balls etc. And if you happen to not be in a good enough position to make a call yourself, you can go with him rather than take a blind guess from a terrible position.

 

[DB]

Just putting this out there (I read the first few posts)... do you really need CAR's at U12? Surely even the older guys amongst us here can keep close enough to play at that age group? I'd say it's around 15-16 age group games where a CAR would actually be useful.

Anything younger than that, the players aren't clever enough yet to play a working offside trap, and the strikers aren't tuned enough to manage their diagonals...

Just a thought. Make it easier on yourself, work that bit harder and just do it all yourself at that age. Down in Cornwall, we get paid £25 for a youth game, compared to a £18 on a junior league (Open aged) game. For that sort of money, it's worth working harder (I don't do it for the money, btw)