There are any number of incidents in a game that might cause a manager to grimace and groan at the performance of their team or individual players.
The thing that must surely rankle the most with managers, and many spectators, is when players pick up meaningless and unnecessary yellow cards for pointless indiscretions.
There have been several clear examples on the weekend, two in the Melbourne Heart match.
Firstly, Germano. You have to ask yourself what fool packs a Santa hat in his shorts in the hope of having the opportunity to use it during a match?
This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment celebration. It was a preconceived yellow card offence by an otherwise talented player.
I’m sure van’t Schip wouldn’t let a player on the park if he knew the player deliberately intended to pick up a yellow card.
Rutger Worm deserves equal condemnation for nonchalantly slotting the ball into the net well after the referee had whistled for offside. It wasn’t a continuous action of shooting as the referee blew.
It was an unnecessary action well after the play had been pulled up and the referee had no option but to book him for kicking the ball away and time-wasting.
That neither of these players picked up a second yellow, and thus a send-off, was fortunate for the team.
What is forgotten in the moment is that the accumulation of sufficient yellow cards could result in an automatic one match suspension later in the season.
Will Germano be thinking of his Santa hat, or Worm thinking of a pointless shot on goal, if they happen to earn a ”legitimate” yellow later in the season that takes them over the accumulated limit and earns them a suspension?
And then there’s Pavlovic for Wellington Phoenix. Coming on in the 76th minute, he managed to get sent off with a straight red for a needless chop from behind on Steve Pantelidis in the 94th minute.
It wasn’t a tackle. It was a pointless ankle tap from behind, with no hope of taking the ball which was meters away from the point of contact.
That the foul occurred deep in Perth’s defence when there was no threat on the Wellington goal just adds to the stupidity of Pavlovic’s action.
Ricky Herbert has seen more than his share of foolhardy yellow and red cards this season and I’m sure he’ll be livid with Pavlovic for his indiscretion.
Haliti from the Jets is another serial offender of the senseless yellow as he strips his shirt off for every goal scored. What is that about?
There are plenty of ways to celebrate a goal without picking up a yellow card and it’s time he learnt one or two.
His teammates must pray that he doesn’t score again in the same match and automatically whip off his shirt to earn a second yellow.
Of course there are occasions when yellow cards occur during a match for a foul in normal play, be it for a mistimed tackle or a ‘professional’ foul.
The likes of Jacob Burns from Perth or Leigh Broxham from Victory always extract a price for the yellow cards they receive as they deliver a bruised shin or sore ankle and put the opposition players on notice that they are around.
A professional foul is also a deliberate transgression of the rules which will earn a yellow but it is usually executed to save the team from conceding a goal.
Nothing can excuse a player who takes the field knowing he will receive a yellow card for carrying a prop, or one who wastes time when the game is not in the balance and there is no advantage to be gained, or one who twirls a shirt overhead in senseless celebration knowing a yellow will follow.
On these occasions, as the referee reaches into his pocket, the manager and many spectators are left to shake their heads in wonder at the behaviour of those players who are not playing for the team.
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