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Oh, to be an A-League referee. The only occupation in football more despised on Sunday was ‘Manchester United manager’.
Ben Williams had an utter shocker during Melbourne Heart’s draw with Wellington Phoenix. The biggest talking points – Ben Sigmund’s very questionable send off and Patrick Kisnorbo’s blatant handball in the box to name just two – all involved one of the A-League’s more experienced referees.
The incidents had Phoenix boss Ernie Merrick quite riled following the match, and rightly so.
Merrick had a stab not only at Williams but the standard of refereeing in the league – something that seems to be brought into the spotlight at least once a week.
The Scotland-born gaffer questioned the work of the match review panel, using the precedents of his own players Reece Caira and Kenny Cunningham, who have suffered facial injuries (Caira’s ruling him out for the season), without their opponents being punished.
Merrick suggests retrospective action is something that needs to be utilised more and it’s hard to argue against such a proposal.
Presently, the MRP reviews all disciplinary matters that have arisen from a match, while appearing to shun any violation the referee seemingly ‘dealt with’ during the match, even if they made the wrong decision.
Case in point: Adam d’Apuzzo’s apparent elbow on Fabio Ferreira on Saturday night, which left the Adelaide camp calling for the left back to receive his marching orders for a second yellow card offence.
Perhaps Strebre Delovski was a bit more lenient on d’Apuzzo considering he was already on a yellow card, but it definitely wouldn’t have hurt to have a second pair of eyes casting judgement over the challenge on Monday.
If a player committed an offence that was overlooked, charging them retrospectively would only be just, no?
While referees have the displeasure of being leathered for every bad call and receiving little, if any, praise for the good ones, it often seems they are untouchable and rarely willing to accept when they are in the wrong.
Earlier in the season, FFA referees director Ben Wilson was prompted to explain a number of controversial decisions made by A-League referees which dogged Round 4.
Wilson accepted there were a number of misjudged calls from the whistle blowers, while also pointing out why some other contentious rulings were the right ones.
It was a rare move, but a successful one, focusing on the human element of referees and partly accepting the blame.
Although Wilson’s words couldn’t change the outcome of the affected matches, it was comforting to know the league had identified obvious flaws.
It makes you wonder why the ploy couldn’t be used to review every round of the A-League. If nothing else, it would help blow away some of the smoke that appears to permanently hang over A-League refs.
There were attempts prior to the start of this season to introduce officials behind the goals for A-League matches, as has been trialled by UEFA across Europe.
It was deemed to be unnecessary at the time, but those extra sets of eyes could have come in handy on a number of occasions this year – Thomas Broich would agree.
Goalkeeping referees may not be the ultimate answer but it’s clear officials need some sort of assistance. It feels like we are light years behind the world’s top leagues when it comes to officiating, aided by the fact our refs are employed on a part-time basis and aren’t essentially living and breathing football.
Goal-line technology is a no-brainer when the funds are made available to do so, as is a video referee. There would be more limitations to a video ref than there are in the NRL and Super Rugby, but having a big brother figure in the centre official’s ear would significantly aid with live decision making.
Improving the standard of refereeing in Australia is a two way street – officials must become more accountability for their wrongdoings and they need every form of support to minimise the errors.
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