Victory claim late-burning derby duel

Playing the ball forward has absolutely no relevance to the offside law, so you may want to update your knowledge on this subject.

The minute the attacking player plays the ball forward, the decision should be given that the opposing player, Berisha is offside and the goal disallowed. That is the law. Full stop.

"A player in an offside position at the moment the ball is played is only penalised on becoming involved in active play by-: * challenging an opponent for the ball or * clearly attempting to play a ball which is close to him when his action impacts on an opponent or * making an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball or....... Although all of the above may or do apply in this particular case, its all just a bit hard to determine when one takes into account how many 'air swings' Berisha does successfully demonstrates in front of goal these days, lol.

What specific law or regulation would Berisha have breached by throwing a ball at a goalkeeper?

I totally agree with you. However, what ban for Berisha for throwing ball at goalkeeper after goal had been scored. Total unprofessionalism & provocation.

AZ - The match report will show what the red card offence was. It is difficult to see it being anything other than an R6 offence, insulting languge or gestures and surely it was directed at Mr Beath. If that is the case then FFA rdisciplinary code says it shall attract the mandatory one match plus two and it could be more. Our local district usually starts at 6 weeks for being abusive to a match official. It should be a fun week with the alleged racist call made against Berisha as well. Not sure what else yesterday's game could have offered up? Oh yes, how come the coaches didn't end up in a brawl or were we saved by the fact that MV nicked the points?

100% correct. Very well said. Will there be a further look at what Tim Cahill might have said? Does the MRP look at it?

Glad to see the club have issued a statement, but really poor that they claim ignorance. Bouzanis knew exactly what he was saying. He still needs to be banned for at least the minimum 5 matches and do some education course. There is no place for racism on the sporting field.

"berisha without a doubt, was the reason Rose slide after the ball," Who is Rose? Did you even watch the match last night?

I could have sworn I posted a piece earlier this norning but no sign of it. There are enough comments about offside on here to last until the next controversy so I will leave it alone. That and foul play create so many talking points, why would MVB be suggesting we get rid of offside? Personally I enjoyed the game, the atmosphere and the passion of the players and fans but my real admiration this time around goes to Chris Beath. I realise fans won't like the number of yellow cards and the ensuing misconduct charges but I don't see he had much choice. By the end he could have totally lost the plot. In a district grass roots game, many referees would have abandoned the game and walked away but he was still administering the lotg, making City twice take a free kick from the right spot eventually. I have no idea what TC said but I imagine it was pretty unpleasant if it warranted a straight red. Mr Beath must have felt so angry and frustrated at tbe evening's events but he handled it extremely cooly. I would love to have seen him interviewed after the game...not a hostile interview, I just would love some narrative from a different perspective.

and jakobsen got an injury

berisha without a doubt, was the reason Rose slide after the ball, berisha effected play, and it says clearly in the Fifa laws if a player effects play, while being offside, the offside is to stand. the commentators unbelievably said "berisha cant be offside because he didnt touch the ball"

lawrence made many saves, and multiple times the ball went slightly wide of the net. (including a well worked goal, that was slightly off-side) and with all due respect, city fans are not the problem. we dont except mediocrity, the coaching stuff/management does. hopefully next year we bring in a manager with a distinctly new playing style.

This problem is caused by 'grey' rules. So I did also say "If there is still a doubt then benefit of doubt goes to attacking team" . That's how it should work. I also quoted a more obvious scenario about Roar vs SFC match.

I'd love to know what Cahill said. It must have been horrific to be sent off with a straight red, hardly the stuff you'd want to be doing to establish your "Legacy".

Nemesis is right, its up to the referee to interpret the rules as they are given. If there are grey areas in the rules, its not the referees fault but the rules themselves that need changing. Its not an easy call to make, the ref took consultation and made a decision. Either way he would have upset the fans. The simplest thing would be for Muscat to not put himself in that defensive position. Pure awful defending.

@Waz you have described exactly how all rules, regulations & laws are administered. Nothing to see here. I've moved on. We'll have the same controversy again. And I'll move on again.

Nemesis I think it's you that clearly doesn't understand how it works - the referee has a certain amount of latitude in applying laws, and in each game and will seek to apply the laws consistently while applying a level of common sense to facilitate the game to use the modern jargon. Then you have individual referees (humans not machines) who have to interpret each incident as they see it. And it only matters how they see it not everyone else. Roll on top of all that human error and you can see why decisions vary from game to game. The best example I can give is when you see a player get a yellow for a foul tackle and later another player commits the same/similar tackle but doesnt get a yellow. Kindergarten rules would mandate everyone gets a yellow from the first card issued but grown up rules give the referee freedom to use his judgement. Issuing the first yellow may have achieved a desired result (eg gaining discipline from players) and do no further cards become nevesssty. In the case of these two offsides, the city player moving across the goalkeeper is not really interfering with play. Berisha, probably is. But again it's a refs call

Berisha seemed to be having an ongoing jostle with several City players, not least his former Roar teammates Franjic and Brattan. Who was baiting who in this drama?

Also you gotta love football right? Nothing happens for 60mins then enough happens in 30mins to give us enough to talk about for days. Great stuff.