Have we finally reached Peak A-League? Epic fail as wrong team go top after ALM fail to read own rules

I'm not sure my initial response was posted because I was interrupted. Answer me this, how can you bring decision making down to text on a page. Any decent referee brings a degree of assessment to the game. To surgically remove all consideration of intent in a situation is not an improvement but a degradation for football. A visiting foreigner once asked me if the A-League refs knew anything about the game? His perception was that they'd read the rule book and were applying it verbatim. If you're clocked by the Police at 110.5 km per hour, and they have that degree of accuracy, would you be pleased if you got a speeding fine? Have a look a look a K-League, J-League and European refs. The best refs are hardly noticed. These clowns have to start to A. Employ some cerebral horsepower and B. Understand that 10,000 people don't purchase a ticket to watch the ref for two hours. The ref should not be the centre of attention. Ali Reza Faghani is the standard the other jokers should be aspiring to. Have you noticed Kurt Ams has disappeared. The man was walking controversy. I reckon just getting out of bed and Ams was causing controversy. It's going to take time an education process and personal drive on behalf of the refs and at the moment I am not seeing much improvement

Next time VAR issues a dodgy decision against Victory or doesn't work at all in a GF, I'll be hitting you up for an explanation.

The best referred are those that are rarely seen. Ali Reza leaves the rest of those pretenders for dead. Take a look at RPL refs, J-League refs, K-League refs. There's no comparison possible. Firstly the jokers here need to understand that 10, 000 people don't pay to come. and see the ref. They're not the centre of attention. Secondly, they need a dictionary. This will assist them in learning to spell intent and understanding what it means. The perfect example was last night's send off. It might have been a yellow at best. It was a fifty city challenge, the players collided shoulder to shoulder. It's a bit like escalation of force. You assess the situation and look for alternative solutions. You don't just pull the trigger because it's laid down in black and white. Not everything is black and white. Take the penality the ref awarded to Melbourne again st Newcastle. I don't care which team it was the player was pushed in the back. It's a natural reaction to put your hands out to break your fall. Just because the Melbourne player targeted Newcastle player's hands doesn't make it a penalty. Was there intent by the player pushed?. These idiots don't use their brains.

I stopped reading that paper once it became (yet another) mouthpiece for the conservative party when it sold out to Channel nine. Peter Costello as the head of Nine "entertainment". What did you expect?

Zero coverage of the A-league in this paper and they have space for this rubbish.

That's a pretty poor take to see those in the same profession as you, who (presumably) progressed further than you, as "A#*eclowns that masquerade as referees". You know it's thankless, and that the sporting public focus on a few subjective 'mistakes' rather than the countless correct calls you would make over 90 minutes.

It does not cost $800 to play at grass roots level as the article suggests. It's around $300. How they can get that so wrong is just out and out lazy reporting.

Off subject but if you haven’t already read this it might at least cheer you up a bit. https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/one-code-to-rule-them-why-soccer-may-be-the-last-survivor-in-world-footy-20231231-p5eudj.html

I get it. Fans complain about their sports and the way it's run etc. But league and AFL fans still go to games. I know it's because if they don't watch their leagues they have nothing else. So they watch. Football fans have so many alternatives it's easy to complain and stop supporting the local league. But is that what we want?

Waz I was once told by a very respected former uniformed colleague that "you should never be afraid to fight for what is right, you will always walk away with integrity and if you engage in the fight, then fight for all you are worth". I think for him that had a far more literal meaning, but for me it has so much more meaning. Respect mate!!

ahahahahaa, good call Chris, it's Christmas/New Year holidays :stoked: , I was just having a little fun

I was a referee for a number of years and if you can stand and look me straight in the eye and say our referees are as good as those in Japan, Korea or Europe, I will be convinced you should be a politician

Exactly right Waz. These bozos continue to damage the Aleague brand with not only poor decisions but poor processes and poor communications. All this does is give more ammunition to Aleague haters and all for what? For something that didn't need fixing. Meanwhile, they continue to ignore and not address the real issues affecting the Aleagues e.g. the lack of visibility of the aleague in the mainstream media, no plan for clubs to acquire their own purpose built stadia.....the list goes on.

Vince on Twitter: “ The A-League is beginning to resemble the NSL with all these little changes — finals system structure has changed multiple times, season length, grand final hosting rights, now this. Just fkn leave it alone. Speaks to insecurity. Stop fiddling around”

Chris1 Feel free to complain about me complaining about all the issues I see with the APL. If I’m in isolation, or even in a minority, then you might reasonably conclude the problem is me …. but if you find I’m not alone then maybe worry about the cause of my complaints, not the fact I’m complaining?

Completely with Waz on this. We can’t just have blind loyalty to the APL when realistically they have proven that their decisions are often suspect. People need to be holding the APL to account, be it some jokester on Twitter discovering the ladder is incorrect or a passionate football fan on a football forum. Question remains – why did we need to change it???? Esp in Aus – where sports fans want goals all the time – surely you would prioritise GD over Wins. That’s the way it is everywhere, it’s the way people understand football, surely. It smacks of a complete lack of stakeholder engagement – and I thought THAT was supposed to the positive out of the GF debacle. Could have been an absolute legal & financial mess at the end of the season (imagine the backlash from betting agencies as well? Not that I care about them). That Wellington fan is owed a massive thanks, to be honest.

Very well said Waz

The GF decision was reversed yes and now you have something new to complain about. Do you actually go to Roar games or have you given up on attending games?

Lol - the media just love to be sensational you know that. Hey it even got a mention in The Guardian which is amazing! There are things that could be done better in every sport and in every country. But you are a constant negative and you love to stick the boot in on just about every aspect of the game. Some people are like that. I like to concentrate on the positives.

It’s hard to know exactly what APL were thinking this change would mean given their explanation - but the net result is victory have scored more goals than Wellington and have just been replaced at the top. So the change doesn’t necessarily reward attacking or entertaining football with all wins, be they 1-0 or 8-1, now carrying the same weight.