Difficulty managing Open Age games

[Fin]

Hey up lads,
As the title suggests, some of my open age games begin to disastrously get out of hand and I dont understand how to bring them back under control. It tends to happen after some form of decision in which it affects the opposing team a lot, for example a disallowed goal. They tend to drop all respect and dont listen when I tell them things so it ends up with me carding them which does nothing for their attitude towards me and the game. Is this my issue not controlling the game better or should I be more firm with the cards and more confident in myself and my decisions?

 

[ChasObserverRefDeveloper]

Hey up lads,
As the title suggests, some of my open age games begin to disastrously get out of hand and I dont understand how to bring them back under control. It tends to happen after some form of decision in which it affects the opposing team a lot, for example a disallowed goal. They tend to drop all respect and dont listen when I tell them things so it ends up with me carding them which does nothing for their attitude towards me and the game. Is this my issue not controlling the game better or should I be more firm with the cards and more confident in myself and my decisions?

If you are in England, you have the Sin Bin option for dissent.
As soon as it seems the players are changing their attitude go public with clear "Any more, you will be off for 10 minutes . . ."
Do it early, confidently, and tell the captain his team will be down to 9 or 10 players if it continues.

 

[OldNavyRef]

Hey up lads,
As the title suggests, some of my open age games begin to disastrously get out of hand and I dont understand how to bring them back under control. It tends to happen after some form of decision in which it affects the opposing team a lot, for example a disallowed goal. They tend to drop all respect and dont listen when I tell them things so it ends up with me carding them which does nothing for their attitude towards me and the game. Is this my issue not controlling the game better or should I be more firm with the cards and more confident in myself and my decisions?

Hi Fin, massive struggle I am having right now.
I have spoken with other refs in the league about it, lads that have been doing it for many years. What they are saying is, some teams just have a certain play style, and some of those play styles is make the game as difficult as possible for the referee.
So if that is the case, you need to do what Chas said above. Just let them know dissent is met with Sin Bin. 1st time if possible.

 

[RefRyanAus]

It is often the case that game control is lost progressively rather than as a consequence of one incident. Even when we attribute blame to a particular incident there is normally a back story. OA games can be difficult and there is often a heard mentality to pressure and undermine referees to the advantage of a team. This can be subtle at first but designed to erode your confidence over 90 minutes. In my experience, consistency and good communication are your friend. I like to keep games on a tight leash until such time as there is strong evidence that a more liberal approach can be adopted. Don’t let early fouls go and don’t let dissent fester. Be confident, occupy the space, be clear about your instructions / decision where that is required. Visualise how you want the game to play out and think about where you want to be and how you want to intervene when those key decisions are required. I have found all these things help and most teams now know what to expect from me as a result. I am always up for a bit of friendly banter… but time and place. There will always be bad games and difficult teams but the better I get at managing myself the more successful I seem to be. If things do go pear shape think about how you can take time out of the game to re-group and calm the farm. Sometimes I will delay restarts or take an unnecessary consult with an AR just to cool the temperature. Half time is a good opportunity to re-evaluate too. Whilst we all like a level 90 minutes it is perfectly OK to change your approach if it gives you more control. Don’t worry too much. We all tend to have these experiences from time to time.

 

[santa sangria]

What he said! Start assertive. Be clear, loud and timely from the start with decisions and non decisions. Don’t ignore the first murmours of dissent. Act immediately. Shut it down. Build your confidence and your character.

 

[OnlyUseMeWhistle]

Definitely echo above, but would also add that some clubs you cannot win. They will give you **** from minute 1 or the second something doesn't go their way. And they won't care about sin bins. Very much a case of forget and move on with those games

 

[Tim Punter]

I had an excellent mentor come and observed me as a level 6 ref on Sunday. He told me at half-time to use my voice more, and cut out a lot of the hand signals, like waving them for a non-penalty. I said, I like this sort of thing as Anthony Taylor does it, and I don't use my voice all the time as Michael Oliver seems quietly confident. He said that the refs in the Premier League are playing to a different audience, such as TV, and reffing open-age is completely different. He also said I needed to slow the game down, by telling players to wait until I was in position before whistling for free kicks to be taken.
In the second half, I took on board his feedback and it made a massive difference with the player and match control. The game was a lot slower, and felt in more control of what was going on. So just a small thing of 'wait for the whistle' in a loud voice made a big difference, alongside a lot more 'advantage' 'no-foul' shouts rather than just hand signal, which I was doing before.

 

[RyantheRef]

I like to keep games on a tight leash until such time as there is strong evidence that a more liberal approach can be adopted.

the better I get at managing myself the more successful I seem to be.

Whilst we all like a level 90 minutes it is perfectly OK to change your approach if it gives you more control.

@RefRyanAus has given you a masterclass from which I have selected 3 quotes above. These are perfectly instructive and, I think, can help you tremendously maintain control.

In general, I use the following:

First ten minutes are strictly controlled. Advantages must be very clear and obvious for me to give them, otherwise it's a free kick. The first foul of the game, I "go big" by running to the spot, big whistle, big signal, and usually some form of verbal communication to the one who fouled. It's not for him, necessarily, so much as it is for everyone else to know that I'm here and in control of this game. After the ten minutes has elapsed, then I will allow play to continue, and I won't call every little foul I see if and only if the players are giving me evidence that they will remain calm.

Five minutes before half time, and five minutes after half time, I resume my strict control as above. Advantages are few and far between and smaller fouls are being called.

The last ten minutes of the game is the same.

In addition to this, after major flash points like goals, heavy challenges, red cards and even some yellow cards, I will reclaim control of the game as outlined above.

This may sound like it's going to create problems and make you look a bit of a jobsworth; but if you use your personality and stick to it, your game management will improve.

As a side note, game management and man management are separate considerations that will both need to be used. For game management, do as I have outlined above and make sure that when you feel the temperature of the game creep up, you increase your presence. For man management, look for a few key people on each team: the best player and the "character." With the best player, I like to (a) compliment him early on a good play so he knows that I'm watching and that I understand the game; with the "character" I like to get into his ear early with a joke or some banter and then take some from him and laugh at it so he knows that I'm a good'un. Once you have these two players, who are usually leaders whether they have the armband or not, on your side then the rest of the team will fall in line and this will help your overall game management really well.

One final thought is that protecting the best players on both teams by calling the early fouls against them will signal to the teams that you're in control and that you understand the teams and their play styles. This goes a long way toward creating good will for further down the line.

Think of game management like a bank account. If you've never seen a team, you don't start with nothing, but you don't start with much. Throughout the first ten minutes, you want to fill the account up as much as possible so that when the time comes for a big, match-impacting decision you have the funds to "afford it." You'll be surprised by how accepting players can be of a massive KMI going against them if they trust you to make the right decision. There may be a short, emotional outburst but there will be nothing lingering to carry on.

 

[Martiju]

One final thought is that protecting the best players on both teams by calling the early fouls against them will signal to the teams that you're in control and that you understand the teams and their play styles. This goes a long way toward creating good will for further down the line.

Lots of good advice in this thread - but this is a key one for me. In reality players can object to your decisions all they like, but if it's clear you are aware of - and concerned for - player safety, that is normally recognised as a positive.