higdawgy
Member
Yesterday refereed a semi-final game 1st (red) vs 2nd (blue) AA men. (In Australia, the winner goes through to Grand Final, the loser to the Preliminary Final).
80th minute, Red is winning 1 nil.
The blue goalkeeper comes out to the edge of the penalty area to collect the ball, is off balance, takes a step and ends up outside their penalty area before dropping the ball.
Handball offence, no attacking players nearby so it wasn't a DOGSO etc.
Defenders argue a little, nothing bad, I state that "no, I had a good view of it and the ball ended up about a foot outside the line still in his hands".
They are disappointed but start moving back slowly.
The attacker slowly jogs up and collects the ball, places it on the spot and asks if we are good to go, I say yep and he passes it into the open goal as the keeper hadn't bothered getting ready yet.
It's a goal.
I explain to the defenders that they need to get ready and I don't have to stop the game. (I know that there are people who think that you should stop every attacking free-kick and wait for the defence to be ready before you whistle but you are wrong and penalising the attacking team who wants to restart quickly).
The keeper then follows the goalscorer back to halfway, "that's a dog act, that's ****ing bullshit, you're a dog" etc. He has to be restrained by one of his teammates from getting closer to the attacker, I warn him to stop and move away. He doesn't and I show him a yellow card when he stops and heads back to the goal area.
The match kicks off and a couple of minutes later we are back down that end, free-kick to red near the area and someone alerts me that he is going off again, same stuff being said but a bit more aggressive. I show him a second yellow and then a red.
As he departs the field he threatens the red player "wait till I see you after the game".
We are waiting for blue to organise a replacement keeper when someone gets my attention to something behind the benches, the keeper that was sent off is now behind the red bench attempting to fight about ten people. Eventually, the scuffle dies down and he eventually goes back to his area and collects his gear.
I talk with my assistant on that side and he left the field and went to collect his things then decided to walk behind the benches before attempting to headbutt someone from the other club.
While the fight was going on I considered abandoning the match, but the players on the field, including his own team were pissed off at what he had done and some of them were pretty ashamed of it.
After talking to both coaches and captains we restarted the match and ended up with about 9 minutes of injury time.
Considerations for me here are about the quick free kick. But this wasn't a super fast rushed one while players were speaking to me, they just didn't start moving back and the keeper had his back turned. It was very naive play and I don't think calling it back or making the red player wait would have been fair.
I also considered whether I should have sent him off for the first incident as the language used was offensive and insulting, the only reason I didn't was that the red player was saying to me, it's fine I understand why he is upset which made me change my mind.
I don't think that a red for the first incident would have changed anything else that happened.
It was disappointing that it happened as the match had been very good up until that point.
Blue was awarded a penalty that was saved, numerous good saves from both keepers and only 1 goal in the game. It should have ended as a game that both teams could be proud of.
After the match, my assistants and I had multiple people from both sides saying that they thought we had done a great job with the game. We also had supporters from both sides say the same thing on the way back to our cars. Which was quite comforting as you don't normally get that sort of feedback when you have an incident like that.
If anyone remembers, this is also the keeper/coach that confronted me after a match earlier in the year and threatened me on the way back to the carpark after a game.
80th minute, Red is winning 1 nil.
The blue goalkeeper comes out to the edge of the penalty area to collect the ball, is off balance, takes a step and ends up outside their penalty area before dropping the ball.
Handball offence, no attacking players nearby so it wasn't a DOGSO etc.
Defenders argue a little, nothing bad, I state that "no, I had a good view of it and the ball ended up about a foot outside the line still in his hands".
They are disappointed but start moving back slowly.
The attacker slowly jogs up and collects the ball, places it on the spot and asks if we are good to go, I say yep and he passes it into the open goal as the keeper hadn't bothered getting ready yet.
It's a goal.
I explain to the defenders that they need to get ready and I don't have to stop the game. (I know that there are people who think that you should stop every attacking free-kick and wait for the defence to be ready before you whistle but you are wrong and penalising the attacking team who wants to restart quickly).
The keeper then follows the goalscorer back to halfway, "that's a dog act, that's ****ing bullshit, you're a dog" etc. He has to be restrained by one of his teammates from getting closer to the attacker, I warn him to stop and move away. He doesn't and I show him a yellow card when he stops and heads back to the goal area.
The match kicks off and a couple of minutes later we are back down that end, free-kick to red near the area and someone alerts me that he is going off again, same stuff being said but a bit more aggressive. I show him a second yellow and then a red.
As he departs the field he threatens the red player "wait till I see you after the game".
We are waiting for blue to organise a replacement keeper when someone gets my attention to something behind the benches, the keeper that was sent off is now behind the red bench attempting to fight about ten people. Eventually, the scuffle dies down and he eventually goes back to his area and collects his gear.
I talk with my assistant on that side and he left the field and went to collect his things then decided to walk behind the benches before attempting to headbutt someone from the other club.
While the fight was going on I considered abandoning the match, but the players on the field, including his own team were pissed off at what he had done and some of them were pretty ashamed of it.
After talking to both coaches and captains we restarted the match and ended up with about 9 minutes of injury time.
Considerations for me here are about the quick free kick. But this wasn't a super fast rushed one while players were speaking to me, they just didn't start moving back and the keeper had his back turned. It was very naive play and I don't think calling it back or making the red player wait would have been fair.
I also considered whether I should have sent him off for the first incident as the language used was offensive and insulting, the only reason I didn't was that the red player was saying to me, it's fine I understand why he is upset which made me change my mind.
I don't think that a red for the first incident would have changed anything else that happened.
It was disappointing that it happened as the match had been very good up until that point.
Blue was awarded a penalty that was saved, numerous good saves from both keepers and only 1 goal in the game. It should have ended as a game that both teams could be proud of.
After the match, my assistants and I had multiple people from both sides saying that they thought we had done a great job with the game. We also had supporters from both sides say the same thing on the way back to our cars. Which was quite comforting as you don't normally get that sort of feedback when you have an incident like that.
If anyone remembers, this is also the keeper/coach that confronted me after a match earlier in the year and threatened me on the way back to the carpark after a game.
storm. 
️
