• Join ccmfans.net

    ccmfans.net is the Central Coast Mariners fan community, and was formed in 2004, so basically the beginning of time for the Mariners. Things have changed a lot over the years, but one thing has remained constant and that is our love of the Mariners. People come and go, some like to post a lot and others just like to read. It's up to you how you participate in the community!

    If you want to get rid of this message, simply click on Join Now or head over to https://www.ccmfans.net/community/register/ to join the community! It only takes a few minutes, and joining will let you post your thoughts and opinions on all things Mariners, Football, and whatever else pops into your mind. If posting is not your thing, you can interact in other ways, including voting on polls, and unlock options only available to community members.

    ccmfans.net is not only for Mariners fans either. Most of us are bonded by our support for the Mariners, but if you are a fan of another club (except the Scum, come on, we need some standards), feel free to join and get into some banter.

CCM Fan Demography

Allreet?

Well-Known Member
And there were we naive Avocans, believing every ref (except Merrington and that other c**t with the hat and sunglasses and protuding adam's apple) meant well.

We could've wined and dined Larry, but instead we tried to play good football.

That's you lot telt!
 

Wombat

Well-Known Member
That's him.

Another time (also against Kanwal, as it happens) we had a bloke knocked over in the box - absolute stone waller.

Larry blew his whistle and walked purposefully towards the box, but when he got there, he took a left hander - walked off the pitch - walked up and down muttering to himself for god knows how long.

Both teams are watching him bemused, and the Kanwal boys started to hope it might not be given.

After (I kid you not) a good two minutes of this behaviour he suddenly explodes into action and points dramatically at the spot.

It was 100% the right decision but 100% the wrong way to give it. It was as though he'd invented his own personal VAR about 6 years early.

Larry was a shocker but what about Merritngton??? The tall grey haired idiot. Has to be the worst ref and most blatant cheat.
 

Allreet?

Well-Known Member
Wasn't his name Merrington? We used to call him The Mantis. I've got some doozy stories about him.

Obviously, sorry to hear about anyone's loss, but he was easily the most unpleasant person I've encountered in football - ever.

In fact I seem to remember that a certain cheating referee in a certain famous novel written by a Central Coast resident was called Robert Mantiss.
 

Allreet?

Well-Known Member
I'm aware how far this is straying from the original purpose of the thread, but we seem to be talking about CCFA referees, so here is the best of my Merrington (The Mantis) stories (there are some other beauties)...

It was game one of the season - everything was bright and fresh and full of hope. The mighty O35 Avoca Gummysharks were playing Ourimbah and five minutes in, we had two players beat the offside trap on half way and descend on the goal. I remember their entire defence give up and just watch in despair. One of our chaps draws the keeper to the right of the goal, then cuts it back for the simplest of tap ins.

The Mantis blows his whistle, but not for a goal (there was no linesman). I was standing right next to him in the centre circle and said, how on Earth can that be offside?

"You have to have two players between you and the goal when the ball is passed, so it's offside," said the Mantis.

"But he passed it backwards," I said. "The rule only applies when you pass forwards."

It was so obvious that the ball had been passed backwards but, never mind, play on.

So a few minutes later, we win an indirect right on the six yard box (from a passback). The wall is about three metres away, but they've got to be on the goal line. "Ten yards!" I shouted to them (as you do). Immediately the Mantis shows me a yellow card and says: "Let me referee the game!"

I made some indeterminate noise of resignation, and he showed me another card.

"That's for dissent," he said and pulled out the red. (It was never far from his grasp.)

In that instant the red mist descended. I'm a lawyer and a pacifist but in that moment I just wanted to kick f**k out of him.

"This is not about 22 blokes having a football match, is it!" I shouted. "It's all about you strutting about like Hitler and ruining it for everyone!"

There was a bit more shouting and I had to be dragged off the pitch by team mates (I was the captain also). Mind you, I knew of his reputation and even at the extremity of my fury I was careful not to swear at him. But in his match report, I had sworn long and fruitily at him, and the judiciary gave me ten weeks.

Naturally, I appealed, and took a couple of witnesses along. I was so looking forward to cross examining the Mantis (especially on the swearing issue - lying bastard). I had it all planned out and was really looking forward to him having to say the words he so famously detested - but the ratbag never showed up.

The judiciary believed me, but they had to give me something, so they reduced the ban to three matches - for which I was grateful - and then we sat around (Including the judiciary) drinking beers and telling Mantis stories for half an hour.

The sequel to the story... four matches later when I made my return, guess who the ref was? He was obviously very pissed off to learn about my penalty reduction so he had another go. I didn't get there until half time, and when I came on, we had an immediate attack down the right. The ball was cut back from the goal line and I ran onto it and smashed it into the top corner.

The whistle blew, and the Mantis walks up to me and holds up a yellow card.

"That's for constant offside," he said.

I'm pretty sure there's no such rule, but (a) I was miles onside; and (b) it was my first involvement in teh game, so how could I have been constantly offside? Clearly, he was trying to get me to blow up again, but this time I remained calm, just ran back to halfway having a quiet chuckle.

Tune in next week to hear about the time the Mantis goaded one of our under 16s and then red carded him inside the shed before the game.
 
Last edited:

BaysideMariner

Well-Known Member
Suburb: Tumbi Umbi

Football club: The Entrance Bateau Bay

Prematch drinks: Leagues club

Usual spot in the stadium: Half way Next to the tunnel

Favourite ever Mariner: Hutch

Favourite current Mariners (max three): Nisbet, Urena, Miller

Most hated opponent: SFC

Self assessed good bloke rating out of ten: Gumprecht 10/10
 
Last edited:

Wombat

Well-Known Member
I'm aware how far this is straying from the original purpose of the thread, but we seem to be talking about CCFA referees, so here is the best of my Merrington (The Mantis) stories (there are some other beauties)...

It was game one of the season - everything was bright and fresh and full of hope. The mighty O35 Avoca Gummysharks were playing Ourimbah and five minutes in, we had two players beat the offside trap on half way and descend on the goal. I remember their entire defence give up and just watch in despair. One of our chaps draws the keeper to the right of the goal, then cuts it back for the simplest of tap ins.

The Mantis blows his whistle, but not for a goal (there was no linesman). I was standing right next to him in the centre circle and said, how on Earth can that be offside?

"You have to have two players between you and the goal when the ball is passed, so it's offside," said the Mantis.

"But he passed it backwards," I said. "The rule only applies when you pass forwards."

It was so obvious that the ball had been passed backwards but, never mind, play on.

So a few minutes later, we win an indirect right on the six yard box (from a passback). The wall is about three metres away, but they've got to be on the goal line. "Ten yards!" I shouted to them (as you do). Immediately the Mantis shows me a yellow card and says: "Let me referee the game!"

I made some indeterminate noise of resignation, and he showed me another card.

"That's for dissent," he said and pulled out the red. (It was never far from his grasp.)

In that instant the red mist descended. I'm a lawyer and a pacifist but in that moment I just wanted to kick f**k out of him.

"This is not about 22 blokes having a football match, is it!" I shouted. "It's all about you strutting about like Hitler and ruining it for everyone!"

There was a bit more shouting and I had to be dragged off the pitch by team mates (I was the captain also). Mind you, I knew of his reputation and even at the extremity of my fury I was careful not to swear at him. But in his match report, I had sworn long and fruitily at him, and the judiciary gave me ten weeks.

Naturally, I appealed, and took a couple of witnesses along. I was so looking forward to cross examining the Mantis (especially on the swearing issue - lying bastard). I had it all planned out and was really looking forward to him having to say the words he so famously detested - but the ratbag never showed up.

The judiciary believed me, but they had to give me something, so they reduced the ban to three matches - for which I was grateful - and then we sat around (Including the judiciary) drinking beers and telling Mantis stories for half an hour.

The sequel to the story... four matches later when I made my return, guess who the ref was? He was obviously very pissed off to learn about my penalty reduction so he had another go. I didn't get there until half time, and when I came on, we had an immediate attack down the right. The ball was cut back from the goal line and I ran onto it and smashed it into the top corner.

The whistle blew, and the Mantis walks up to me and holds up a yellow card.

"That's for constant offside," he said.

I'm pretty sure there's no such rule, but (a) I was miles onside; and (b) it was my first involvement in teh game, so how could I have been constantly offside? Clearly, he was trying to get me to blow up again, but this time I remained calm, just ran back to halfway having a quiet chuckle.

Tune in next week to hear about the time the Mantis goaded one of our under 16s and then red carded him inside the shed before the game.
Great story Allreet.

One time at Kariong we were playing Gosford (along with any East gosso teams....they can do no wrong in Merrington's eyes).

We fancied a win coming into the game but we only had 10 men at kick off. Number 11 turns up after 5 mins and gets involved straight away.....sadly for us it's a ball and all tackle and he gets a straight red for his 1st involvement. Seeing as Mantis is the Ref I'm not too happy and start yapping, one of my team mates says to me......."its a Red Jim, did you see how long he was up in the air?"....yeah fair enough.

We score after 20 mins and its 1.0 against the odds.

Merrington does everything to help the Reds but they are ordinary.......but in the 89th Min there is a Merrington moment.

One Gosso gronk.....forearm tatts (before it was trendy) and no teeth has a small set too with one of our players. He ends up headbutting my mate. I grab his neck and use his body weight to drop him on the floor....subtle but effective. Mantis gives a free kick on the edge of the box against me. Our bloke that kopped the head butt is not happy about the obvious reffing discrepancy and swears a bit.....RED CARD. Down to 9 men and we have to defend the free kick with 90 secs on the clock.
They try and score but fail. The Gosford Gronk smashes me in the chest as he runs past in retaliation.
Red mist comes and I grab him and pull him onto an Onk Bak elbow (50% power but still totally out of order). Straight red and we are down to 8 men.
Somehow we survive the next min or two and win with 8 men.

I felt bad about my behaviour and wanted to go into the Gosford shed and apologise but some team mates wouldn't let me.

Safe to say Merrington was worse than ever whenever Kariong had to suffer him that year.
 
Last edited:

Allreet?

Well-Known Member
. i thought he may just be adding another dimension to the good bloke rating - for example Gumpy is a 10, Reddy ... well lets just say, the other end of the scale
Aah I get you, so you mean something like:

10 - Hutcho, Goomps, Birraz, Niz, Simon
9 - pretty much all other Mariners not rated 10
8
7
6
5 - players we admire from other clubs
4
3
2 - players we dislke from other clubs
1 - Reddy, Muscat, Rudan et al
 

TC Redline

Well-Known Member
It's possible there's already a thread for this...

Okay, so I've been on this forum a fair while and it occurs to me I don't really know most of you chaps and chapesses personally.

But maybe I do. Maybe I know some of you without knowing your names... possibly via CCFA? I've played here for 20 years.

So, without wanting anyone to identify themselves, because we all get the dangers of that these days - I'm volunteering a little about myself and maybe others might also.

Mind you, I'm guessing a lot of you will find this exercise unnecessary as you already know each other - seems to be a bit of familiar banter.

As for me:

Suburb: Avoca Beach

Football club: Avoca O45Ds

Prematch drinks: Bay Road

Usual spot in the stadium: Bay 27 or 49

Favourite ever Mariner: Tom Rogic

Favourite current Mariners (max three): Birra; Kye; Nizzy

Most hated opponent: Victory (I couldn't be arsed wasting passion on the scum)

Self assessed good bloke rating out of ten: 8.4
Suburb: Copacabana

Football club: Retired 97, Junior club was Davistown ( I’m presuming most people here wouldn’t have heard of that club) and a bit of Coasties and then had a few gaps years off and played for Terrigal as my senior club after Davistown folded when I returned.

Prematch drinks: Generally just get to the game earlyish to grab the loose cannon off Erin , laugh at the shooting prowess of the Mariners although that has improved out of sight the last 2 years and have a beer at the ground.

Usual spot in the stadium: Bay 18 , standing in the wheelchair section (bit of an oxymoron there). Use to be around 20 Plus of us but it’s dwindled now to about 6.

Favourite ever Mariner: Thought no one would top Gumprect and then Zwansvik came along. I rate Patrick the best import the A league has had ( yep above Berisha, Yorke, and big nose Broich)

Favourite current Mariners (max three): Marco, Kye and a Izzy

Most hated opponent: Hard question, Jatz as Lawrie use to call them is the obvious but have always despised Sydney as well. Kincumber would be here for a local club.

Self assessed good bloke rating out of ten: Still a grumpy bastard but trying to do better.:piralaugh:
 

Ozhammer

Well-Known Member
Your not wrong about Kanwal, in 2011 I was playing for Wyoming, guy from Kanwal took me out, no attempt for the ball just took me out while I was running at full steam from the legs. Hit the deck wrists first, smashed the radius bone in 10 pieces and there is now a metal plate and 7 screws holding my wrist together for the rest of my life. I made sure the boys made him bleed though in the games following. I haven't played since, my beer gut will attest to that. I also had another mate who has metal plates in his legs and started to cough up blood after he was taken out by the same team the season before, I heard they were buying cartons of piss for whoever could hospitalise someone per game. I also work with someone here at Mudgee Council who used to be a coastie, he said when he was young Kanwal were no better.
Fkn glad we play in the south division then…. o_O
 

marinermick

Well-Known Member
Fkn glad we play in the south division then…. o_O

We actually don’t. It’s just all our teams happen to be in the south.

Remember when Kanwal was in our comp a few years ago Mark? There was a guy (probably sane bloke) at right back that wanted to kick the shit out of everyone. He was a few sandwiches short of a picnic. We won both games convincingly but he did his damage.

Then there was the centre back who tried to be all nice and chatty but would make backhanded remarks and comment on every aspect of your game.

I didn’t know who I wanted to punch more.
 
Last edited:

Online statistics

Members online
16
Guests online
323
Total visitors
339

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
6,716
Messages
378,679
Members
2,708
Latest member
KguaooChami
Top