marinersman - you're absolutely correct, I actually said something similar in the 'diving' thread, and discussed a few other issues:-
http://marinators.net/forum/index.php?topic=1067.msg21189#msg21189
It's easy to hate the referee for a mistake, but we need to be a bit realistic about a few things.
These are are great officials. Let's be realistic here - you need to get promoted a lot of times to get anywhere, in varying associations, so they've gotta be talented. Watch these guys ref internationals - they do quite well. The fact that ALL of them are systematically stuffing up in the HAL suggests that the problem lies with the men behind the scenes and not so much with the officials.
Overworked? Definitely
The other question is - what are they being told? Are they being told not to caution aggressive players, not to red card serious foul play (which explains all the brutal challenges that have been permitted) - and if so, why?
Also, what are the inspectors doing? I agree with valentius that appointments are highly political, and these politics also prevent other officials from reaching the top. It shouldn't happen, but it's a fact. The officials should be judged on their weekly performance and appointed accordingly, but instead the FFA have decided that these officials are ranked in this order, and that's the end of it, and they'll be appointed as such. I remember at the end of season 2, Ben Williams dropped to an atrocious standard, I don't think he could've handled a local premier league match. He was clearly suffering from stress and overwork, yet he was still being appointed every week.
The inspectors can see what tackles are being missed - so why aren't the refs being hauled over the coals for some of their decisions?
We all know that referees are bound by integrity - what about the inspectors?
They should be inspecting with integrity and impunity, but perhaps inspectors are deliberately favouring certain referees? It happens at all levels, why not the HAL?
And if this is happening, why haven't the FFA picked up on it?
marinersman - I think it's actually $600 a game, unless it went up this season. Not really enough money when you consider they still have to work full time to support their families - families they don't get to see because they're losing their weekends through flying around Australia to referee.
Refereeing requires a massive mental effort - and if you're not 100% focussed, then it's quite surprising how your outlook on incidents changes, and it's quite surprising just how badly you can get a decision wrong if you're not on the ball mentally.
Breeze in the first semi, he screwed up big time, but I was looking at his performance and I believe that he simply approached the game the wrong way from a mental perspective, and that's all it took to referee as badly as he did.
When you consider the stress, fatigue, and workload, then it isn't surprising that we see very few really good performances - and that the best performances we've seen actually come from the less important referees (though they also put in some shockers - there's a reason why they're not on top).
Making referees full time would make a big difference to this - of course the distinct lack of games to go around certainly doesn't help, and it makes it difficult from an appointing perspective too (which is another joke - You CANNOT have the same official referee both legs of the same semi, nor have the same official referee every time the same teams clash. WAKE UP FFA!!!!)
If the FFA don't sort out the refereeing - and their own judiciary and match review committee - fans WILL leave in droves. It happened in the NRL, and it'll happen here. It's hard to stay interested in a league where matches may as well be decided by the toss of a coin.
, if he is the best the A-League has the talent pool is more like a puddle from a sun shower.
