First game at English Park for a while, still gobsmacked about the lack of respect for the officials. I personally can't stand the oval ball game, but I did watch the AB's on Sat nite and at one point, one of the SA's had a crack at the ref who instantly marched them 10m, the level of respect is worlds apart. In our game the Ref and lino's put up with constant talk from the players.
Interesting to see a journo from the UK (Bradford) who has moved to NZ and is now working for Fairfax comment on it...
Is this a referee issue? Or a player issue?
The game on Sunday I watched at English Park saw a young referee continue to warn players particularly Waitak players and do absolutely nothing when they continued to foul. I did not hear any lack of respect for officials (swearing etc) but did see frustration from players and spectators when the warnings progressed to nothing when fouls were continued to be committed. Culminating in a dubious red card for Canterbury who had not had any warnings.
Why do referees think they are sacrosanct at this level surely they need to be judged? They are no longer just putting their hand up to do something that is akin to refereeing young Johnny's game
Referees do not think they are sacrosanct, each referee has been nominated and gone through a panel and testing to get to the National League, the referee will have been working with a team and also had an assessor at the game that will have given feedback on his performance. If as you say he was warning people and not following up with cards, then I'm sure he will hear that from the assessor.
