Let me explain myself better.
Refs already spend time being coached - watching videos, and breaking down decision criteria. Not sure if it third party video i.e fifa resources, or local club replays if it materially matters.
Reviewing video's post game might not be as effective feedback - it might reduce the number of assessments made, given that the assessor is watching all of the game in person, not just where the camera tracks, so to be effective, you'd probably need more time per assessor per game to view the game and then a replay as well. (remember, they are assessing all match officials, not just where the ball is/ camera is following).
I really like working with the assessors. I feel a lot of the value is in the discussion about key match incidents directly after the end of the game/paperwork is done - delaying that to a few days / hours later after a replay is watched might not be as effective.
What referees in Wellington need to face up to is that there is a perception of a lack of openness. A closing of the ranks any time a question is asked.
What the Olympic video above demonstrated, I thought quite clearly, is that open assessment of referees can work both ways. It can highlight errors but also put down unjustified criticism. That last bit is a function not in the least bit served by assessors. Video enables referees to actually engage with coaches and players about decisions, in possession of the cold hard facts of the video.
The assessor system is also fairly poor as a system of feedback. One man or woman who may or may not be tired, hungry, cold, friends with the referee, not friends with the coach, etc and so on watches the game and tells you if you did a good job or not. Video allows for that review to be moderated by a wider group. Video allows for a deeper and repeated analysis.
And of course it makes a difference whether you're watching yourself or some FIFA resource. You might learn a lot about golf swings in the abstract watching YouTube, but a video of your golf swing enables personal improvement in a whole new way.
Seems like a no brainer to me if referees want to change the conversation about their performance. That's a bit "if" though.
Good lad Smith. I was awaiting this post.
My position is that I welcome the video. One of the things I found out from being on TV is that I am not as good as I thought I was. Granted it didn't film me between 2009 - 2015 in my best years but c'est la vie. That comes back to the fact that I could never rewind the tape and find out how I did. In my opinion, I found it was the same across the board. Before TV coverage, I genuinely believed that NZ referees performed above their level. Now having watched week in and week out, we make a lot of mistakes that were previously undetected. All my flaws are there to see and I can live with that. The flip side to that is that the level of football is not as good as the players think it is and goes hand in hand – we are in NZ and our world ranking is reflective of our football ability. I think that the players think that they and the level is better than it is and the referees think they are better than they are. It’s easy to throw stones cause I have now retired but I have had some shockers on TV. I was the cause of player and fan frustration. I own up to that but I got out cause I realised that at 40 the game was getting beyond me at a physical level cause I was always injured. The mind was good, the body was not. Do you hang on cause of pride or get out while on top?
I take your post and I do not argue with your view as such. I do ask though 'what is the outcome?' 'what purpose does this serve?' and ultimately 'where is the balance?'
The last few pages on this thread have been about a referee. A referee that the video shows had a pretty good game. That’s the only use of this tool - to hang a referee. There is no balance. It’s not there to show how average one team was. It’s not there for the losing coach to go 'well actually we were crap and deserved to have 3 players sent off so we were wrong and well done referee'. I can guarantee you in 26 years of refereeing, I have never heard that last line ever. It only serves one purpose - to find the referee mistakes and blame the referee for the result. There are people here that still refuse to accept the facts in the face of the video evidence so how has that advanced the situation towards “a better outcome”. We do make mistakes and that goes without saying. You only have to watch Bakary Gassama this morning to watch him destroy his WC18 chances (unfortunately he is rated in CAF so he will live) to see that referees have clangers but you need to have balance to this or it becomes a one-way exercise. All you get is 'we lost in the weekend cause of this mistake here and the video supports that' but no coach ever laments the millions of crap passes, the switch offs on marking and the guffed shots as reasons other than that.
I fully support your call on the proviso you can give balance. If you can't do that, then it’s dead in the water cause I guarantee you that no person would ever want their work performance filmed every day with the sole reason of finding the moment the employee stuffed up. That pressure is unrealistic and will result in referees leaving or refusing to join up (more so than at present). In the work place, it would be classified as harassment. This is not the work place and is the cauldron of sport but with respect to the guys that have put in the yards to learn the laws more than any other person involved in the game, there must be balance. I challenge you to find that balance.
