Question Number: 30918

Law 12 - Fouls and Misconduct 10/19/2016

RE: Rec Adult

russell of Sydney, Australia asks...

Red or yellow?

Yellow was issued.

Appreciate your thoughts on this.

https://youtu.be/pm0-9ihBWpM?t=413

Looks very red to me.

Also, each situation is different, however, the mechanics of the ref in the immediate seconds has some good parts.

First up, good on the Red team for not getting physical with the white player in their reaction.
Also good is the white player accepts that he has made a bad tackle and does his bit to not react to the red players. Probably helped that he could see only a yellow in the hand of the ref.
While I think the yellow should have been a red, I like how the ref initially responded in this moment by shielding the white player, and maybe that worked in some degree due to the red players managing to restrain themselves.
Not sure how the referring review committee would view the card issued, but I'd like to think that he at least handled the aftermath ok.

That just my view, so am keen to hear how does the panel view his mechanics of the situation?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Russell
For me this was a red card. As the Laws state and I quote *A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play.
Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent is guilty of serious foul play.**
Had Red not gone up in the air or had White caught the leg of Red with his boot first it could have resulted in a serious injury.
As to the handling of the situation it did work okay probably because it was a pro game plus there are four officials present. The parts here that are not helpful are when a referee is on his own he has no view of what is going on behind him. He assumes the White player is the sole focus of attention yet that is not always the case. In addition the referee or the player could get struck here from behind with no clear knowledge of who did it. I also think it is never a good idea to get too involved in confrontations and timing is critical. Getting there before it kicks off is crucial. If there is a delay in getting there then being in the middle of violent conduct is not a good position to be in.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Hi Russell,
red card is my first instinct based on the angle and speed. The referee although close, was in behind the play and saw that the fouled player was immediately up on his feet not rolling around screaming in pain which could easily be the case. The tackle was late, from behind and performed at a high speed. The intervention by the CR was good and the yellow card in his hand likely stopped the miscreant from interacting with his opponents because it was likely he knew he was dodging a red bullet. I suspect in the post game this will be a talking point. The fact there are 4 officials and being a pro match it has a different feel than if you were working a recreational match as a single official. That tackle FAST was UNSAFE and it COULD have seriously hurt the opponent, the fact it did not likely dropped the temperature of the CR response. I tend to think that if that opponent had been anything other than straight up into the face of the miscreant who fouled him and stayed on the ground if even to catch his breath as opposed to pretend he was hurt which by the way kudos to the opponent for NOT jamming on the teary fake. Hard to say if that CR would have altered the colour of the card only he knows the reasons for his decision or whether his ARs had piped in with their thoughts.
Cheers

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