A-League Men’s Tackle: ‘Shocking refereeing’ making games unwatchable
The Western Sydney Wanderers can’t let the season go to waste, no more awards night an ‘embarrassment’ and the state of refereeing. ROBBIE SLATER And MARCO MONTEVERDE discuss the A-League men’s big issues.
Socceroos great Robbie Slater and Marco Monteverde go over the biggest issues in football in the Tackle, with none bigger than the state of referees and VAR in the A-League.
Shocking decisions ruining games
Barely a week goes by in the A-League when there isn’t a shocking refereeing decision, and it’s turning people away from watching games and has players scared to make a tackle.
The latest came on Saturday night when Macarthur FC left-back Ivan Vujica was sent off for collecting the ankle of Sydney FC star Joe Lolley – who like Vujica had his foot raised – when the pair competed for a 50-50 ball.
At the very worst, Vujica deserved a yellow card, which he was initially given by referee Daniel Elder.
However, next thing you know, the VAR decides to get involved.
We shouldn’t be surprised considering how often the VAR gets involved in decisions this season. It’s an absolute joke.
Elder then follows the advice of the VAR by running to the sideline to look at video footage of the incident.
It seemed like he watched a slowed-down version of the challenge about 20 times.
And as has become the norm this season, the referee changed his decision and upgrade the punishment because it appeared he was scared to stick by his gut feeling.
You can bet that if the referee was Alireza Faghani, the A-League best whistle-blower, he would have stood by his own decision.
Elder’s decision to upgrade Vujica’s punishment to a red card appeared so farcical that even Lolley and other Sydney FC players were telling him not to send the Macarthur defender off.
Some might argue that Elder made exactly the same mistake in the second-half when he upgraded his original decision to show Macarthur’s Tommy Smith a yellow card for a foul on Sydney striker Fabio Gomes to a red card, again after being encouraged to look at video footage of the incident by the VAR.
While there was probably a little bit more of a case for Smith to be sent off, it did not appear to be a “clear and obvious” error by Elder to only show him a yellow card.
However, again the referee didn’t back his own judgment and appeared to second guess his decision when the VAR interfered.
No doubt, the VAR team will again back both send-off decisions this week by coming up with some reasons for Vujica and Smith being dismissed rather than scrutinise the decisions and admit that at least one and probably two mistakes had been made by their officiating.
It’s about time the VAR boss Magill made his referees and VARs accountable for their wrong decisions and allow gut-feeling calls which aren’t “clear and obvious errors” to stand.
If not, Magill himself should be held accountable after one of the worst seasons for referees in recent memory.
It’s so bad that players are now worried about making any contact at all with opponents, fearing that referees and VARs will over-react.
Fans are also sick of seeing such decisions ruin games, and as a result, aren’t coming to matches anymore.
Awards embarrassment
The cancellation of the Dolan-Warren Awards ceremony is another embarrassing consequence of the APL’s decision to waste millions of dollars when it took over the running of the A-League’s men’s and women’s competitions from Football Australia.
Forget the spin the APL dished out last week about canning the ceremony because it wanted to bring the awards to the fans by presenting a few on grand final day.
The only reason the ceremony has been cancelled is because the APL is broke.
Why doesn’t the APL just come out and say that rather than try to fool everyone? No-one’s falling for it, and it makes the APL look even worse, if that’s possible.
Every major sport in Australia has an awards night, local clubs have presentation days, yet the APL is not going to have a proper ceremony to recognise not only the A-League’s best male and female players, best coaches and best referees, but also volunteer awards for those who sacrifice their time for the game they love.
Again, it all comes back to decisions made when the APL began.
And let’s not forget the $40 million that was wasted on KeepUp, the APL’s failed digital arm that nobody knew about.
We’re also still waiting for answers from the APL where the rest of the millions of dollars went. When will we hear?
Wanderers blow it
A wasted A-League season is looming large for Western Sydney Wanderers.
While all is not lost in the Wanderers’ bid to play finals football, to finish in the top six they now have to not only defeat third-placed Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park in the final round of the regular season, but also rely on second-from-bottom Western United beating the in-form Melbourne City.
It shouldn’t have been like this for the Wanderers, who have lost their past three matches to be stranded on 34 points.
They were flying high in January when coach Marko Rudan was given a new three-year coaching deal, but since then it’s been a downhill slide, and mainly because of poor results at home.
From 14 matches at CommBank Stadium, the Wanderers have lost seven, won only five and drawn two for a total of 17 points.
Of those 17 points, just one has come in their past six home games.
Teams used to fear taking on the Wanderers at CommBank Stadium, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.
Plenty of soul-searching, as well as better recruitment, needs to be done in the off-season if the Wanderers are to become 2024-25 title contenders.
There is no doubt that Rudan’s squad includes some of the A-League’s best young talent, but the Wanderers need to improve in their recruitment of foreign players.
They can take a lesson out of the Central Coast Mariners’ book in finding quality overseas players at the right price.
More Coverage
Team of the round: (4-1-3-2) Paul Izzo (Melbourne Victory); Dane Ingham (Newcastle Jets), Tomi Uskok (Macarthur FC), Kai Trewin (Brisbane Roar), Corey Brown (Brisbane Roar); Angus Thurgate (Western United); Marcus Younis (Western Sydney Wanderers), Ben Old (Wellington Phoenix), Marin Jakolis (Melbourne City); Adam Taggart (Perth Glory), Jed Drew (Macarthur FC). Coach: Mile Sterjovski (Macathur FC)
Player of the round: Tomi Uskok (Macarthur FC)
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