The quality of Linesmen....

[Tano]

Is the one thing that is holding the A-League back. Usually I'm the first to jump to the aid of officials, as I know they don't have an easy job. However, the standard of referees assistants in this country at the moment is appalling. Granted, I'm delighted that Sydney were denied a win on the weekend, but that doesn't make it right. How many times this season has Archie been called for offside when replays clearly contradicted the call? How many simple throw-in calls have been awarded to the wrong team? This isn't just a biased Melbourne rant, other teams are copping woeful decisions as well. It seems that just about every 50-50 call I've seen this season from the linesmen has gone the wrong way.

Any thoughts?

[Lucan]

Haven't seen any A-League this year so can't really comment for that, but you should see the clowns running lines in the lower leagues. Jebus, it is woeful.:o

[sj]

Hahaha when I was in England for the Leeds/QPR game, the announcer asked at half time if a crowd member had any reffing experience, cause they needed a 4th official! :rolleyes: :D

[Ella]

As a ref who's had a fair bit of lines experience, I am also the first to come to the defense of the officials, as mentioned above, it can be an incredibly difficult job and it is impossible to get every decision correct.

HOWEVER. At the standard in which the A-League is at, there should not be an excuse for the linesmen not being up to scratch, it is something that should be seriously looked at, these guys are linesmen, it is their sole duty as Officials and should be trained properly to the standard required.

A problem I think is probably that it is not competitive enough as an official at the moment, because there is not enough around who are capable of officiating the top league, so it doesn't really matter if they stuff up.

[Victory2006]

Haven't seen any A-League this year so can't really comment for that, but you should see the clowns running lines in the lower leagues. Jebus, it is woeful.:o

I remember the NSL linesmen back around 2001/02, I'd jump out of my seat in the grandstand at Bob Jane and hurl abuse at them, only to have some old pappous shout me down for swearting at them. :mad: