Match Thread - Doncaster v Tranmere

Fuzzy I would like to take issue with your opinion on the Dunk tackle.

How can you say Dunc’s tackle was a yellow, I had good vision of it on Saturday and Dunk had two feet off the ground, a jump tackle and coming from the back of Sharp. He never touched the ball only making contact with Sharp and it is, therefore, a red card.
I refereed off and on for 20 years and can defend a ref normally because you cannot see every tackle with players getting in the way but on that occasion he was not more than 15 feet away with clear vision. He got it wrong
I wasn’t at the game last night and therefore cannot give my opinion on the Mason tackle.

What can Refs do?

Well it goes without saying they have a duty of care to stop such out and out dangerous tackles. He should hammer that home with the players before the game starts.

What can Donny do about it?

Well what about Sean doing the Ferguson gamesmanship bit and give the ref ear ache before the game starts. It’s out of character for Sean I know but our talented players need the correct protection.

3 players stretched off in two games if it carries on NY and Bally will be playing by Christmas and we can’t have that.

I like the idea of reviewing incidents later by video and then giving a greater of lesser punishment. I would also like to see a club being able appeal against yellow cards. Food for thought!

I see Lewis Dunk got booked in the game against Gillingham. Says it all doesn't it?

I will play against Dunk any day of the week even now. he would not last 90 mins. but I would get the early bath ha ha all to myself. There are always ways my friends, perhaps you should read MY version of SIMPLES, Been sent off twice at football and only twice at rugby, (both occasions the games were abandonded for brawls ) but of course I was not on the pitch by then. Not dirty, just hard and sometimes clever as well as lucky. Just like Dunk and the defender last night eh.

Just to say the tackle last night on Mason should of been a straight red, same as the tackle on Billy. Both feet off the floor is a sending off, a tackle from behind with both feet off the ground is not only a sending off offence its possibly a career ending one.
Must say something about last night, if Bennett wasnt such a good jumper, he would of been taken of on two stretchers as some off the tackles were, lets say, wild, for want of a better word. Had the ref got his card out for these tackles, Mason would probably be playing on Saturday instead of being out for 4/6 weeks.

I'm going for Dunk not even being in their squad when they play the return fixure at the Keepmoat

I see one of their players was tackled from behind last night in their match against Gillingham and they're in uproar because the lad who did it only got a yellow. And most of their fans think Buckley dived for the penalty that won them the game.

The more possession a side has the more tackles it will have to endure. Coming up against teams with a less sophisticated approach carries and will continue to carry added risk of injury. Naylor and Spurr were exceptions to the DRFC norm on day1 and that is embarrassing, but apart from that, in general, our style is well known in the division.

We cannot afford to lose players at this rate and it would be a shame if they were forced into abandoning skill out of fear.

I have never refereed, but I do believe that persistent foul play is a yellow card offence and a series of mistimed or over-exuberant unsuccessful tackles, even if no injuries are caused, rightly warrants such punishment.

I somehow feel that if we were a PL side we would get better "protection". SOD has fergursonised his comments a little and they will not go unnoticed amongst referees or even opposing managers; it's a shame we had to suffer 3 serious injuries and a huge blow to our season's hopes before there is even a chance that our players will get a fair deal.

Hi Alex - I saw the tackle live on TV with 3 replays. I thought yellow at the time. Naylors tackle that he got booked for looked a lot worse from my seat.

That's the problem. Its opinion / interpretation. One ref's red is another ref's yellow. Its actually part of what makes football so intriguing. If they were all black and white what would we talk about in the pub afterwards?

Agree with Bally (see, it does happen) I would love to see refs behaving more like rugby referees. I'll never forget getting a lecture from a rugby referee because I called him "ref" and not "sir". It woke me up I can tell you!

I would still like to see more use of video evidence.

The main way that you would stop these tackles (whether we disagree on yellow or red, we agree they need to be stopped) is to punish the perpetrators.

What I would do is have expontential bans. If a player is banned for the first time in his career, he gets a one match ban. The second ban of his career gets a two match ban. Then 4, 8, 16 etc. If a player insists on playing dirty, he's going to end up not playing at all.

I'd also suggest that reforming (i.e. good discipline) allows the player to come back down a scale. So if a player who is looking at a 16 match ban for the next time he gets banned keeps his yellow card-count under 3 for a season, his next potential ban will reduce to 8 matches.

The potential ban will effect their earning potential and that should persuade them to tackle fairly.

Yes Fuzzy, and when you bought him a drink in the bar it was still Sir wasn't it, nothing wrong with that. Footballers cannot understand that you would buy a referree a pint after a game and sit and discuss the game more friendly than for 80 mins, ah those days were excellent.

Totally agree ionly.

When I was at Hunslet we had a sixteen year old Academy lad up before the disciplinary committee. He had been sent off for telling the ref to "f... off".

We were asked to supply a defence for the lad. Our coach, Steve Ferris, told the committe that the lad did at least say "f... off SIR," which is the correct way to do it in Rugby League. Didn't work,he still got a two game ban.

He was in the bar afterwards and settled for plain old Mr. Davies. I bet he did have a first name, but it wasn't for the likes for me which is as it should be.