Sideline

While we have had some very experienced officials keeping a good 2-yard break between the sideline and coaches box this has not been happening with the newer officials. While we encourage them to ask you to take a few steps back from the sideline the actual measurement we deal with is 2 yards. This is an Occupational Health and Safety issue and really giving teams 1 reminder each week is enough. This is our zone to work in without fear of running into any person standing close to the sideline.

Both sides are marked with a white line and while a play is going all sideline personnel must be behind the white line. Between plays coaches may enter between the sidelines to talk to players but he must not enter onto the field of play without permission from the Referee. Substitutes coming on and off the field can also enter through the 2-yard area but must be behind the white line when the play is running.

At worse if an official contacts someone standing on the sideline the team will be penalised 15 yards for illegal interference in a play. The potential for injury to an official is far greater causing significant injury and possibly career ending. Please ensure you stay off the sideline paying particular attention when teams are passing the ball, punting the ball or on kick-offs as the official’s attention is on fast moving players going through his zone.

Grant Martin

Celebrations

A question was raised about a player diving into the EZ on a score. While technically a foul the league has requested through player comments that we relax in someway players celebrating good achievements. While we do not condone the player diving into the EZ it was in an act of celebration, which everyone wants to see, and that no opponent reacted to the players action. This was a good indication that no opponent felt disrespected by the scoring players actions.
While this time there was no flag the judgment of the official on the spot depending on reactions of players will determine if an USC penalty has occurred.
A couple of other examples of celebrating without drawing a flag is to raise your hand in the air pointing to the sky or to give a loud 'yell' in acknowledgment of a good play, eg a sack, but the player is not to be facing and directing his actions towards his opponent on the field or sideline. Towards the crowd or team mates would be deemed acceptable. It is also acceptable to get other team mates into a celebration after a score but on sacks it may not be acceptable to have a large group near a QB celebrating a few metres away.
One type of celebration that will not be tolerated on a score or interception is when a ball is held out taunting an opponent or it is thrown towards an opponent baiting them into a response. This will draw a penalty flag on every occasion.
In summary it is ok to celebrate your achievements as long as it is done in a respectful manner in which your opponents will view. SAGOA will continue to monitor the slight relaxing of the rule but the rules listed in Rule 9 have not been modified by GASA at this stage. Rather the Board has taken on a responsibility to acknowledge our game is different to the actual college games in USA and that celebrations are a way to entertain the crowd and allow players to enjoy the game.
Before next season we may put forward to GASA a modified Rule 9 on celebrations to allow the suggested scenarios above.

Grant Martin

Line of Scimmage Eligible players

When it really matters in the heat of battle offensive players must know where they stand to be eligible to go down for a pass. Over the past 4 years SAGOA has worked diligently with players and coaches to ensure that this procedure is not one where a player fouls so that a formation is as legal as possible. Officials in SAGOA are trained to help the wideouts as much as possible to get the play underway, but they are not there to ensure that players are lined up in the correct positions to be eligible downfield.
A good marking point for a wideout who is off the LOS is to mark 2 yards off the LOS. This will put him clearly in the backfield if that is where he needs to be. If he is just inside that 2 yards the official may give him a chatting 2 as a reminder to be clearly on or off the LOS. Anything in between does not match the rule of clearly on or off the LOS. Only the QB is allowed to be in no mans land under the centre.
From our document on philosophies "Officials will work to keep offensive linemen legal and will call only when obvious or where repeated warnings are ignored. "

This occurred in the second game at a crucial time when players need to take extra care in their alignment.

Another area to watch is numbering of players. The rules clearly state numbers 50 to 79 cannot become eligible by position. These numbers are ineligible at all times.

Grant Martin

Week 5 GASA Games

Well what a very exciting week of games. Multiple ejections and a 1 point win in the second game.
Ok so what really happened at half time?
A fight broke out with 12secs left in the first half. Lots of yelling going on and people hearing that the game was cancelled.
As of this year GASA has adopted a policy that games can be suspended for up to an hour before being cancelled. This allows time to resume games if conditions improve. The officials need to take the option of first suspending a game. So sorry to those who left after 20 or 30 mins of waiting and missed a good game of football still with both sides scoring well in the second half.
There was no doubt that what happened was a fight between players. Under NCAA rules striking or attempting to strike an opponent in a non-football manner is a fight and an automatic ejection. Also under NCAA rules players leaving the sideline to join in the fight are also ejected by rule. Some players from both sides made it past the officials while a small number were listed as entering the field by one official. Those players did stop and turn back to their sideline and did not pass the official so they dodged a bullet for not being ejected.
If both teams wanted to continue and the officials did not want to continue then the game would have been called after an hour delay and the scores reverted back to 0-0 and a no contest being the result. The points would have been split between both teams as a draw. This would have happened because half time had not yet been reached, 12 secs was left on the clock before half time.
In conclusion we all need to take something from this and learn from it. If you have any comments then please direct them to your club, league or email them to myself so that we keep rumour to a minimum. If you ask something it may well be possible to answer through the blog as someone else may have had the same question to answer.
Have a good week everyone.
Grant Martin

Week 4 GASA Games

Another set of hard fought games. Well done to all the teams who played. Well done to all the coaches out there this weekend the sideline behaviour was much better than previous weeks and I hope we can continue this on and sustain that level of behaviour to the end of the season. Players were excellent in their conduct and captains maintained a high level of control. There was only a very minor mishap late in the second game that required no further action than was needed at the time by the officials by rule. But remember that players choose the conduct on the field that officials need to manage or enforce by rule. We do not 'kill' the game by being over zealous in the rules but rather participants choose to follow the rules or to act outside the interpretations of the rules. It was made clear in both games by the Referee to the coaches and captains that continued questioning of an official's call would draw a flag. We allow niggling comments between players to a point but continued questioning of an official's call will draw a flag, especially if an official has answered your query first and you continue to comment on it after the explanation.
On issues and rules from the weekend nothing really stands out except the very low number of procedural penalties for false starts and illegal procedures. Well done guys you are making that part of the game work really well.
A reminder that many of the penalty calls will occur around the point of attack. Those penalties away from the point of attack will not draw a flag unless they are a safety issue or a player has been warned to stop something and he hasn't. If you were away from the point of attack you may mention a hold or block happened to you and the official will keep an eye out for it when the play occurs in your direction. Make sure the request is made in a respectful and orderly manner.
A reminder to check out the presentations on why to keep your head up in tackles and the increased vigilance that officials are making on this issue. If an official believes that the illegal use of helmet/spearing is flagrant, especially helmet to helmet, then they also risk being ejected from the game and a report made to GASA.
After I have gone through the game situations I will add to the blog again later this week. Until then please feel free to send through any comments.

Grant Martin

Use of the helmet

Please follow the links to presentations in their original format of pdf and PowerPoint to do with spearing/Illegal use of the helmet.
www.sagoa.info/resources/readings/spearing_presentation.ppt
12 Mb in size
www.sagoa.info/resources/readings/spearing_notes.pdf

Regards
Grant Martin

Week 3 GASA Games

Wow a very close second game from Saturday night. Well done to all teams for an entertaining performance this past weekend.
A few things to clarify with this week:
1. Blocked Punt
2. Kick Off untouched into the End Zone
3. Kick Off 25 sec clock
4. Time Outs
5. Block in the Back
6. Assistant Coaches
7. Post game reviews

1. There was a blocked punt in the second game that was then in the end zone. It was recovered by the kicking team behind the LOS which meant they could advance it. The ball carrier was then stopped before getting the ball out of the end zone and a Safety was the correct result on the play.

2. In game 1 a kick off went into the end zone untouched by the receiving team. It landed at about the 25 yard line and bounced over the receivers head. Those kicks which go into the EZ untouched by the receiving team are dead by rule.

3. New rule this year was a 25 sec kick off clock. While the clock went to zero on one of the Spartans kickoffs last weekend there was no undue delay as the player was in his run up to the ball to kick it. While the absolute technical rule was a delay of game at zero this is not always the manner in which we manage the situation and all clubs at some stage have been given this leeway when on offense. If we actually did stop the clock and march off a penalty then we would have delayed the game by a minute or so ourselves. Some people would call this cheating we would rather call it game managing. The intent of the clock is to get people moving rather than standing round huddled up for longer periods than necessary. In managing the game in this way the crew get a pat on the back well done.

4. Time Outs - A time out is for the coach or assistants to address their players. It is not a time to call over the Referee and to give them a 'serve' and 'vent' about game decisions. Even if a coach does this he will only be given his one minute of time out. An official will answer a question where possible and at a reasonable break in the game when the coach is asking in a reasonable manner. The coaches conference or time out does not give anyone the right to challenge judgment of an official's call. Referees have all been directed to make a report on all coaches who use this tactic. Please refer to the rule book on this matter in regards to The Football Code and the Coaches Ethics. Please give the respect that the job deserves and remember we are all here to better the game of Gridiron in SA. We will listen to your questions and answer at an appropriate time in an appropriate manner.

5. A big question on the weekend was about players engaged and turning their back on an opponent. It came during the tight tussle in game 2. While the rule was questioned the judgment of the official was supported by our assessor in the stand where the player disengaged from the original block and then re-engaged again after the player turned his back. This is BIB every time. If the player turned his back while the player was engaged originally then there is no penalty flag.

6. While many coaches show us respect and discuss issues casually sometimes it is the assistant coach that is yelling and over questioning calls. This is distracting and may even cause the official to miss other calls that could have gone in your favour because the assistant distracted the official. The Head Coach has whole responsibility of the sideline and controlling of all assistant coaches, players and ancillary personnel. Let's not continue such actions, they are unsportsmanlike, and leave the discussions to the Head Coach. Again all Referees have been instructed to make game reports on this issue even if no penalty flags have been thrown for such conduct during a game.

7. Over the past few weeks a couple of teams has gone to the extent of providing feedback to the officials after a game. This has helped identify the plays they have concerns with and what the officials called or didn't call.
While we can't go back and answer every question or concern from a game we do review and look at concerns that clubs send us a report in for. Just providing this blog is a review of the game. If we feel a need to comment about a particular play or rule then the place to comment will be on this blog for all to see the topic and its reply.

Have a good week 4 of games and see you all on the field. Let's make this a season to remember for all the right reasons. Now with such a long post and doing it over 2 days I hope I didn't miss any vital technicalities on any of the issues. If you see something that is incorrect please give me a buzz through email or comment on the blog so that it can then be rectified.

Regards
Grant Martin

Illegal Use of Helmet

Listening into a conversation I overheard that some coaches teach players to put their hands out as part of a tackle and that if the helmet then makes contact after the hands touch the opponent then this exempts them from Spearing or Illegal Use of the Helmet rule. This is incorrect from the NCAA perspective. Use of the helmet is illegal and intent does not have to be proved in its use to attempt to punish an opponent. The best way is to have your head up looking at who you are going to hit or tackle. But the facemask is also illegal in contacting an opponent in an attempt to punish them. The player should not be lining an opponent up to ‘stick him in the numbers’ purely using his head or using a reason that his hands touched first.

There are times though when a ball carrier and opponent will make helmet-to-helmet contact because both have got low in the tackle. This is very hard to officiate to make a judgement on who initiated this contact. Was it the tackler or was it the ball carrier? Should they both be penalised and have offsetting live ball fouls? Who has the duty of care to avoid such contact? Who has right of way in a collision sport such as Gridiron?

The rules definitely allow for ruling on the side of safety and the official will judge in a split second when seeing all the action whether the defence or the offence used the helmet illegally.

Let’s ensure we all use our head in the correct manner and protect our spine while enjoying the best collision sport in SA.

Regards

Grant Martin

Sideline

Another set of fiery games this week that certainly will be spoken about for the coming weeks for good and bad reasons. We can certainly see players playing with passion and putting in some hard yards and hits.
SAGOA used a 7 man crew in both games, even putting Daryl Argent back into Head Linesman where he has done 123 games. He really enjoyed the experience on the sideline but this is not always the case for all officials who do the wing positions of Line Judge and Heads Lineman. While I enjoy these positions as well it is not always possible to put highly experienced officials next to the teams and put rookie official in Referee or Umpire positions. It just isn't practical for brand new Officials.
The thing is old or new there are some restrictions for those on the sidelines on who can or can't speak to an official and of course the language or tone they use towards or about an official. In reality only the Head Coach has authority to speak to an official about a call. In the previous post about Captains and communication the rule book demonstrates that Officials instigate communication with Captains.
This then leaves other players and sideline personnel. There is nothing in the rule book that allows anyone else a chance to challenge a call or to address an official. Therefore Assistant Coaches and other players need to hold comment about calls on the sideline. Some leeway may be given to Head Coaches in how they react and approach Officials about calls but an Assistant Coach does not have that same leeway. Distracting an Official from his job on the field is Unsportsmanlike and should be discouraged by the Head Coach in all circumstances. The wing officials are being trained to ignore everyone on the sideline except for the Head Coach. This can include the Official walking away from the sideline, although you may be calling out for him.
Again the rule book states that when an official has made a decision it is final. It may be frustrating that a player knows what he did was wrong or right but we cannot enter into any dialogue instigated by a player to justify his actions. If another official sees something different in the same play then they may share with the Referee and calling official what they saw. It is then up to the Referee to make a final determination about the penalty. I appreciate some players accepting the decision and then speaking to me saying 'but that's not what I was trying to do.' Sure it is frustrating and I really respect you for toughing it out and speaking about it later rather than making a 'song and dance' about it at the time.

Grant Martin

Game reviewing by Officials

It occurred to me after an email arrived last week that we were congratulated on the use of the blog spot and for putting up reviews, such as incorrect penalty enforcements, that people may not understand what we do to improve ourselves in the game.
I have been a part of SAGOA on and off since 1992 and post game reviews have always been a part of the process for learning. The past 4 years we have always reviewed games and decisions made. Many of these also don't show up on video to discuss. Much more happens on the field than just watching the play that lasts up to 10 secs.
We don't just take to the field each week for a couple of hours to throw flags but we also put in a great deal of work each week planning for the next set of games.
So yes looking back at our game is just the same as any sporting team so that we can improve on any mistakes made.

Grant Martin