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