I played in the game for Wests. The ref was overzealous with the cards but it all stemmed from what he saw with the first one. I guess if you raise your hands against another player then you give the ref the opportunity to see what he sees. He decided it was aggressive and sent the guy off and then most of the rest of the cards were for the abuse he continued to cop throughout the rest of the game. Nobody needs to turn up on a Saturday to get sworn at for 90 minutes.
Let's also clarify that we did allow you lads to play on with 11 for the rest of the game. I personally didn't see or hear much of what was going on. From my position at left back it was an enjoyable game and I don't know what all the niggle was about.
Also, on the whole dropping out of Cap 3 thing. That was only half our team. We came 2nd in Cap 3 but half our team was 2nd team boys and so us older guys pulled the pin as we wanted to keep the older fellas in there. Unfortunately the club didn't then have enough young fellas to fill the Cap 2 team which they'd assured us they would when we pulled out.
We never wanted to re-enter at Cap 10 but that was all we could get.
I was the first red. I barely touched the guy and he made an absolute meal of it. It wasn't aggressive, I was trying to go back to my position to defend the freekick he had just gifted you. I shouldn't have raised my hand and I certainly shouldn't have touched the guy, but the ref shouldn't be allowed near a football pitch ever again. One of the most blatantly biased referees I've ever seen, we had players walking off the pitch and refusing to play with him as ref, you can't explain that away as "stemming from the first card" because he got worse and worse as the game went on. At least there was a reasonable level of justification for my card, most of his calls were simply unbelievable.
You allowed us to play with 11 because you had no choice under the Cap 8 rules (from my understanding).
You had a defender get away with shoving one of our players worse than I did. He also picked up the ball in his own penalty area while the play was live. You guys were awarded a free kick and the ref admitted he had no justification for the free kick after the game. Our right back received a yellow card, immediately followed by a red despite no first yellow being issued.
I had no issue with you guys as people but if a jumped up arrogant fudge like that is going to ruin a game like that then he's going to cop all the abuse he deserves.
I have no issue with the dropping down personally. It was a tight game, although you were certainly the better team but I think with the players you had you'll settle somewhere around Cap 5 or 6. I assume you also had a few academy players running around out there? Keeper looked dodgy as hell but the rest of the kids were tidy.
You may be playing down your part a bit there champ. Our guy said it wasn't just barely a touch and it was enough for our bench to get up and almost charge on the pitch. But let's not let that get in the way of your story of injustice.
After that some of your lads just wouldn't stop moaning and abusing him, but again let's not let that get in the way of your story.
The real travesty here is that it's taken the attention away from my goal which was a stunner and what all the fans should have been talking about.
That goal was an absolute belter! Great hit. And there's no taking away from the fact that you guys were the better team and deserved the win, you must've hit the post what, 4 times?
Of course your guy said it wasn't barely a touch, he's the one who play acted like I'd kicked him in the face! Not sure how your bench could judge the force apart from his reaction. Oh and lets not forget that the dude who charged onto the pitch to fight me only copped a yellow...
It takes something special to cause 15 guys to lose their heads like that though. In 18 years of football I've never been subjected to a refereeing performance that one sided. We had plenty of grounds to moan because he was actively fudgeing us over at every opportunity. I notice you haven't tried to explain the one yellow red or the dude picking the ball up in the box while play was live, or the referee abusing our players in the parking lot after and trying to bar us from the clubhouse (not that we were going in anyway after that). But whatever, its all my own narrative. There are 2 sides to every story but I'd love to hear the refs at some stage because the justification for that cod's behaviour must be special.
