Bench clearing brawls!

[Dave@Reading]

I think thats what i was trying to get at but you made more sense.

So the bench is frozen during gametime without the cbo or ref having to freeze it for specific incidences. Am i correct?

Dave

[mandy]

i guess you could argue that the ref is going to have blown his whistle to stop play and so the ball would be dead and people can freely then leave the bench area?

[phillaxref]

Mandy

Just because a whistle blows to stop the game doesnt mean that players can freely leave the bench area.

[biscuits]

A player on penalty can only leave the area once his penalty has finished, unless there is a time-out called or at the end of each quarter, there is no other reason a player should leave the area.

bikkies

[jameskellam]

I can't say I'd be hugely impressed if a player who had left the bench to join a fight (or his coach) tried to tell me it was a less serious offence because the bench hadn't been frozen.

Seems to me that freezing the bench is just one more thing for officials to remember and one we can do without. What about a rule which simply says "any player who goes on to (or leaves) the pitch in order to join a fight may be expelled". Of course the ref then has to work out the players reason for entering the pitch but my guess is this wouldn't be difficult (if he heads for the fight he wants to join in, if he heads somewhere else he doesn't).

[phillaxref]

James

Yes its one thing for the crew to do extra, as long as you have a competent CBO who freezes the bench.

Then anyone who crosses the line once it has been frozen he takes down their number and reports this to the head ref.

As refs we have a lot to do in a game. thank goodness we dont have fights in every game.