A-League Tackle: Decisions need to be made on referees, concern for the Mariners
The referees taking control of the A-League’s biggest games needs to be discussed, while Robbie Slater and Marco Monteverde say one club has become a “laughing stock” and another is a “mess”. It’s all in The Tackle.
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The referees taking control of the A-League’s biggest games needs to be discussed, while Robbie Slater and Marco Monteverde say one club has become a “laughing stock”. It’s all in The Tackle.
TOP REFS MUST CONTROL MAIN GAMES
Melbourne Victory coach Arthur Diles made a very good point when it came to match officials after his side’s 2-2 weekend derby draw with Melbourne City in saying that the “best referees” should be in control of the A-League’s biggest matches.
It’s an issue that The Tackle has previously raised this season after some curious appointments made by referees’ boss Jon Moss.
Another one was made on Saturday night at AAMI Park, where Jonathan Barreiro was put in charge of the Melbourne derby, one of the A-League’s marquee fixtures.
And in defence of Barreiro, he didn’t have a bad game, despite what Diles and City coach Aurelio Vidmar thought.
His decisions to award two penalties, one after reviewing video footage of City defender German Ferreyra’s tackle on Victory striker Nikos Vergos, were both correct.
Barreiro also showed common sense in not sending off Victory defender Roderick Miranda following his clash with City midfielder Andreas Kuen.
However, Barreiro should not have been appointed referee for this game.
It should have been controlled by one of A-League’s top three referees – Alex King, Alireza Faghani or Shaun Evans.
King wasn’t an option as he’s on duty at the AFC Under-20 Asian Cup.
As for the other two, Evans was instead chosen to referee Sunday’s game between Western United and Adelaide United, while Faghani – not for the first time this season – wasn’t given a match at all in this round.
While Moss is trying to shake up things in the refereeing ranks ahead of appointing a 12-strong elite panel next season, it shouldn’t be at the expense of not appointing the A-League’s top referees to the competition’s premier games.
MARINERS A MESS
The fall of the Central Coast Mariners could have been avoided.
Nine months ago the Mariners were on top of the world, having completed a remarkable treble despite the club operating on a small budget.
Then chairman Richard Peil sacrificed millions of dollars to help fund the club, and it paid off – in terms of silverware, at least.
Peil’s devotion was supposed to have been rewarded with 50 per cent ownership of the club at the end of this season had he been able to achieve certain “milestones” that he and owner Mike Charlesworth had agreed on more than three years ago.
However, the drastic reduction in the APL’s distribution fees to clubs in the off-season meant those milestones were no longer feasible.
Peil had hoped Charlesworth would realise this and agree to a renegotiated ownership deal between the pair.
Here’s where Charlesworth made his mistake. Thinking that he had someone else to buy the club, he rejected Peil’s new offer.
But then, the deal Charlesworth thought he had fell through.
The wash-up was that Peil parted ways with the Mariners in October last year, and the Mariners have never recovered – on and off the field.
Instead of accepting a fair offer from Peil, Charlesworth opted for the other deal and now it appears in Peil’s absence, the Mariners are suffering.
They have gone from being the A-League’s best team to a side that is just making up the numbers.
Their AFC Champions League Elite campaign was a complete flop, with the Mariners securing just one point from a possible 24.
It’s hard not to feel sorry for Mariners coach Mark Jackson, who did wonders last season despite the constraints he was forced to work under.
However, it’s understood those constraints have reached new depths this season.
It would be a shame if the Mariners lost Jackson at the end of the season, but you could hardly blame him if he accepted an offer from elsewhere because there would surely be interest in his services.
WELCOME WANDERERS REVIVAL
Have Western Sydney Wanderers finally turned the corner to become a genuine title contender?
While the Mariners were poor in losing 4-0 to Western Sydney in Gosford on Saturday, the Wanderers showed a clinical side we hadn’t seen from them previously this season.
The Mariners were made to pay for their mistakes, with the Wanderers showing no mercy.
For only the second time this season, Western Sydney secured back-to-back wins.
And the Alen Stajcic-coached team has a seemingly perfect chance to make it three wins on the trot when they host the struggling Perth Glory at CommBank Stadium next Sunday.
With momentum building, the Wanderers won’t want to waste their recent good work by playing poorly against the Glory.
Hopefully, the Wanderers fans will also play their part by turning out in good numbers in recognition of the progress their team seem to finally be making.
Apart from the 27,000-plus that attended the round one Sydney derby hosted by the Wanderers, attendances haven’t been good enough at CommBank Stadium this season.
SUPER STEVE
It’s going to be hard to ignore Steve Corica’s claims to winning the A-League coach of the season award.
While there’s still a fair chunk of the 2024-25 campaign remaining, Corica has already done a remarkable job with Auckland FC in its maiden A-League campaign.
The Black Knights’ 6-1 thrashing of Wellington in Saturday’s New Zealand derby was the latest in a list of remarkable achievements by Auckland this season.
The comprehensive win completed a clean sweep of this season’s Kiwi derbies by the Black Knights, who are showing no signs of giving up their advantage at the top of the ladder.
While he has the financial backing of Auckland’s billionaire owner Bill Foley, Corica was under pressure when appointed as the Black Knights’ inaugural coach.
Despite having won silverware while in charge of Sydney FC, Corica’s demise at the Sky Blues early last season had some people unfairly questioning his coaching credentials.
He has certainly proved them wrong this season, and now has the chance to finish off the job in what would be a remarkable title-winning achievement from a club in its debut campaign.
ROAR A JOKE
The lack of action being taken by Brisbane Roar’s owners and officials in regards to the club’s shocking season is now beyond a joke.
Once the pride of the A-League, the Roar are now the laughing stock of the competition.
And yet coach Ruben Zadkovich manages to keep his job.
Zadkovich sounds like a broken record after every loss, blaming the slashing of distribution fees for the club’s woes.
However, every A-League club has had to deal with that.
Zadkovich, whose team has picked up just six points from a possible 48 this season, keeps talking about “context” and sticking to the “process”, but that’s just all spin.
Roar fans have every right to ask what the club’s owners, the Bakrie Group, and the two men in charge of running the club, Kaz Patafta and Zac Anderson, are doing to fix the dire situation.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
(4-1-4-1): Oliver Sail (Perth Glory); Tate Russell (Western United), Tomislav Mrcela (Perth Glory), Anthony Pantazopoulos (Western Sydney Wanderers), Jack Clisby (Western Sydney Wanderers); Kai Trewin (Melbourne City); Logan Rogerson (Auckland FC), Clayton Taylor (Newcastle Jets), Rhys Bozinovski (Western United), Neyder Moreno (Auckland FC); Hiroshi Ibusuki (Western United). Coach: Steve Corica (Auckland FC)
Player of the week: Neyder Moreno (Auckland FC)
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Originally published as A-League Tackle: Decisions need to be made on referees, concern for the Mariners
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