Rule Changes
Comments by Anna Blanch on the netball rule changes.
To: Andy Dawson
From: Blanch's Manilla
Subject: Further comments
Date: Wed, 08 Jul 98 17:46:21 PDT
Dear Andy,
One of our badged umpires distributed your article to all of the badged
umpires in our association, it was very interesting seeing as we have been
given very little information from AANA or Netball NSW regarding these proposed rule changes or whether any decision had been made. Quite a different reality than the comments withh regard to Australia made in your article..........
I am concerned about the practical aspects of many of these changes and
whilst i can see Gordon Dudman's point of view, i can also see where these
rules could be seriously abused at a club level and even regional level
where there is a large discrepancy between the experience level of the
coaches and the experience level of the umpires ...who tend to use these
games to learn and gain confidence from.
Whether these rules are supposed to make the game more spectator-friendly or
not, there are certainly areas where the rules will become less
umpire-friendly...in that it will take quite a period of time to determine
interpretations and this will make it difficult for junior umpires who are
already having to learn how to determine whether a contact is "interfering"
or where advantage play is appropriate...these things are not easy to learn
and if you then bombard them with rules that "change the game..." you may
find a real disillusionment amongst players and umpires alike.
- Umpire No Longer "Calling" Play
- This takes an element of control away from the umpire; As the rule stands
the umpire must ensure that all players are on-court when the throw-in is
taken....with the change....What happens if a player decides as is their
right to throw the ball in...but not all players are on court ? does the
umpire then have scoope to reset the throw-in after all players are back on
court.
- When does the 3 second count begin...what determines whether the player is
ready to take the throw-in b/c it is now up to them to decide when to throw.
- Taking of penalties
- There has to be a firm definition of "close"...otherwise it will occur
that the penalties will be taken in a parallel position and an advantage
will be gained that is over and above the penalty it then disadvantages the
other team....and thus contravenes statements to the effect that even the
offending team shall not be placed at a disadvantage over and above the
penalty itself.
- This rule is penalising the defence out of the game ! They often have to contend with umpires who are attack-orientated to start with..this now makes it harder than ever !
- Contact
- I agree to an extent wit Gordon in that I make a very strong attempt at
trying to ensure that my contact calls are calls made b/c there was
interference. It comes down to judgement and to have a rule like this
curtails the judgement of the umpire and does not lend itself to a "clean"
game....i can definitely see an increase of elbows jabbing into ribs and
knees pushing if this comes in.
- Many umpires work hard to implement the advantage rule so that any contact
that occurs but does not interfere with a player is called as an advantage
call...this then indicates to the players that te umpire is aware of the
contact taking place.
- Coaching
- As for the other changes there is a big gap between club and national
level netball and the implementation of this rule to suit both would be
very difficult.....
- I personally don't appreciate an abusive coach....will there be a rule in
regard to the level of qualification these coaches can have before they are
allowed on deck (so to speak).. this is now the case in Swimming...that
only fully accrediated coaches are allowed on deck at all levels of meets.
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