I don't want to derail your thread which is important, but I do want to clarify that making light of anonymous incidents involving refs <> "abuse".

Change this thread to SA ref on a power trip has a whinge when frivolous charge is thrown out by tribunal and given stern talking to by tribunal chairman.

The point Isaac is that umpires in SA do cop it - especialy in junior basketball and then the tribunal basicly have a bad record of soft penalty

If this continues then the problem will get worse because people will quit and then there will be even less umpires to cover the games

I think the sport is booming as far as junior participation is concerned which means you need more and more qualified umpires


I would like to know what people think

should there be zero exceptance of bad behavior in juniors and maybe an automatic suspension if a coach is ejected?

Umpires from all states in all countries cop it. It's part of being an umpire...

Yes but if a coach continualy abuses umpires and the umpire penalises him for it the association should suspend the coach

That is all I am saying, this way the umpires can aim to improve based on the coaching they get from there own people

Next, I'm offering no comment on the tribunal decisions because I don't know the details - just pulling you up on your claim of the ref stories thread being "abuse". Obviously the topic itself is worth discussion.

I had a player ejected from a reserves game 4-5 weeks ago for walking on the court during some push and shove. The bylaw states he is automatically suspended for the next game, no tribunal, no questions asked. Just got an email from BSA informing us of the law and making sure we didnt suit him the next week. Any ejection for a player comes with this penalty, sounds like coaches are on easy street.

I pose the question - why do refs ref - coz they cannot play = for many a huge chip on their shoulders and a lot out there have personal agendas against other players who have gone onto success when they have given up coz they roolised they just aint goin nowhere and yes I know it is the minority but there are some bad egg refs out there!!

If ref's like you deliberately eject a coach because you dont like them, where does that leave the sport?

Ejection doesn't mean suspension.

Maybe if ref's were demoted if they went to the tribunal and the player was found not guilty ten we wouldn't have so many problems.

Fairly soona ref will lie on their report and it will be taken out into common law courts and then we will see suits that destroy any chance of ref's being supported.

The hole tribunal system is a joke. A few years back during a reserves game we had a player spit in the other ref's face and rip up the score sheet half way through the game. When we went to the tribunal he was found not guilty. From that day on I never reported anyone again.

all those soft fouls are ruining the game

Way before giving a tech, if more ref's talked with coaches, explained their decision, admitted they didn't see something, and maybe just occasionally admitted they made a mistake, I think most coaches would be more forgiving. I'm a coach and I try to tell my players to compare how many mistakes they make compared to the ref's and they shut up pretty quick, but the difference is my boys take responsibility for their actions, to many ref's don't.