Brett Hogan should be given another chance, he actually talks and manages the game well. How can he possible no what to call when he is trying to be consistent amongst the other two.

Giersch is the worst referee in Australia. He has zero feel for the game. You don't have a retired dud in Davidson making crap contact with DJ and then ping DJ for the foul (Tim Brown). The call was shocking however for Giersch to then want to step in and talk about it? WTF was that about, DJ wants to be on the floor and needs to be, Hawks are struggling when Davidson is on the floor, so the faster the refs get duds out of the game, the better the game will flo.

Feel for the game would have had the 3 of them talking before the game. We can't have half baked players holding onto the superstars, we need to police that early. if clearly wasn't in the pre game because in Adelaides first second and third inbound of the ball, Tim spoke but called nothing. Hence the problem got worse the whole game.

Lisch can flat out play, but the guy needs to stop flopping and his dirty cheap shots don't have to be part of his game regardless that they are part of his coaches.

Making foul calls based on how good the players are is garbage.

Like White on Randle all game Thursday night then Saturday, but Sobey gets called when White smacks him in the face tussling on the inbounds??

"Lisch can flat out play, but the guy needs to stop flopping and his dirty cheap shots don't have to be part of his game."

That sentence hurts the credibility of everything else you're saying.

Blaming the ref for Randle's injury is just plain dumb, Randle initiated the contact changing his path into AJ, to draw a foul. Anyone thinking any different was watching a different game to me.

Randle's knee hit Ogilvy's. Just unfortunate. Nothing to do with the refs.

Not dirty and unfortunate but I still hate the play. Overly physical when he had no realistic chance of stopping the break.

Some absolutely laughable calls all night. How about those 4 point plays? You're joking aren't you?! And interrupting the last play of a quarter (the longest freaking quarter I've ever seen) because you think the shot clock is wrong when it's actually showing remaining time for the quarter is terrible game awareness.

I only saw Lisch flop once, in the second half, he drove in towards the basket pushed our defender then fell backwards and got two shots. He wasn't even shooting. The replay looked clear. I think he was having a Perth moment.
I think he is too good to do that sort of thing.

Umpires. Two weren't too dreadful but one guy (don't know his name) was a moron. Call after call. No interest in consistency.

Creeks unsportsmanlike foul in the context of this game was very sporting since he held the player and protected him from injury. He could have gotten away with the same call and totally taken him out!

Bake, should 36ers players also rescind their paycheques when they have a bad game? Maybe we could use that to fund more referee training?

Admittedly, I didn't see the game or the Randle-AJ foul for that matter.

But the sheer thought of blaming someone who committed a foul for being responsible for someone maybe tearing their ACL is ridiculous, unless the foul was an USF.

Was it an USF?

It's a bit like a Rugby player making a legal tackle, the guy with the ball breaking his ankle and the tackler coping the blame.

Sounds idiotic when you put it like that..

MACDUB, not at all. The knee contact was hardly a foul from my one watch of the replay. Hopefully he's OK.

Didn't see the game in question, so can't comment specifically.
But, given NBL is a spectator sport, I do feel the league needs to act to make the reffing appear more consistent. No doubt there is some technical/ interpretive basis for why some apparently soft fouls are called and other blatant ones aren't, but I think everyone would benefit from more consistency including the players.

"Randle has right of way to change direction"

What? No one has a right of way on the court. This is basketball, not driving on the road.

I don't think a player should just stop and say "Oh sorry mate, you have the right of way, here go and score 2 points on me". If you can foul someone legally, then what happens to that person who is fouled is merely unfortunate.

Judging by the comments, I"m assuming it was 100 x worse than the Drake U'u one on Torey Craig a few years ago?

Refs all over the world say words to that effect. Sometimes it's what's needed to get the point to the player and put him in his place a bit (remind him whose calling the game)..especially when you consider what refs put up with (swearing, getting yelled out, arms waived etc.)

Macdub, there was nothing in it. Looked crude in real time, but that is because Randle is so quick everything he does is impossible to follow.

AJ was entitled to be where he was to challenge/block the shot, Randle was using his quicks to try and get a foul.

The fans complaining here are overreacting because of the physical nature of the game generally, which did have a thuggish element to it.

I didn't see the game but I always thought that if a defender has established his direction and is beside or in front of the player with the ball, then if the attacker jumps into the defender then it's a charging foul.

Similarly, if the attacker is slightly ahead of the defender and jumps across or into the defender without giving the defender the chance to stop or avoid the contact, then it's a charge.

Have the rules changed?

Isaac, not really relevant. Allowing one team to do what they like and calling it defence and calling soft fouls against the other team is either incompetence at best or a premeditated action that needs investigation.

I am not an orphan when it comes to criticising the officials in this game.

When a player is told to walk away from an opponent by a referee while being held and harassed, then being immediately harassed after complying with his instruction for no action is particularly galling. The phantom calls that sent Lisch to the line on numerous occasions, was another clear indication of bias displayed by these officials.

Without wanting to appear to be a suck hole but I though Oscar was extremely unlucky o be called for his last foul.

A cynical person may even suggest that could have already received supplement to their income

For those who missed the Randle injury

Anyone blaming Ogilvy for that has been on the turps.

That Ogilvy fella, trying to take out Randle for MVP purposes.. shameful.

Retrospective USF and life ban for him.

Not only was that nowhere near deliberate or a "dog act" by AJ, the person who suggested that Randle had "right of way" should be shot.

AJ was completely within his rights to play the ball (and give up a foul) to make sure he stopped the bucket. He did that but it had an unfortunate result. Thats about the size of it.

Isaac you would say that given we are talking about the Hawks.

One thing your bro does not do Isaac is airball a three by more than a metre unless DJ gets a piece of his arm going up (there was clearly no ball in it on the replay). So I had no problem with that call and similarly did not understand the boos. I think it was just that the replay did not clearly show DJ getting a piece of his arm either, but you have to appreciate the cause and effect.

I suspect the other poster was referring to Coenraad's two And-1 attempts from light or inconsequential contact after the ball left his hand where Coenraad seemed to make the most of them. The second was worse than the first. Coenraad bricked both free throws, so perhaps this was a case of 'ball don't lie'.

Was listening to Gaze's call on the replay, and he seemed to have no idea what was going on from foul to foul. He complained about the good ones and defended the bad ones and didn't know whether the game was being called too light or too hard. I like Gaze but I thought that was a real example of his limitations.

Isaac " refs were OK"

Boti Nagy " This maybe the worse refereed NBL game I have ever seen"


Refs lost control of the game in the first minute.Kevin White was illegally allowed to hold Randle on all in bound plays. Sobey did the same thing and was called for a foul on White.This caused even Joe Ingles to comment on Twitter. Coenraad drew 2 fouls on shots that would not ordinarily be called. DJ called for pushing Martin who fell forward under his on power. Many many other instances could be cited.

And I have no idea why the crowd was booing after the ref called DJ for fouling on that three. Was the crowd watching for contact at the time of the shot rather than earlier in the motion up?

Randle initiated that body contact. He deviates from the direct path to the basket. Unfortunate for his knee, but that's clearly what happened.

This whole premise of this thread is off.

They allowed Illawarra to scrag, hit and do anything they liked to Randle, which ultimately resulted in what could be a season ending injury.

The refereeing has been bad (inconsistent) all season. There was nothing in this game to suggest it was any better or worse than any other game. The refereeing needs a weekly review and feedback session to refs, coaches, players and the NBL. Mick Downer would be a perfect candidate to assume that role.

Were you watching on TV, or were you at the game?

I'm with Wilson and Isaac on this one. The Townsville v Adelaide game a few weeks ago was really bad, this one was just run of the mill with the odd howler.

I think the fact some people are saying the refs called way too many fouls, while others are saying they let it get out of hand, suggests there is more hysteria than analysis on this one.

^+1

on the DJ/Forman shooting foul - replay on the beautiful new cube screens at the game showed apparent contact on Forman's right forearm from Johnson's left hand as Forman brought the ball up from about waist height. That camera angle was about the same as the ref who called the foul. No problem with that call.

paul, one person commented to me that it was a foul every 40-50ish seconds. Others say it was out of control from the start. And then some even dislike the refs "coaching" and warning players during play - how else do you try to keep play moving?

Consistency must be brutally hard when trying to balance all these things.

Yep, it's been a tough year for the refs because from what I hear the new boss tells them to call each decision purely on its merits (eg no particular emphasis on charge/block, letting small travels go or calling them all) and also says to only call the fouls that are necessary.

No wonder they are confused, and no wonder coaches, players and fans are confused. You have each ref on the panel, of differing experience and ability, making their own judgement calls on each situation. That's why you regularly see same/very similar situations called differently.

It's like a team playing without an offence and the coach just saying make a read on what you think is right.

I like the idea of letting it go a bit, it's produced some great ball at times this year, but you have to give the refs clear directives of what the have to call and what they can let go.

As I said earlier, I don't blame the refs, I blame the lack of direction they are given.

In 2014 they were given a clear direction on how to call the game and they were pretty consistent with it, this season the direction hasn't been there to nearly the same level and it's the most inconsistent I've ever seen it.

What 2014 showed us is players and coaches adjust if the game in called consistently, whichever way that is.

I'm in the "call the game tighter to get the game to flow" camp. Its hard for people to get their head around that the players will adjust but I believe it works. If thats the direction we take, we cant have people/players/coaches/media complaining that we need to "let the players play" because we'll be going around in circles.

I don't mind the refs coaching, providing they don't coach the same issue without ever blowing the whistle. Their verbal instruction should be a first and final warning. I don't want to hear a ref telling someone "no hold, no hold" for an entire play phase and not get pinged for the hold.

The issue I have is the grandstanding by some senior officials, or their attitude that seems to be that because they continue to win awards and recognition then their obscure/unique calls are correct and a sign of how good they actually are. Aylen is the perfect example of this and Butler went down the same path before he retired.

Aylen's push off call on Childress last round was ridiculous.

I'm big on calling the scrappy reaching, hacking etc tightly because that makes the spectacle look bad. Casual viewers tune in and assume the standard is poor. Call that tight and the hands come out pretty quick.

But I'm all for allowing players to use their bodies playing positional defence, and elevating from good defensive position to contest shots. That's how you get 'hardball' and make it a more athletic contest but also a cleaner looking one where players show off their skills.