Wendy and I were at the Suncorp Stadium last weekend watching our team, the Canberra Raiders take on the Broncos. During the game, when we were down 24-0 to the bronc’s, one of the home crowd heckled us, to which a Raiders fan stood up and called back “anybody can support a winning team, but a true fan is there when they lose, too”.
Today, I sadly feel like a real fan.
After Saturdays very disappointing game, we were hoping very much for a better performance today. While the scoreline shows a loss, all is not negative. So here are my thoughts on todays game.
- Welcome back #8 Cam Trew. After missing 2 games with a suspension, Cam returned today and was an immediate noticable player on the Blue Line. He’s not an offensive threat, but he gives all he has and is always keen to do what is needed to help the team. Cam stood out today as one of the better players out there, always being amongst the play and getting involved.
- CJ was a lot better than the stats show. The box score showed that CJ faced 28 shots, letting in 4 goals. At first glance, you could say these are bad stats, but I feel it is very important to mention that CJ was a LOT better than the stats show. His positioning was great and play consistent. Unfortunately, a diving poke-check went the wrong way for him, which really turn what would have been good stats into what we have, but the play he made was the right one to make at the time.
- The Blue Tongues appear to have a major Ego issue among some players. Today was a lot better than yesterdays, but we still saw cases of people opting to hold the puck rather than play as a team. This is a team sport, and this type of play does nothing to help the team win. I could be wrong of course, but from the stands, this is how it looks at times.
- The #1 pet peeve I had about todays games was the lack of heart that a few players seemed to have. A sense of having given up on the game was evident in some players. Instead of chasing the puck, some just stood there and let others do the work. If guys don’t give a damn about the game, don’t play. That may seem a bit harsh, but there are people in the stands who pay good money to watch, scream at, and cry for the guys on the ice, and to see some just lazily skate around really pisses those people off.
- The Adrenaline Coach spent more time whining about the reffing than he did managing his team. When he did, his own team told him to “shut the F up”, which i found rather interesting.
- Once again, reffing was the lowlight of a game on the Gold Coast. I don’t know what is up, but todays game was pretty terrible. Missed calls right in front of the ref, bad icing calls and worse of all, a call for the 4th goal that almost everybody who saw it claims did not actually go in, really ruined the game. Those who follow the team know that the ref today was the same guy who reffed the shocking games a few weeks back.
- Someone told me today that the 39 shots we put on net today show our boys DO shoot on net. I disagree. What those 39 shots show is that we put bad shots on net. I would wager that less than 20 of those shots were scoring chances, whereas almost all of the Adrenaline’s 28 were. Our boys love to play down the wing then make terrible passes, or shoot from wide. Just something to think about.
- Lastly, Zac Daunt, Jack Conner, Jon Bale, Alex Hall and Ben Spillant need to be get a lot more credit than they’re given. In my opinion the 3 stars off this weekend are pretty much ALL in this list above. Sure, Upton and Amado scored, but it was these local guys who actually played like they gave a damn about the game. They gave all they had, every shift on the ice. These are not the only ones this applies to of course, but these guys were the standout players.
Talking of 3 Stars, here are my 3 for this weekends games, in no particular order. Zac Daunt, Marco Bertossa and Jack Conner.
I’ve been sitting on this post for the past week, wondering whether or not it was worthy of a blog post or not.
Last week the Blue Tongues were down in Melbourne taking on the Ice for back-to-back games. There was an incident during the Saturday game which had Blue Tongues forward Dallas Costanzo dive to allegedly block a shot and inadvertently trip an Ice player who went down and got injured. Costanzo was given a 2 minute minor for tripping and a game misconduct, meaning he would not be eligible to play on Sunday. As these games were “must-wins” for the Blue Tongues, losing Costanzo was a serious blow to the Tongues.
The Ice ended up winning both games, all but ending the Tongues playoffs hopes.
Back to that tripping penalty though, as that is the central point to this post. When it happened, the ref actually went and consulted with the AIHL rulebook before making the final ruling. This move has angered a few Blue Tongues fans, who believe a 2 minute tripping minor was all that was warranted. The ref, going out of his way to check the book ended Costanzo’s weekend, which had an impact on the Tongues playoffs hopes ending. This penalty has been discussed at length on Hockeypulse since those games.
Was it warranted? Did the ref go too far in making that call? As fans, we could argue this til the cows come home. Let me make it simple for you though. The AIHL rulebook clearly states under Rule 539 – Tripping:
b) A player who injures an opponent by tripping shall be assessed, at the discretion
of the Referee, a:
➤ Major penalty + Automatic Game Misconduct penalty (5’+GM)
or
➤ Match penalty (MP)
You can read the rules here: http://www.iihf.com/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF/rules_part_two.pdf
Regardless of what we as fans think, the ref was 100% correct in making that call. In fact, by going out of his way to read the rulebook, he did incredible justice to the AIHL. Over the last few seasons we have seen and heard of our fair share of bad reffing. In this case, when a ref actually does the right thing, and goes above and beyond to ensure he does the right thing, people jump on him. This doesn’t seem right.
As fans, our hearts get in the way of our minds at times. I plead with you all though, for the love of the league and the Blue Tongues, be a a fair fan and unbiased. Leave that to fans from other teams. The penalty, while not to our liking, was a good call.
