Witnessed an interesting situation at the Football West State League Cup final, and one that when queried with the referee Mathew Cheeseman, he answered with a straight bat at end of the game.
The Final was held at Frank Drago Reserve, the home of Bayswater City Football Club. The ground itself is very small, only sixty-one metres wide so I am reliably informed. Stirling used to great effect the long thrown in. The impressive Scott Muirhead being the man to launch the ball Rory Delap-like into the box.
Early in the first half Stirling Lions won a throw in on the right hand side of the pitch, in an area where the perimeter fence no longer existed. Muirhead, walked through the gap and into the crowd to give himself more of a run-up to launch another long throw into the Floreat box.
The question raised with the referee after the game was, surely even if there is no fence he should stay within those confines and not be allowed to disappear into the crowd to take a throw in.
The referee’s response, was to ask where does the field of play end if there is no fence? He also said that he could see no problem, as long as the player did not waste time or in his opinion was trying to be smart.
Does this interpretation mean that a player could in fact go into the crowd and run down the steps to launch a throw deep into the penalty area? Apparently there is no law to cover such an eventuality.
Well, as long as he is not ‘time wasteing’ or ‘being smart’ it appears you can run up from the back of the carpark if you like. Of course Mr Cheeseman might find it difficult to find a footballer he can penalise for being ‘too smart’ “Right son, your booked! I,ve had enough of your theory on anti matter particles and pocket fusion reactors.”