Comments on rules / refs I sent to NA Hardcourt

I'll leave you with a final thought though: All players either need to accept and start playing by rules, even in the "heat of the game" or just admit that they're never going to play by the rules so that we can drop the façade and turn polo into a full contact sport.

As I said above, I don't believe that most people set out to cheat or break rules. But they do, because it's in the nature of competitive sport that people push things to get an advantage, because they want to win. Players also apply rules subjectively, much as drivers, who are able to observe that other drivers are 'bad', are not able to identify their own driving behaviour as 'bad'. Ever met a motorist who admitted that they were a 'bad' driver?

That is why you need refs, in my view. The alternative, full contact sport, is not one I find appealing.

Having reffed, the area that I found most difficult to call was the t-bone rule. 'You know one, when you see one' - sure, but you try and figure out where a t-bone finishes, and legitimate bike-to-bike starts. Not easy. Hence why I am suggesting that we take out bike-to-bike. It makes the ref's job a lot easier. That's it.