National Series 2011

Here's what to do with a player who disputes your decisions:

make him/her tap out.

2nd offence, ball turn-over or double tap-out.

3rd offence, 30 second penalty.

Right, Jono?

Yep, depends on the severity of the situation... we're pretty light on it really. In most other sports any chat/gestures towards the ref would result in instant penalisation, no prior warning, etc.

I tend to ignore people and say I'll talk to them afterwards, or issue tapouts, I've never had to take someone out of the game for it, but if they were being a crazy hot head (verging on reckless in the game too), then I'd take them out, no question.

As a ref, you should know the rules, say what you see and stick to your calls... can't go very wrong with that, but everyone makes a bad call every so often.

Don't change your mind or engage in conversation with any players. If you need to, stop the game and have a word with the goal refs (or neutral spectators), then issue a ball turnover, penalty, or simply restart the game (from a "reset") after you've announced your decision.

If you make a legitimate mistake (like stopping the game when you should have called advantage), think about the fairest way to proceed for both teams and honestly tell them what happened (that you made a small mistake) and instruct them on how you're going to proceed.