Men’s Junior World Cup Wrap-Up and Happy Holidays! | #WhatUpWednesday Ep. 141

📅 Dec 20 19.00 GMT
➡️ YouTube

We're helping Santa out with that Naughty or Nice List and figuring out who's getting (Christmas) cards as we wrap up the Men's Junior Hockey World Cup in Malaysia. There's more misconduct(!), video referral protocol leftovers, and more close calls to learn from.

But what's the last live stream of the year without a little tipple? Bring your good cheer, end of year learnings and wish lists for 2024… Keely Claus is ready to get jolly with the best #thirdteam around!

See you there!

🚨 Sign up now and nail those big calls with Mission Critical Positioning!

⏱ Chapter Markers:
0:00 Chair Dancing
04:55 Topics!
12:21 1. VR For Misconduct with a Twist – Men's Junior World Cup FRAvESP SF
42:15 2. Cards After a Melee – Men's Junior World Cup ARGvNED
01:02:20 3. VR: Retaining the Referral Men's Junior World Cup PAKvNED, ESPvPAK Quarter-Final
01:13:28 4. 5m Squared Before Goal? Men's Junior World Cup ESPvIND Bronze Medal
01:23:38 5. Inside or Outside? Clean or Not? Men's Junior World Cup GERvFRA Gold Medal

Check out when the next #WhatUpWednesday will go live.

🟢🟡🔴 🏑

Transcript

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Field Hockey Umpiring | FHumpires on 2023-12-20 at 12.02.41

[00:00:00] Keely: I feel it getting close, I feel the joy in the air. Everybody's going home to the people they care for the most.

And I'm on my way, cause you're my happy holiday. Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na

Turning down our road, I'm like a kid again. I can't wait to see all of my family and all of my friends. And I'm on my way, cause you're my happy holiday. Na na na na na na You're my happy

We'll tell stories, make our own. We'll sing songs the whole world knows.

Everyone we love is here, Drinking up the season's cheer.

You're my happy holiday.

Happy, what up Wednesday, everybody. Happy holidays. And I'm so glad you're joining me today. It's yeah, it's that time of year and no, I'm not wearing my annual Santa hat. Couldn't find it. It's somewhere. Don't ask me. There's only so much a girl can do. So I brought snow. I have pretty lights. I have little touches all throughout the show.

I'm doing my best here. I'm just, you know, doing my thing. Um, great to see, um, Mr. Jolt Cola of Evil, uh, all about the back lines. Raju is here. Haven't seen you for a couple of weeks, so I'm really glad you're back. It's nice to have you. And Gayatri is here. It's fantastic. Simon. Yeah. And how, what, how, okay. I need, I need help with this.

And I also need help with, um, Paul's, Natalik Loewen. I don't know what these things are and I'm not allowed to Google when I'm live streaming. Apparently it's really bad manners. So I'm not, I could, I could. But I won't. Okay. So we have, we have clips because, and we have learning to do. We don't get to start a holidays just yet, although over on the side here, ready to go.

Because we just wrapped up the Men's Junior World Cup in Malaysia, uh, a few days ago. Fantastic tournament, and as was the Women's Junior World Cup in Santiago. And we had, we had 12 matches of Pro League action as well. All within, um, oh, my snow has, my snow has stalled. I have, I have just blotches now.

Let's try that. Oh, it stopped looping. Okay, there we go. Oh wait, I have some holiday background music too. Please tell me if it's too loud. Hopefully it's okay. I'm not trusting anything. And I listen to your feedback. Very important. Very necessary. Anyway, because we had tournaments going on so late this year, uh, there's just great stuff to talk about, and like, let's make hay while games shine.

That's what they say, right? They make hay while games shine? Probably not. Um, good to see everybody else who I welcomed in the intro. Thanks for coming along. Uh, topics! Let's do it. Uh, we're gonna do a VR for misconduct. No, no, no, no, this is the wrong no, no, no. Here we go. See, I have Christmas things. We have a twist, we have cards after a melee because apparently these people didn't know that it was Christmas.

Um, a little review of video referrals that we didn't know about, and a couple of, you know, let's just talk. Oh wait, and this isn't the full, there we go, back to Christmas stuff. Let me know how the, how the music is coming along. And, oh, you were, you were way at nationals, were you? Excellent, congratulations.

I hope you had a good time, and I'd love for you to hop into the server and let us know all about it, because the more we hear about how other people Run tournaments and experiences they had and all that sort of thing. It's just really fun to learn what everybody else does, so. My mic sounds cheap. Let's see what's happening here.

for letting me know. Mic is on. It probably means I'm on the wrong mic. So, that's for sure. Let's make sure this

is on the right place. Cause look, nobody likes to sound cheap. Crisp is on. How about we,

how's that? Is that better? It sounds, it sounded muffled as soon as I turned the music on. Dude.

And the music is off. I got it like 5%. No, no, no, like your opinions matter.

Your opinions really matter. And I'm sorry that you're feeling poorly. You work yourself really hard, so I hope you get a chance over the holidays to rest. Is that better? Because I'm gonna turn this music off. Like, on the soft side.

This is befuddling. Nobody's ever told me I'm quiet before. My mic address should be okay.

How's that? I have better sound now. My mic does sound better. Okay. Hey AJ, good to see you. And a good Christmas to you as well. Okay, um, I'll breeze through just one early announcement because, I mean, why not? I'm starting to like getting these done so I don't forget them later.

Um, I, I wrote down the phonetic. Mayra Van Der Wijn. Welcome! I hope I didn't totally butcher that so much. I was like, I really want to say this name right. Mehran is what Google told me. Welcome to Yellow. I'm so glad you're here. And Dawn, I would like to thank you very much. Uh, Mehran let me know that you were the one who sent him over.

So I shall be bestowing upon you a complimentary month of Yellow for doing me that immense honor of actually trusting me with your friends. Cause I think that's just crazy. If you want to know more about Yellow, then there's a QR code right there, or just go to fhu3t. com and it should take you to a page that tells you all about all of that.

Stuff. We hang out, we talk a lot, we watch your video of you umpiring, and do debriefs. We watch a lot of watch parties. And by watch parties I mean we watch a lot of matches together. And, I don't know. It's just a really cool place to be. So. And you have access to the clip library. There's a few other, few other things.

It's all on the sales page. Go have a look at it. And if you want to know about the other parts about YOLO, please refer to the song, because that's very good. No, no, no, you can press like right now. Go ahead, Simon. Look, I'd rather, I'd rather this. Like, some likes, maybe this will turn into a tumble of likes, I don't know, because you can do this thing here, and, like, I, okay, cheers to you, Simon, I'm just, I'm ready, I'm ready for this.

Aside from welcoming, um, Maren, uh, just a little bit of a reminder that our Control Elevator course is live. And I just, I bring up the graphic and I realize that I haven't checked on the automation to make sure that everybody's got notice who pre bought. If you pre bought And you haven't come and checked in the discord, I'm sorry.

But it's ready for you, it's ready for you in the holidays. And I will make, I will make it up to you somehow. I, I don't know. Um, and yes, that's the thing. Oh, thank you very much! Yes, I, I should probably give a shoutout for this. That, uh, on the Half Court Press podcast, I don't have a link handy, but it's on all of All of the FH Humpire socials, uh, I had a really good conversation with Taylor McLeod who I've, uh, been, had the privilege of being his guest a few times on his podcast before, but this one was really kind of fun because we were talking more about coaching methodology and I prepared, like, he sent me the questions in advance and I prepared for this episode.

I thought very deeply about things. And thought about, you know, what am I really trying to achieve within the FHUmpires13, and, and, and I, I have more thinking to do, because this is something that I'm really, I'm passionate about being, like, the best umpire coach that you can shake a stick at, and that means constantly questioning myself, questioning everything that I've learned, Yeah, um, I see a lot of people, uh, questioning and pulling from methodologies from other sports, from other fields of practice, from all kinds of stuff.

And, and we touched on a lot of those kinds of topics in that podcast. So, I'd love to hear more feedback. Thank you, Stefan, for, uh, bringing that up cause that was really fun. Okay. Uh, let's get into it. And, um, if you have something in your glass, if you have a festive beverage in your glass, let me know. Uh, so that I can, cheers to you, in a very, can I, I don't want to clink the actual, I'm not going to clink my teleprompter because I'll probably ruin it.

I'll probably knock the camera right off the stand or something. There you go, um, let's get this party started. Let's see if I have the right title queued up. Yes! Misconduct with a twist. What to do with it, just get it as far away as possible. I can't remember why it's twisty. Oh, yeah. There was a push in the back there.

Unnecessarily from Orioch. In the back. Here you'll see. Oh no, he did give him a stick in the back of the head.

I'm not sure if it caught him in the ear, but we are going upstairs now. This was really unnecessary. So there is a poll for this. Go have Uh, a look. There are a ton of options because I knew that y'all would have some feelings, some thoughts, some input that you'd like to give on this. And you can also add your own options.

So if you're Fraser and you want to see three penalty strokes, you can put that down as an option. I don't know if Fraser's here, but if he is, then, you know, pop that in there.

And start letting me know your thoughts in the comments as well. So there is a push, um, by the defender inside the circle, um, in the back of the French player. So my, uh, my request is, um, that there's a penalty corner, there's a penalty corner for, um, off the ball incident, and it's a 10 minute yellow. Yeah, but it's not, so it's a penalty corner because they're not in ball possession.

It's a penalty corner, 10 minute yellow for number 7. Okay. A lot going on there. Oh, it's good my placeholder overlay has popped up. I sure hope if somebody's actual comments come in, it's gonna come there. Let's see if that works. No, of course it didn't. What is the point? Sorry, I'm fine. I was, I was asked quite some time ago.

If I would move my comments from the bottom of the screen by a member in the audience, and I thought, you know what, that's a really good idea. And then I promptly forgot. So here we go. This is me trying to change things up, but apparently placeholders don't actually hold places. So there it is. Ian is drinking a glass of Pilton cider.

And this actually might be easier for me to see as well. We'll see what happens. Okay. All right. So this was, um. In the France Spain game, which I believe this was one of the semi, two semi finals. So, what was really interesting about this game, and things that I've noticed over the last few months, in watching international matches.

And I granted a, um, under 21s are obviously not full fledged, fully, or more mature senior athletes, and they're under a different set of pressures. This is a often a very big step up for a lot of these players, to move from small national competitions. For some of them, this is their very first experience with Uh, video referral, there are teams that have a good chunk of athletes who already have like 50 senior caps, like some of the Australian teams and, and Germany, and, you know, some of the big nations have some big cap players, uh, still on their under 21, um, age group.

But it seems like there were some very like losing their heads sort of moments and you could definitely put this one in. That, uh, you can't add an option to the poll? Why is that? That seems wrong. Stijn, I'm sorry about that. I, I may have forgotten to put that option there just for this poll, but try it for another one and let's see.

Um, Video Umpire says off the ball for you, Don, he would have gained possession if not for the horrible foul. The player's okay, he came back and he just had a, um, a wrap, a bandage around his Noggin. I don't know if it was his ear or the back of his neck that There had been, um, some skin split, but there you go.

Um, so that was definitely there. Let's see. A glass of Portuguese Montaria? Because Boo doesn't like it. Huh. I'm gonna have to find out more about this, this Montaria thing. I have not, in my wine travels, heard of such a varietal. So I'm ready for this. Um, so yes, the, the on field decision at the time was calling a free hit.

Now make sure I got this right, a free hit defense, because the ball was coming into two players. So Don, I, I see your point, but I don't think there was an initial receiver. So the very first Foul that happens is, for me, that the ball is not sort of receivable. At the same time, the players are still trying to figure out if they're gonna contest this ball.

And this is one of those things that you're like, Ah, this is why we still have rules about five meters. Because players can't always be trusted to do the right thing. So, hi Spencer! Spencer, have we met before? Let's meet via DJ Irvine. Uh, so the Spain player didn't play dangerously. It would have been a free hit out thrown into danger.

Why would a team penalty be given? Red card, stick to the head, free hit out. That is a really good point. Because, as I was starting to look at Don's point, my My thought had been that the player wasn't, it's, it's difficult because if the player wasn't able to gain possession of the ball because the ball was unplayable, the ball was already illegal by way of being thrown into danger because there were two players in the same spot, your argument is very, very sound.

And something to sort of turn around, because what we have is a player, we have this distinction, only inside the circle. And only inside the circle. We've had this conversation on the server. Can you award a team penalty for a foul that occurs against a player who does not have possession or likely possession of the ball?

What that means is that you've got this weird situation where you have to determine that disadvantage can occur in a Team context, even though that player isn't on the ball. And we were talking about this, but why would it be that we have this special rule in the circle? Whereas if anything happens anywhere else on the pitch, when a player doesn't have possession of the ball, and it's this kind of misconduct thing, then there's no team penalty award, we simply award cards.

So if you Grab a player's jersey, you push them, you hit them with your stick, you do something like that. That is just misconduct that we deal with with cards. We don't award a free hit because you've pushed them off the away from the ball. I shouldn't say off the ball because that sounds like they're getting actually shoved off the ball.

So we have this really odd tension and I think the purpose behind it is. The rule has been in place for a very long time. One of the most, uh, unknown. Um, areas of section 12. 3, please correct me if I'm wrong, I don't feel like going to the scene right now. That a penalty corner can be awarded for an intentional foul against a player who does not have likely possession of the ball.

So If a player is disadvantaged and doesn't have likely possession of the ball, do we consider this a hockey play? Because I've been going on in some pretty significant rants lately about how red cards are reserved for things that are not the hockey. They happen without the ball being contested. And there's always grey areas about whether the ball is there or being played or not being played.

I know you get my drift, but that is one of the distinctions is that. There is no, there is no contesting of the ball in a way that you can say that is reckless, it's dangerous, but it's still hockey. Instead, in contrast, that's violence, okay? So that, um, that point, Spencer, really like it. And let's keep exploring it, okay?

And sort of test it against some of the other ideas here. Yeah, Paul the early whistle would have helped. Free hit defense for the 5 meter infringement and yellow card 10 for the push. And let's be clear, it was a striking of the stick to the head. It wasn't just a push. You know, like he, unless you want to say that he uses stick to push on his head.

Okay, there was a blow and he was cut open. You know, that was there. Um, and

I don't know where that went. Uh, Luke, you bought your mom one of her favorite wines, rosé ganache, it's a different brand. Wine chat, okay, there you go. But I think, just going back to the early whistle point, Paul, is that umpires are now caught in a conundrum. It's difficult because as the aerial is being thrown, umpires have been coached not to make a decision until the ball is 20 meters away from its receiving point.

It's first receiving point because there may be an interception coming and we've seen instances over the last few weeks where umpires have made early aerial calls and either because an interception has come and it's been completely fine, or The players just rearranged themselves at the last minute because somebody backed off this way.

For example, the infringing player decided, Oh sh yeah, I'm, I'm gonna get called for this, I'm gonna back away. Then, there, then all of a sudden the whistle goes and the umpire looks like an idiot because They've called a foul and there's like nothing wrong and you can hear the players all going, what? And the umpire, this is not their fault.

Okay. This is a really, really tough balance to strike. So I, I hear your point. Totally understand it. Also difficult to do that given we're in this sort of weird middle ground of making early decisions and trusting the players to sort it out because we're allowing them to try to intercept even within the five meters so long as it's not dangerous and not playing, um, not playing distance and you can only determine that The danger part only comes at the point of reception or the attempted interception.

You can't, you can't say, Oh, the way that they're trying to intercept that is absolutely, you know, going to be dangerous. The only, the only way you can tell that is if the player is like clearly not looking, but there's so much gray in there. So many options, so many ways that players can all of a sudden just like go, Oh yeah, I'm not going to do that.

And all of a sudden it's safe. So I hope that makes sense. Bit rambly. Um, always slow motion makes things worse, Simon, so I appreciate you pointing out that the slow mo makes it work, makes it worse. Could be the free hit defense for lifted with no clear receiver, otherwise PC also for what it's worth, you're drinking delirium.

Allez les gantois, a bien.

So I can see that, I can see that. I was, I was surprised at the penalty corner decision, to be honest. I think when you work through the permutations, either you say this is a hockey play and there was a team disadvantage and he was trying to contest the ball, but he really shouldn't have contested it that way.

It was very reckless and very dangerous and therefore yellow card territory. And you have to apply a team penalty to that because you can inside the circle. Or it's completely not. It's a hockey play and it's a red card.

And given that the ball is about to drop and I've had a few people making comments that it all came after the ball, it did not come after the ball, the ball came after or was simultaneous. Like it was probably 10 meters away when contact was made. So the Spanish player is probably going, I am going to make sure that everybody understands I'm the receiver here because if I don't step up.

And if I'm not there showing that I want to receive this ball but for this French player who's also in my space is right there, I need to have my stick up here. And oops, I'm not going to be very careful about what I do with it. That's what I think really happens here, but I'm happy to hear more. Frank's going with the free hit defense and 10 minute yellow card.

Okay, could have been a free defense from a, yeah, hard to tell, uh, Dunn, we don't have eyes on the running zone the whole time, if no initial receiver, then maybe you go, I think with the slow mo, we actually get a fairly decent picture of how the players are quite close to each other, there's, Two or three sets of players inside the circle before the ball lands and when we have that tower angle, that we have that vertical up the pitch, that's when we see that Yeah, there wasn't any real separation given where the ball was sent to.

Nobody had that. So for Murph, that's a red because the young man makes an initial movement allegedly to receive and then a second almost wrist flick. Is it a push or a hit to the head? We're, yeah, we're not gonna debate that. There you go.

And there you go. And just remember, don't just say it's violence. The reason it's violence is because for you, it's not part of a hockey play. To me, the fact that the ball is dropping means it's part of a hockey play. Incredibly reckless, yes. But violence is, I am not about to or trying to play the ball or playing the ball.

To me, We have to be very, very careful in that. Does that mean that there are going to be some very nuanced cases that are close to the line like this one I believe is? Of course it does. Because guess what? Humans. But. We have to, we can't just state something as a word and say that is that, we have to provide a solid rationale.

Um, yes, 12. 4b for Murph, uh, is saying that it's a deliberate offense against a player with an opportunity to play the ball. So does that player have an opportunity to play the ball because it's already going to be called as no initial receiver? That's something we haven't really wrestled with. This is a very unique situation.

And then, hi. Oh my god, you're making T Rex and unicorn hats? Aww, I wanna play, that sounds fun. Especially the T Rex part. So, for Dawn, taking it all into account, it would be a free hit defense for no initial receiver, but then the deliver defense, yellow card, 10 for off ball offense. Uh, PC. Okay. AndJassa!

What? I'm so glad you're here, Jassa!

Good to see you! And Jassa likes the red. Okay. Okay. And if for you the hockey play is notthat is not the hockey, then I understand. And I'm, I mean, I was really, really angry and vociferous and on one side or another last week because the situations were to me very clear. This is not a clear situation whatsoever.

So that's why I'm listening and, and trying to take into account and also, you know, yeah, it's just a really complicated thing. You don't think he's playing the ball even if it's a hockey play.

Um, okay.

I don't know if I agree totally with that, but that's all right. So let's. Go see if I can see the poll. Oh wait, let me, let me just test that this is working.

It works. Okay, I just wanted to make sure that that's good. Okay, here's our poll! There's a lot of Okay, let's see if I can read all this. I'm actually gonna turn this on, so we've got Um Nope, nope, nope, nope. Did anybody vote at all? Did anybody vote? Oh, here, here they come. Maybe I need to refresh. Let me refresh.

I have to unlock. Okay,

there's Clyde. Okay, free

hit defense and red added by Luke.

That's four votes. Five votes for a penalty stroke. Okay, how can it be a penalty stroke? For those of you who voted that way, a penalty stroke has to be, I mean, you have to feel that that player had the opportunity to play the ball.

Now remember that let's say that there was no, you know, head thing. There was no stick to the head whatsoever. That simply would have been a free hit defense. But now it's a penalty stroke because something hockey has to be taken away for the team penalty to be required to reset the scales of justice in that manner.

A almost Sure goal, type of opportunity has to be taken away in order for you to award a penalty stroke. Does that make sense?

Yes. It's BU. If opponent does not have possession of the ball or opportunity to play the ball. Yep. And Murphy had this one this season already. Game into chaos, we're stick to the head, umpire at the set, set, accident, player said deliberate, lots of shouting. Well, I mean, the question comes in, Oh boy, that was a That's a big, um, comment.

Um, but the, the question then becomes, I'm just going to make it worse. How's that? How's that? Oh, you just don't.

Let me do this. Hopefully that works. Okay, so, I mean, chaos can ensue, but the question is, what did that umpire do with it? Did they award nothing? And if somebody says it's an accident and doesn't award any card, that's not good enough. We have to penalize players for being reckless and dangerous even if they don't intend to do the thing.

If they had the possibility of controlling their actions, they need to be penalized and warned so that the next time they're in a situation where they could take care, they do. That's, that's all we're looking for, right?

And if you think attack was the initial receiver, yes, a penalty stroke would be the right penalty. Yeah, absolutely. So if that's what you're thinking, friends. Um, please let me know. We have the free hit, um, uh, free hit defense for Stijnt. Yeah, I might have just given up because we're already into M. So that's a lot of options.

That's a lot of options. But it looks like the lead is, let me get rid of that one, it looks like the winner is free hit defense and Red. Okay, I want to think some more about that. Oh, we do, we do have, oh, we have four votes for the penalty corner and Red. As well,

and I, I struggle with that one. I'm not sure if that one works, but there you go. Okay. Yeah, that's, that's not, that's not, that doesn't work. There you go. Okay. So the lesson to take out of this, I think for all of us at home, oops, and I can turn that off now, is that there are a lot of, there's, there's two, there's actually three separate rules, principles to take into account.

For that particular scenario. There's the aerial rules. There are the difference between a penalty corner and a penalty stroke rules and Cards, so that's very Tom, was that you? What? Was that you in the clip? And you had three stitches? Oh my god. Well, first of all, welcome and I mean, how awesome are you to show up to an umpiring show or did you just want to see what we said about you?

Look man, I'd do it too. I do it too. Fantastic tournament. Congratulations, by the way, and I'm glad you weren't. Um, you weren't hurt more than that and no extra consequences or anything. So, here you go. Just thought I was hoping you were okay too.

Tom, that's awesome. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you stick around so you can see all the other things that I say about all the other places in Malaysia. This feels weird. It's one thing to know that the umpires from the comps are watching, but the players? That seems, you know, there we go. Um, Yeah, seems that we've mostly agreed on the red, but we seem to be split on the Freya, Terrence, and PC, and that's a big, that's a big split, that's a big split, like, that is a big difference for Tom.

And that's why we really have to be careful and we have to, we have to try to work through these things. And for us, we don't have a third person with a brain that isn't all activated by us running around the pitch and trying to make a billion decisions all at once. We have like a, in Canadian law, it's called the sober second thought, the senatorial body.

We, we have like this third. And we have this third person who can take a little bit more time and put together all these thoughts very carefully and give the umpires in those matches that extra, that extra analysis and that extra piece. So I want us to be really careful again. No drag zone. We don't drag here.

And this was an incredibly complicated call. I think the most important thing is. Um, you know, the big thing here, first of all, Tom's okay. Second of all, how do we work through all these things? So that's why we practice. We practice, okay, if it's an aerial and it's coming in, are there times where we still can blow our whistle earlier so we can keep the players safe?

So something like that doesn't happen. When do we have to wait until the ball is receivable? Because there is a pending interception. How can we be in the right position? So instead of being in line with the play and the ball is coming from one side of us, can we have mission critical positioning so that we're behind and the ball is coming towards us and all the players are right here, right in our distinct view, so that we can be seeing those two are marked, that guy's free, uh, these two have about three meters between them, so depending on where the ball drops, that person might be the initial receiver.

Make all those decisions before the ball gets there. And then we have to understand rule 12. 3 and know which way we would go with that. And we have to be better at giving out the appropriate yellow card sanctions for reckless and dangerous behavior. Not, you know, there is no, Oh, they didn't mean it. Then they were still, but they still did the thing.

Okay. I hope that really helps. Yep. And if you can blow early, blow early. We're gonna need to talk about this more, and I want to continue discussions with players and coaches about this because I know that they want us to get the hell out of the way. I know they want the aerial rules to get basically blown outta the water, and the only consideration is safety.

If there were no aerial rules, in that case, Tom could have got cranked even harder. Nobody wants that. So it's one thing to say like, let's let the players play and then hand out all the cards later. But we also wanna prevent, and that's what the rules are for. So there's a lot of tension here and a lot of things that we have to sort of figure out.

We do have the 13, but we don't get asked until a long time after the event. There you go. A lot to figure out. So Stefan, it's interesting because depending on which rule you weigh is the most important leads to decisions given the different decisions. In a debrief you understand why, but in the game it can be seen as inconsistent.

Yes, and that's, that's the biggest frustration for everybody, is that we're applying the same rule and the same principles, but the fact situation has just one tiny piece a little bit different. The ball was landing shorter and Had a bit of a lower trajectory and suddenly our aerial decision is completely different than the one where the ball is landing a little bit longer.

And in between the two players who are exactly the same distance away, at the exact same angle, doing the exact same thing. That one factor changes everything. So, it's, again, just more talking, more education, more understanding of what we're trying to get to. And Tom, trust us, we want to get out of your way because it's really fun to watch you and it's not very fun to watch us.

But, really. The game is about watching you play and the more we can get out of that so that we can just sit back and be going, that's what we want. And yeah, there's, there is a difference. Stijnes pointing out that it's not necessarily about the most important rule, but it's the first applicable rule.

Because there's a sequence, right? And it would be unfair that just because of physics, and the time it takes to blow a whistle, and it takes for the whistle to arrive at the mouth, and the sound to come out, and everybody to stop, that something that happens after the first foul is the thing that gets accounted for.

So Stijn, that's a really, really good point. Thank you for, for doing that. Okay. I mean, it's, it's like 45 minutes, so Standard. Let's do another one! Cards after a melee. Tom, how do you like these apples? Do you remember this one?

It's not that I want to focus. I really don't want to focus on negative hands. But I just want to show you, okay, we're, we're really late into Q4. Netherlands up one goal. So we know what has to happen here. Right? One minute left. So we've just had a hard A hard tackle, a foul, a yellow card sent off, and people are pissed.

Okay. Tempers are high, and then this happens. Can you please check this play for any serious misconduct?

Ball is up and player gives in Three hits is given. Two players Three hits is given. Two players touch each other. Falling touch each other. Falling over. And then more pushes. over. And then more pushes. I'm just kidding. I don't know. I'm just kidding. I don't know. It starts before that. You can It starts before that.

You can see the two arms all over each see the two arms all over each other. In the circle. other. In the circle. Shoulder to shoulder. Having Shoulder to shoulder. Having And if you can hear what Tyron is talking about here, he is pointing out, and I'll, I'll highlight it more as we look at the replay, just how much was going on leading up to this.

Murph, I'm not putting that up on the screen. We do not condescend to players by calling it a naughty stuff. That's bullshit. I hate that. These players are out there busting their butts. This is their life right now and everything they work towards, we're not calling them naughty. End of story.

Okay, so we're back and I'm just saying, I'm just saying, um, let's see, see, this isn't in the right spot either. Never. Okay,

given the principles that we've been talking about, about what constitutes a yellow card and what constitutes a red card,

please go have a vote and give me your thoughts as to what you think is a hockey play. What isn't a hockey play in this particular situation and whether there are other things to be done.

I have thoughts. I have thoughts on this. I'm just going to have a sip of wine and I'm going to wait for you all to chime in.

But here is something I want to point out, okay? Here's the players. You know all the times I say, this stuff doesn't come out of nowhere? And that the more we just warn players and ask them to stop and just give them a chance and keep them on the pitch, how that backfires because something worse happens and then we have to take stronger action.

In order to keep everybody safe and keep the integrity of the game. Those are the players there,

who are involved. And you can hear, okay, so it rewinds a little bit. We're gonna see them come back on, on the screen again. So there they are,

and you're tracking, you're tracking. And those two, my friends, are the same players who are tussling in here.

Hi. Shayne with a Y. Descript never picks up your proper spelling. You remember this being a long sequence of events. Yeah, I trimmed a lot of things out of this because I have to. There's a lot going on and I kept in the parts that I thought were more determinative. And obviously there's walking away and then Hideki comes in and is doing his thing as well.

And that's a point that I want to make in that when I talk about melees, I, and I stick to it, that in almost every other situation, that only one umpire should be involved in separating the players. And even then, you should be careful about how you get yourself physically involved. The reason that this is different is because you've got a third umpire.

So don't do what I did in 2006 and run into the middle of a crowd and like literally pick up players by the backs of their necks and pull them away from each other. Put your hands on them, do all those things. Don't do that because that's not good umpiring, by the way. I did that and it was bad. It was wrong.

So the reason that this is different is because you've got a third umpire. You have now these new. This new protocol where the serious misconduct can be referred. So not only do you have cameras watching everything that these players are doing, but you have somebody who's able to administer, to advise on what penalties should be applied in the moment.

Not just an after the game review where players might get a slap on the wrist or might get a ban for a couple games or whatever by the tournament director, but an actual penalty that impacts the game as it stands. Now, with less than a minute to go, it's not going to be a huge impact, which is one of the reasons why it's difficult to deal with this at this moment, because ehhh.

F it. I'm gonna do whatever I want.

Uh, so for Taco, they should both be sent away. A two times yellow card. Spencer, how do we deal with that specifically? Um,

last minute, sorry, it's, yeah, last quarter, last minute, last quarter, where do we stop the time? Okay. One thing to consider is there, you have a balance to strike between interrupting the momentum of the play, and especially for the team who is down a goal, which is Argentina in this moment. Desperately trying to get back, trying to get into the circle, trying to develop a scoring opportunity, a penalty corner, whatever the case might be.

And you do not want to fuck that up for them. Right. But when we talk about things like time wasting, I encourage you to understand that by stopping the time quickly, you actually often put time back onto the clock for the team that is down because. Everything can get rearranged and dealt with while the time is off.

You get the play set up, the ball's in the right spot, the player who's going to take that free hit is on the spot, instead of the whole, I'm gonna put the ball there, and then I'm gonna walk away, and then one of my teammates is gonna come up, and then they're gonna walk away, and then the third person's gonna walk up, and they're gonna be the one who's gonna take the free hit.

Tom, we're on to you. We know what's happening here. So, by stopping time, you actually Add seconds, so long as it's not a momentum interruption. But I think what we can all pull out of this situation is that when you see a couple players who are going at it this hard in the circle at this point in the game, that as soon as you have a moment, so there's a foul there as the ball comes down, if time had been stopped here and those two players sent off with yellow cards for the handbags, You're done.

No melody. And that's very hindsight, right? I'm, I, I, I, I want to be I want to be kind and realistic here that it's very easy to say after the fact, Oh, if you had done something else and moved those players off the pitch, clearly they wouldn't have pushed each other. And one wouldn't have pushed one and the other one wouldn't have fallen and there wouldn't have been a whole, you know, thing.

Um, you're expecting the supporting umpire to pick up off the ball. Exactly. Okay? And it depends on who's closer and that sort of thing, but one of you cannot get involved. Absolutely cannot. And you're, all you do is you pull your, your, your pad out of your pocket, the card that you write on, if you do like I do and write on hands, and you just sit there and you watch and you start writing down the numbers.

Okay? You have to be methodical and you have to record the numbers so that you can then go to your colleague afterwards and says, okay, so we had Argentina number, you know, Somebody can fill in the numbers for me.

But we had, you know, number one and number two. Okay, those two pitches, number one did the push, and number two got up, and then number three from Argentina came in and gave a push to number one of Netherlands, and then, you know. Because this is not a one card situation, and to me, this is not a yellow card situation.

And I know that the Argentinian fell rather dramatically, and that can be dealt with too, right? We have the ability to actually address the misconduct that comes from this. If some player is Being a jerk and diving and feigning an injury or severity of a foul that isn't there, we can card that player.

So to me, I'd be sending that Argentinian off for the handbags in the circle, that's a yellow card. The Netherlands player who gave the push, that's a red card to me because that is not part of a hockey play. And you have this melee that erupts. And what is the real The whole point of a red card is to remove that player from the game and from the surrounds so that they can no longer stir up what is going to be, what could be a dangerous situation for everybody else on the pitch.

Everybody else comes running in because they got to protect their, their, their friends. And I understand that impulse. Why wouldn't you? But the cause of the problem, the cause of those bad tempers, just like the Chilean who ran up to the Argentinian celebration and headbutted the guys twice after they scored the go ahead goal in the gold medal game at the Pan Am Games, that wasn't particularly violent.

It wasn't like, It wasn't particularly harmful. It didn't cause an injury. Nobody was hurt as a result of it. It's why it happened and the fact it had nothing to do with the hockey. So to me, this is a red card. And then you can send another few cards to other players who came in after the fact. That's my, those are my thoughts.

Let me see what you say. And taco, hoofed class of ump, also a policeman told you to never step into a fight, never touch any of the players, just observe.

And it's, it's hard because you're, you're trying, like, our job is to keep the players safe, number one. So if we just stand back and let them take swings at each other, like, holy crap, are we doing our jobs? Instinctively, we're saying, no, we're supposed to be holding them apart until they can calm down.

That is our instinct. And unfortunately, it does not serve. It does not serve us. It puts us in danger and it also makes it harder for us as decision makers because we have multiple roles in the situation. We have to then make a decision as to what we're going to do. And when I waded into that melee on the pitch, In the Trinidad and Tobago versus Netherland Tilly's match in 2006, my adrenaline was through the roof.

And I was pulling apart players and separating them and doing all that stuff. And I was so close to everything, I saw nothing. I had no idea who had thrown which punch, who had come in second, who had come in third. I had no idea what happened. And my colleague was AWOL. So, I failed. And, I mean, apparently, and I believe it, red cards should have been thrown, and I wasn't there to do it.

Because I didn't have the information I needed, because I failed to step back to see. So, unless you have the oversight. Of a video umpire that is going to have the camera angles and you have now these brand new video umpire protocols, don't get involved. Do not. You just can't.

Most of us umpiring don't have reviews. Yep. Um, if we're looking into carding the Argentinian player as well, would we not consider the red, um, It depends on, it depends on which Argentinian player you're talking about. Okay, the one who's dropped, who's been pushed, I'm carding him for what happened in the circle.

And if the Netherlands player hadn't pushed him, I would have card him for what happened in the circle, not, not for being pushed. And would I have a problem with the second Argentinian who came in to grab the Netherlands player from the back? You know, maybe, but that's not a red for me.

Um, Simon, a few years ago, you tried, tried to watch a fight break out in front of your colleague. A player left in front of you, waving, demanding red cards because he blocked you. Yeah, that's, oh, what a pain. Yeah. Take off your glasses. That's a good idea. Okay, um, I don't know what I did with this poll because I think it was just one of those that there were so many options.

I said go ahead and put your own things in there. Did I do that properly? Let's see what happened. Right, so yellow card for the Dutch player and for Argentinian, for the Argentinian player. I guess you'd have to, I, I know that you're writing a poll so it's hard. So which Argentinian player and why? I would say, but if you're giving just the cards beforehand because that's preventative and the other stuff doesn't happen in a magical universe where sliding doors, great.

Okay, I get it. And then, free hit defense, um,

10 minutes for the Argentinian for the stuff in the circle. Red, there you go. And I think there's probably another couple cards that I would add too. I guess, after seeing what we saw, With our new friend Tom, my new best friend. I don't know about you guys, but he's my new best friend. And you saw that, and many of you were asking for a red card there.

Why are you not asking for a red card for the push? Is it because it just wasn't as dangerous? Is that the proper scale? Or is it the not hockey scale? We have to be clear about our principles or else we are not going to be consistent and we're not going to be able to give players the service they deserve.

We have to be consistent. Just want to leave you with that thought.

Are we good? Are we good? I'll wait for a couple more comments, just in case.

Um, did the video umpire look at the situation before the melee just thinking that was the request of the on field referral? Can they assist with that? I mean, no, I mean, they're looking for serious misconduct, but part of it is that. You know, the, the pitch umpire said, you know, here in the corner, didn't say an anything leading up to that.

And at some point as a video umpire, you're kind of like, okay, do I look at like 15 minutes of play? Because trust that wasn't the only piece of shithousery that was going on in that game. There was a lot going on in that game. It was, it was really not fun to watch for two teams who can play amazing hockey.

That was one of the worst. Games, the only one that was worse than that in the tournament was Germany and Argentina. That was worse. I, I couldn't watch that one without just wanting to throw up in my mouth because it was just shit hockey because of how the players were behaving. And I was really pleased to see teams getting the message as the tournament went on.

France got the message as the team, as the tournament went on and started to get more and more disciplined and that's why they succeeded. That's why they exceeded, they, they blasted through expectations and surprised everyone. I'm not just sucking up to my new best friend, Tom. I really felt that and I said that many times in the watch parties.

Oh, shoot! I forgot. There's like, there's very little snow on the ground right now. Well, I guess there is snow on the ground, but I'm trying to be holiday ish. Your first comment was phrased really poorly, Luke. If you're happy to card the Argentinian player as well as the NED player, why are we not con Okay, yeah.

Yeah. And I would. And it's an easier red for you. Yeah. Player gets into a scuffle in the circle and then jogs over to where the ball is and then continues pushing from elsewhere on the pitch. Yeah. Not hockey, friends. It's not hockey. Good to see you, Rich, by the way. Happy holidays. Not doing my, my usual, but there you go.

Okay. I'll come back to your comment later, Simon Edwards. Left over from I've given penalty corner for the high tackle. They're saying the stick was in front. Can you check whether you would have got the ball if the stick wasn't there?

High stick block? Nice to meet you. Zeke. I have advice for you, there is a stick obstruction, but prior to the stick obstruction, there is a foul by number 7, Belgium, in the 23 meters that I would award a penalty corner for. Therefore, you may continue with the penalty corner, but Belgium, keep their referral.

Okay, So this actually isn't new, but we don't see it very often. Very, very seldomly, there was a rash of it sort of pre COVID and then I didn't see it again, uh, until this play. So I just wanted to point it out so that we all understand why. The referring team kept their referral even though the team penalty that they asked for, which was no foul, didn't get awarded in this situation.

And that's because Bruce went back and he was looking at a couple seconds prior to the magnificent stick block by the Pakistan attacker that there was a push prior to that in the whole, um, Kirshmazal. And that meant that the player was disadvantaged. And not awarding the penalty corner there would be unfair to the attacking team just because the next foul that was seen but seen incorrectly, as it turns out, was, um, you know, went the other way.

So it's, it's, it's that foul, that push that happened beforehand, before the stick block, okay? Let me know if you have any questions on that, but this was the big one. And I don't think Ernst is here, which is kind of sad.

But this is the one that Ernst messaged me about and he's like, this is the best piece Which is a big deal, coming from him, because he doesn't like it. Who hasn't also? Except me. Stouffer. That's the player that referred it. Play coming forward by Koro Minos.

And it was clearly off the defender and then into the body. Ian was the man at the front

stuffer was is the player to the left of Abdul Manana. Just making sure you've seen all this. Okay. He would've thought, he got a fairly clear view of this. So the ball goes off the hand of the Pakistan player outside the circle and then rises. It then hits one of his teammates in the body inside the circle.

Those are the facts. Yes, those are incontrovertible. I have some advice for you. The hand was outside the circle, so it was deflected outside. So for water free hit and Pakistan will retain their referral. I've blown the penalty corner for the ball striking the Pakistani body inside the circle. With that being the offense.

It did strike the body inside, but it was deflected up outside of the circle. Off his own player? Correct. Right, so for me, that's a penalty corner, because the only offense is inside the circle with it striking the body. So I'm going to go with a penalty corner, but I will let them keep their referral on the basis that that's not your advice.

Okay, so, you might remember back to a time. Let's kick it way back. When we had a situation when Ben was on the pitch and he received advice from a video umpire about a, um, penalty corner decision that he refused, and Hannah Harrison was his colleague, and Hannah, he went over to sort of work through it with Hannah, and Hannah said, um, Um, but can, can the referring team keep their referral because you're refusing the advice of the video umpire?

And at the time that rule was not in the regulations. Am I going to be able to see this? Hell no. But I'm going to do my best.

Okay.

This is a nightmare. I hate being blind. Okay. So it's this one right here. If the on field umpire does not agree with the advice given by the video umpire chooses There are two options to maintain their original decision. The referring team retains their right to referral. Okay. And, like, let's be very, very fair about this.

This is, again, one of those situations where you have to know the rules very well and that And this is a topic that comes up all the time in discussions. Can a player cause danger to their own teammate? Because if that's true, then the danger here is caused outside the circle. And that is, then, a free hit outside the circle could be the better decision.

But that's not what the rules read, and that is not how we apply them. Because a foul is only awarded for an opponent being disadvantaged. So you can't cause danger to your own teammate. Therefore, the fact that the ball comes high. And so if that second defender had legitimate evasive action, whoa, and gotten out of the way, there's no foul because it doesn't matter if it was dangerous to him, but because it hit him on his body, he's now violated that rule.

And that's the rule that applies. Okay. I hope that's very clear. And that was the better, like, that was the most amazing part about this. Like, just imagine being an umpire in the situation where you have your adrenaline and all that kind of stuff, and you're on the pitch and then you're getting your video umpire giving you what sounds to be good advice, but you have to Really be clear about why you've made a decision, apply your principles strongly and be able to articulate it after the fact.

Now, Bruce is a very experienced umpire. He's incredibly accurate, very smart. He's one of those guys who knows the rules in and out, and he's one of the best video umpires in the world himself. So he knows what would be going through the heads, like how would he be dealing with this, and he would have, through his conversation with the players on the pitch, He would already be clued in to what the possible issues are and he'd be standing there as the referrals going on Formulating what the correct decision should be if this then that and he'd be doing all that work

so coming up with this in the moment and handling it so clearly is just fantastic and what a great learning moment for anybody who's a fan of Video umpire nerdery and all that kind of thing. And for us, the learning moment is, can we articulate this? And we articulate it by practicing. By coming here and putting in comments, by talking about this with our friends after the matches, by coming into the Discord server and talking about it with your friends, coming into watch parties and talking with me about what you see and hearing me talk about things, and then asking me questions and poking holes in the things that I've said, okay?

That's how we get better at this, so that when we're on the pitch, we're telling the players exactly what they need to hear and telling them in a way that they can understand. Yeah, very calm. Great call. And let's see. Yeah, very good positioning and very good umpiring. And let's face it, I mean, we know when it gets that crowded, sometimes there's an element of luck there, but yeah, I think it was definitely there.

Um, yeah, there's no advantage. Uh, you, because there is no foul to play advantage off. So there you go. There you go. And that's, if you could create danger to your own teammate, play advantage. But, and, and that's, okay, that's a good point too. Because that's how I would absolutely apply it. Let's pretend we're in an alternate universe.

Let's Doctor Strange this shit. And you can cause danger to your own teammate. And the opposition earns a completely unwarranted penalty from it. I believe that advantage requires us to give the best result to the non fouling team. The best result is a penalty corner. Is allowing the play to continue until the next worst thing The next biggest penalty occurs.

So I understand what you've saying now that we've, that, that he explained it a little further. So I hear that too. And going back to the first foul, look at the situation. Do you think it would be fair for that's only a free hit? I don't, I don't think that serves the game. So there you go. Absolutely. It's a great one to learn from.

Okay. There was no poll. So if you went to the server and you're like, where's the poll for number three, there is no poll. We don't get a, we don't get a vote here. Um, let's see, you, same as indoor, ball raised by the defender, outside the circle, hits a defender in the body in the circle, PC. Yeah, that's how, that's how I would apply it in indoor as well.

And I've heard lots of umpires not wanting to apply it that way, and I don't understand. So I'll look out for some more scenarios on that. I think I do have clips, um, in my library that, you know, that break that sort of down. Break that sort of down. What's that?

Okay.

I don't know what I was going to call this one. Times in this tournament. Spain though, but this was the bronze medal. Game forward, another free hit. Won that time by Pablo esp.

Please have a look, and tell me what you believe the best call is. I'm hoping that went 5 metres, but the goal! Well, would you believe it, and India have not got their referral. He would get one, and he did. Here he was, top of the circle, turn, and Mohit was caught. The big question mark for me is whether the ball went 5 metres.

But Pachami

Okay. There's a, the reason I went five meters squared is that we have two different five meter decisions to make here. And the first one revolves around whether the attackers were within five meters of each other before the ball, before the free hit was taken, or as it was being taken. And there are, um, there are a lot of examples where you would call this as a foul.

As the two players, as all the players. So, you have the, the running off the ball, this guy's gonna go, Oop, I'm getting out of here. And there's a, there's just a miscommunication here. You've got two players who both think it's their job to take this free hit. And one of them's like, Oops! And then he realizes, I better get the heck out of the way.

And you can see this defender reacts. And he's like, come on, but he is moving out of that way. And then we have what happens as the ball is played. One, two, three, four, five,

and then here, and then it's sent.

So you have to decide right now, you gotta decide right now, if you think that is five meters before it goes in.

Spoiler alert. There's another thing to watch for, which is Okay, let's see if I can do this. You

guys, I'm like, tempting fate here.

Because I am playing with my tech.

We have a defender who's closing, friends. And,

arguably, touches the ball.

If that's true, it doesn't matter whether he went one meter and sent it two meters, three meters. As soon as a defender touches the ball prior to it entering the circle, the five meter rules are off. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

And you think it's free hit defense for the team, Atton.

I'd understand that if I felt that the,

that the play hadn't been set, that the way that the Indian defenders were arranging themselves were dependent on whether there was a second attacker involved. Because that's what it's trying to avoid. Right? And whether that attacker influences the way that the ball is being played. He doesn't do anything.

He doesn't affect the play whatsoever. So for me, I wouldn't call that. And Stijn agrees.

And you're watching on the phone too.

Do I really have a software update reminder right now?

Okay, and let's just see.

Um, sure! Colors to the mouse! I don't know what that means. I, I'm sure that just means that you're ready to make your declaration. You think it's a goal. Uh, Jolt, you're happy with the ball traveling five, even without the possible Indian stick touch. I am too. I, I do little diagrams and I mean, it's one thing to mince and get really picky about whether something is half a meter or three quarters of a meter or whatever, when the ball is moving quickly, when it's moving towards the circle, all in one direction, players are caught out, all that kind of thing.

You have literally stationary defenders who have ample time to close. And the whole point about this rule is that you can't fire balls straight at players who have to start five meters away in a place that puts them in danger, because as soon as they can close and they can get closer to the ball, that's when they're safe.

And Stijn is good with defender stick on the ball. Okay. Okay. Let's see. Sorry, the defender, the Spain player who was within five backed away and influenced. It doesn't disadvantage them for otherwise he would have been another attacker in the circle. For you goal, I believe that too. Good work friends.

Let's see what y'all said in the poll. Goal for Steve, Godders, uh, no impact to the other attacker, the ball travels five, in your opinion. Um, I know hoist your petard. I know that one, Luke, but there you go. And when you umpire, you use six steps to judge five meters. It's close, but you're happy. Yep, that is one way that definitely helps.

Okay, let's see what people said. Did anybody vote? Let's see. So we had, we had Youp, wanting the free hit defense, and we had one person who didn't think the ball traveled five, and we had one person, oh, who have changed their vote. And I'm just kidding, you haven't. I just got another vote for the goal for eight people, so totally good.

I get it. Last topic, and friends, while we're, um, while we're doing that last topic, I'll give you something that I would love to talk about when we're done, uh, just as a, a denouement, as it were. I use this word denouement, um, on, on, in a couple places lately, and people were like, what are you talking about?

I'm like, but, but, okay, sorry, it's French. It's also just like, it's how we resolve it. And it wasn't your vote. It wasn't your vote. Count use number two. Okay. Oh, so there's two people who thought that the attackers were worth 10 5. Shocking. Hmm. There you go. And Richard thought it went 5 2. Okay, wait. The Syndicate News says the attack ball movement was well planned and pre measured.

Um, legitimate goal. No Indian interference. Yeah, it was, it's, it's not about the, it's not about the defenders doing anything wrong. It's whether the attackers do anything wrong on the way in. And that, that's not a plant play. That's, that is two players not getting Things sorted. Anyway, speaking of the Keely Christmas hour, Christmas Keely hour, when we're, when we're done the last topic, which won't take very long, I don't think, um, I'd like to hear if you have anything you'd like to share about the past year in your umpiring careers.

Is there anything that you really Strongly learned, anything that changed for you, the way that you approach umpiring, the way you feel about it, um,

Something awesome I'd prefer, but if you want to share a bad story you can too, but I'm trying to keep things light and fun right now, cause I need, I need that in my life. Um, anything like that, anything you're grateful for, appreciative of. Slap them in the comments and I'll save them up for after we finish up our number five.

And Paul, thank you very much. I feel like y'all just do a really good job spurring me to do my little graphic.

Please go ahead. I have a, I have a widget that if you subscribe it'll pop up. But people subscribe like the morning before the show starts. I've, I've sat here and I've been working and the widget will fire as I'm working on the show and I'll be like, Oh, that person subscribed. Isn't that nice? But they're not, it's not live, so I can't.

Anyway, I'm just saying.

Inside outside. Oh, okay, so.

This is the final.

I've blown a foul on the penalty corner inside the 23 metres. They're saying it's no foul, and they're for a bully. I'll check for the trip outside the circle. Nui Jean, he just ran with the directness, it's so hard. Yeah, I thought that was a really good save. Is that enough to give a penalty corner there?

The German player came across, got the ball, and then the France player then just ran into the stick. It was not a trip. I'd restart with a bully, and Germany retains a referral pivot. Well, let me know what you think. Um, I mean, this might be a quick one, but I'd like to, I'd like to hear, I'd like, I'd like to hear what, what you have.

Okay. I'm going to start starring the comments, um, about your year in review and all that kind of thing.

And I know you only have like 200 characters on a YouTube comment. We do have post stream teas coming up, I will go into the server, and as I'm working on implementing gift certificates on the website, I am also going to drink wine with you and chat about things, so if you're not a member of the Discord server yet, you want to get in there, fhumpires.

com forward slash ds for Discord server, that's what it stands for. It's really good.

Okay, sorry, I don't want to read that yet. Did I slap you? I probably did slap you.

Okay. And let me, let me deal with that, Paul. Thank you for, I mean, thank you for buying it, first of all, and also thank you for reminding me, so let me make sure that I've got all that straightened out. Um, okay. Don't forget, we need to, we need to sort this one out, too. This, this was, this was tough for me because I actually, especially because I know how accurate Bruce is, um, my first inclination was, yeah, obviously got this one right.

And that is one of the things that you carry with you as an umpire, your reputation and your, um, and people's perception. of your record will influence everybody who sees what you do. And that's why it's so important to work so hard at your accuracy levels and making sure that, you know, you're, you don't let down, you don't, oh, this game isn't so important, or that's slower than my usual, or, oh, it's just a women's game, you know.

When you are steadfast in your practice and your habit to work hard because you take pride in serving the game to the best of your ability. Um, you know, that just, that just carries through with everything. So I was there, I was right along for the ride and I thought the biggest question was whether the foul happened inside or outside the 23 meter line, which is why I had it twice on the title screen.

Don't at me.

So for Jolt, you see a trip, but it's outside the 23 meter area. And that is kind of interesting because do you feel, Jolt and everybody else, that the initial contact on the ball is, is clean. And once the ball is taken cleanly that way, and it's simply the matter of a stick, not a body contact because we know body contact, making a tackle, even if the contact on the ball is clean, if you contact them with the body, you're going to get, the defender will get hauled up for that, um, would you then Hmm?

Um, see that contact, I mean that is so close, that contact, would you see that contact as being the fault of the defender or the attacker?

Because in order to tackle the ball, you have to have your stick, you know, where, The ball is. And if the ball has been cleanly taken and pushed away in another direction, but the attacker's feet then continue and then step on your stick, you're that defender. Is that your bad? Or is it the attacker's bad?

That's the question. Youp's like, I wouldn't be mad. You know, you're starting to talk like me. I'm not mad. There you go.

Um, so let's see. Oh,

so I think for us, again, this is sort of like a double barrel. Is this a foul or is it not a foul? Is it inside the 23, outside of the 23? And with the help of all the replay and all the angles and that sort of thing, you can, you can really see, let me do it this way. It's a toy I get to play with. When we have this replay here, this is so dope, okay?

The head on replay is amazing because you can really see the reach in the stick and then the attacker pull or the defender pulls the stick away and that's where it happens.

I'm changing my mind right now. I'm right now! Can you tell when I change my mind because I just stop talking and I just look at you all? I'm like, hi. Godders, in real time you can see where Bruce got the PC. Okay, let me, uh, let me come back to the scene.

One of the considerations was the defensive stick dangerous. You think they ended up with the right outcome.

And let's see. And Venno here is saying outside the 23 it's clean in the initial. And, but it's, it's important to understand that we, we do apply something more with initial contact is not the only contact we consider. But, do we consider, because if there's body contact that comes after an initial clean tackle, this ain't, this ain't sports ball friends, that body contact will be penalized.

So what do we do about the stick, right? So that's important.

But I think on the whole, on the whole, going through it, it's, I think they got to it too. And clean tackle attacker wouldn't have reached the ball. So for Stane, it's not disadvantageous afterwards. And I will buy that too. Let's see what the poll says.

Uh, the poll that I didn't, what, the poll that I didn't put up? Hi. Look, it's been there. And absolutely, when we have the benefit, and I, I'm always trying to, you know, I try to keep this in mind, the way that we review stuff, I'm trying to strike a balance between it being valuable for learning, but also skewing perspective of all of us because we are looking at.

All these things with the benefit of, of Watching it multiple times and slo mo and I mean I sit there and I clip it, I watch it in real time, make a decision, and then I clip it, and then I change my mind, and then I slo mo it, and then I freeze frame it, and then I zoom it, and I do all these things, and I watch it like 20 times before you even see it on the show, and then I watch it with you on the show another 20 times, and I'm like, yeah, that's not The way that things work, but I'm trying to focus on what we learn out of it instead of maybe what the outcomes are.

So there you go. No poll. I know I screwed up, but there you go. Okay. I can see my teeth. Let's do this. I didn't want to do red wine. I didn't have time to go out and get anything else. And I only had red wine or I had peanut butter whiskey and I can't drink peanut butter whiskey today because that would kill me.

That would kill me. Okay. Let's see. Have I starred everything? Let's see. Let's, let's go through your, your, your holiday, your 2023 wrap up Reminiscing remembrances and stuff and let's see if the music is gonna be acceptable.

It should, it should be a reasonable volume Let me know.

I'll just deal with this before we get into the good stories Does this type of thing occur in the EHL regional leagues? And this type of thing being the melee and all kinds of other things Um, you haven't seen it in two and a half seasons, but perhaps you're lucky. And I understand the question, but the biggest problem with this is that it's not about whether it happens regularly, it's about whether It happens.

And the answer is yes, it happens. And when we discard something as being rare, or something that we don't have to prepare for, we get shit kicked when it actually does. We're not ready for it, we don't deal with it properly. 2006, Penham, uh, Central American and Caribbean Games for me. That melee I described, I went in with the mentality that women players don't fight in games.

They sure as hell don't do it in international competitions. Nobody fights at international competitions. So when it happened, I was not prepared. I wasn't prepared for the level of intensity of the game, the historical, colonial tensions, the geopolitical things, like everything that went into that match that was going to decide who was going to go to the crossovers to semi final and gain a place at the Pan Am Games, or not, I wasn't ready for that.

And I think that it's important for us not to over prepare, not to ignore the basics, not to Add too much disproportional attention, but I think we really have to say we need to be ready for the rare. Because that's what sets us apart, and it only takes it one, it takes you one time, one time, and you say never again.

I don't ever want that to happen again. So, okay, and now let's drink! Because I haven't been this whole time. All right, Godders, the best thing in 23 was the gang at EHCO EHL. It was amazing. So, for those of you who don't know what all this was, we planned a sort of a developmental group to go to EHL. In May, April and three weeks before the tournament, I was contacted and asked if I would be able to provide umpires for the inaugural EHCO competition, which is under 19 club champions from a select number of countries, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Spain.

And four men's teams, four women's teams. And a couple of the players were actually playing, um, one of the French players, um, Hugo. What was his last name? Benastra? Was it Benastra? Uh, he was playing for Royal Reef. And he was in that tournament. And so, you know, like this is a big deal. This is a big thing.

And in three weeks time, we turned from a developmental group to a group of people who were staffing not only the umpires, but the technical staff. And it was absolutely terrifying. And the quality of the people was the reason that we were able to be as successful as we were. And it was just, it was fabulous.

It was fabulous. We have another one, um, coming up. And starting in January, once I have a little bit of a break. We're going to start the organization for that and it's going to be different. They have doubled the number of teams. So they've invited not just the first place teams, but the second place teams from each of those countries to compete.

So eight men's, eight women's, and it will not be held at the same location as EHL. And to me, that's kind of the biggest bummer, because when we had them in the same place, that meant that people were like, Oh, I can go over and watch this EHL game and I can do this. And we were still a part of that whole vibe and the excitement and the EHL umpires were there.

And that was really cool. We don't have a venue announced yet. So I can't tell you where it's going to be, um, positive it's Netherlands, but I just don't know where and at which clubs. So, I mean, who knows? Maybe, um, so EHL is, is it Pinochet and Hurley are doing it in conjunction this year? Who knows? Maybe Amsterdam Hockey Vandy Club are doing it again and will be on other pitches right in the same vicinity again.

I don't think so. I just have a feeling that's not going to happen. So. Come into the server and make sure you stay tuned, but part of my mandate that I've been given by the EHCO Organizing Committee, the Three Amigos, Fabrizio, Sander, and, uh, uh, Leandra, is to emphasize both the performance aspect and the youth development.

Of it, is that this is the youth branch of what they want to be sort of affiliated with EHL. And so, I have to sort of figure out, how am I gonna do that? And, all that kind of thing, so. Yeah, it's complicated, it's complicated, but it was an amazing, amazing time. Simon, highlight giving me a hug. Look, I think you need to raise your standards.

Like, raise the bar! My hugs are not that great, they're just like, they're, they're okay. And it's just me. I'm just a person. Um, you umpired two EuroMaster semis in a bronze medal match. Fantastic. And seeing the talent of people like Viv and Rachel and Allie prosper has been great. Yep. I love that. Thank you for sharing that.

For Rachel, she's feeling much happier about using MCP. I'm much happier using MCP too. And you're looking forward to improving it. And also the duffle, the match shirt, the pendant. And yes, your, your, uh, Facebook photos are just so nice. They, they pop up in my feed for some reason. They don't show up as FH umpires like in that feed.

They only show up in my personal feed, and I don't look at my personal page very often 'cause I'm a business man. I'm a business woman. I don't have time to go to my personal Facebook page and catch up with people.

That was a really nice highlight for me too, just meeting you Simon, so thank you for that. Uh, Luke, uh, EHEL and EHCO, highlight for you as well. Um, looking for progress, but you're excited about what happens with your L1, L2, and L3. Yup, best of luck with that. Highlights! Meeting you! At the Cambridge Talent Academy.

You got qualified for Yellow 1 Outdoor, you sure did. You got a duffel, yes you did. Lowlights, Apple Watch ran out of battery with Match Game in the second half and had to use a backup. These are oddly specific things for your 2023 highlights, but I like it. I like it. Um Stijn, your highlight of the year was one afternoon in June when you got an amazing friendly match opportunity.

But you're getting more coaching joy out of coaching youngsters at your club, towards club umpire national level. I tell ya, I, I don't know. Like this is just, my experience doing FHumpires has made every match where things didn't go well, and I didn't perform, and I got berated, and all of the letdowns, and the failures, and the sacrifices, and all the things that just didn't seem to go very well.

Nothing that I did as an umpire even, I, I can't even remember it. I'm so gratified and fulfilled by being able to be a part of your umpiring journey. Like, it's just, it's just everything. It's, it's, it makes me so incredibly happy. You don't know how many times somebody will send me a DM about something that happened and they say thank you and then I start crying.

And it, because it really is that. powerful to know that you're actually contributing and that's why I really like to emphasize for us as umpires that, you know, we are part of serving the game and, and if people aren't telling you thank you, if they're not sharing their gratitude with you, share your gratitude with yourself.

And share it with your third team friends, because we are there. I am grateful, here's my 2023 highlight, is that I'm just so grateful for every single one of you. Because of what joy you've brought into my life, and what you've all given to each other. Seeing what's happening in our server. The way it's grown, and the way that you all truly are a community of people who are there for each other, and lift each other up, and tease the crap out of each other is just my favorite.

So, sorry, I'm not good about talking in order. Stefan. Shayne giving Montana an FHumpires whistle. Umpiring with her this year in a match. She's 14, and she had her first game with radios, or you had your first game with radios, doing your first Masters League. Love it. I love it. It is so cool to see kids starting out early and enjoying themselves.

Just. The. Best. The best! Richard, your highlights discovering FHumpires, and then learning so much. Going from an umpire that kind of hoped that nothing unusual would happen to quite the reverse. That is awesome. If you are enjoying your umpiring more, then I have done something really special and I'm Very excited about that.

Thank you for sharing that. Um, oop, umpiring at EHCO was great. Higher level than what you're used to. Learned a lot from everyone and gained a lot of experience. And then, then as desert, dessert, not desert, as dessert you got the Dutch Championships under 14 boys final. You sure did. And what color card did you give out there?

Is there, is there a particular card? Okay, let me see what else is here. Now that I went through those. Oh, oh, I gotta scroll all the way down. Um Let's see. Rachel's having port later. There you go. And there you go. That's the beauty of being here. Hopefully, uh, it doesn't happen. Exactly. Exactly. Prep and be ready.

And you are so welcome. Of course.

I'm sorry. I don't know if you can hear that. It's got Jingle Bell Rock vibes. But it's not. It's a different song.

It's pretty groovy though. Stephon. One lesson you learned, umpire players you play with and seeing how they behave from a third team perspective. Yeah, learning how to manage that. Absolutely. And the way that I approach hockey as a player and as a coach have completely changed in the last few years. To the point that, I mean, personally, things have been a little rough.

Um, in the last year, uh, for me, as a player, I haven't been, I've been very unhappy, um, on the pitch. Getting older and dealing with the knees have been It's just been really hard, and trying to find a new identity as a player, um, I'm very intense when I play, I'm very competitive, and I'm a, not a good player, but I expect that I'm gonna perform and do my job, and when I don't do that, I get really, really upset.

To the point that now I understand that my behavior, even though it's got nothing to do with umpiring, Or anything like that, that I might be putting out the wrong energy, and I might at times overtly, you know, react in ways that are just not, they're not good for the team. So, I have stepped back from playing, um, for the last few months, and, you know, I'll be, I'll be looking at, at about a, uh, at a return in a while, but it's just been good for me just to figure out, look, that's, My selfish desire to make sure I keep playing and that sort of thing maybe is not the most important all the time And I should be looking at what's best for the community What's best for my team, my club, and the umpires who are on the pitch.

Not that I ever reacted towards them I never did but my resting bitch face impacts Everybody it's like a laser beam and umpires are gonna believe that it's I'm directing it at them and it absolutely Benno,

your biggest highlight was getting FIH during the Africa Road to Paris and then getting an opportunity to officiate the African Club Championships as a neutral umpire. That was amazing! I love that. Good for you. Congratulations, getting your FIH accreditation. Alright,

and let's see. And Simon also really enjoyed meeting Rachel, and Simon M too. Aww, thank you Rachel.

Some weeks it's hard. Um, wait. Colors? What? Orange? Blue? Violet? Ah! Hehehehe!

Ohhh! Absolutely. That dance. Oh, that card! Yes, okay. Yeah, that's, there you go. There you go. Thank you very much. Oh, that, I, I frickin love that picture. So much. I would, I mean, I'm a minimalist, but I'm thinking I've been collecting really nice pictures of everybody because I'm an asshole and I like to put them up on Wednesday on you guys.

I'm like, hi, here's Simon on a bike, you know, but it would be really actually kind of cool for me if I, instead of just Just having my usual minimalist decor, you know, maybe made a wall and I had pictures of 13 people. That's a good idea! Okay, something to put on my list next year. And I'm just waiting for this one to come up, I can see it on YouTube, and don't forget the whiteboard.

Oh my gosh. You guys, honestly. Funniest, funniest things ever. I was so, so lucky. So, thank you for sharing your stories with me. Thank you for helping me wrap up 2023 in a really positive way. We're gonna head into the Discord now and have some more conversations and I'll finish this very, very slowly, being drunk.

Glass of wine. And next year I mean, be on the lookout. If you have ideas for me, if you have things that you really think I could improve upon, I could change, things that you know will really make a difference in your umpiring careers, your journeys, your hobbies, I don't care what you call it. If I can make a difference in your umpiring with what I bring here on YouTube, please let me know.

I want to hear all the things because I'm going to spend some time over the holidays thinking about things I can change because you get really caught up in the gears, right? The regular, like, this is what I do every week and you're just trying to, trying to keep on that churn without necessarily taking this time to step back and say, am I really serving people the right way?

So I'm going to take some time to think about that sort of thing and, and we'll keep, we'll keep, just keep on keeping on. Um, yeah, we can't, we can't publish any of the things that happened on that whiteboard. I have a picture of it somewhere. There you go. And yes, best of the seasons to everybody. Please take care of yourself.

Spend time with your favorite people, whoever those people may be, and we will see you. in 2024. And especially for those of you in New Zealand, I will see you in February, March. It's going to be something. Have a great one.

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