[Paul Copioli]

I was the game announcer at Waterloo and can tell you that the reffing was the best I have seen, by far. G22 was the most called penalty by over a factor of 8:1. The total amount of G42 penalties called all weekend was 11. I marked down every penalty for every match and recorded which team received the penalty. Manny (head ref) recited every penalty to me prior to the announcement of the score.

G42 is like pass interference in football as there is some level of subjectivity. I saw some instances where I may have called G42, but the crew was consistent in calling those matches. I doubt there was anyone at Waterloo paying more attention to penalties and how they were called than me.

With regards to the hybrid scoring, they got the scores correct. In some instances, the real time scoring wasn't accurate but the final accounting was accurate. Apparenty, when a ref hits the und button (after getting trigger happy) the score does not "undo" on the real time screen, but the actual score does update. We triple checked a few (including the 168 match because we just couldn't believe it) because of this discrepancy.

The refs were great at Waterloo and if the rest of the season is reffed this way, the game will be much, much better. I can say this: teams just don't get it when it comes to G22. I watched during many matches at the drivers when a G22 occured and they just weren't looking. They would cross a line when going for a ball and wouldn't see it.

Paul