Being held accountable for shit calls

"Perth are receiving the pull and have the lead 14-12 after getting the late break. Chappell winds up, and sends it down. The Gold Coast team are running hard to get this one back, with only two minutes until time cap. Taylor catches the pull right on the endzone line and quickly sends it to Morris. Morris swings to Bailey in the power position on the far sideline and he puts it up! Perth are going for the win straight away! It's one on one, Wilson versus Anderson...and it's down! Neither man gets the plastic, and almost immediately Anderson has called the foul. As we look at the replay...inconclusive from that angle, but on the reverse angle...yep, Wilson took out Anderson's arm just before the disc arrived. Back to the players...and Wilson contests! Listen to the crowd, they are livid! Anderson clearly not happy with that one, and neither are the home fans. The disc goes back to Bailey for the restart and we'll do it again..."

I've been watching cricket and tennis again because that's what you do in January and you don't argue about it. Perhaps the biggest change to the television coverage of these sports in the last decade and a bit has been Hawkeye - the ball tracking system used to show line balls and LBW appeals for the viewers at home. Umpires and referees are under intense scrutiny in any sport, and the use of such technology hasn't made it any better. Case in point, run outs in cricket. Back in the 80s and earlier, umpires made the call straight away, and got it right more often than not. But these days, if it's within 2 metres, they'll call for the third umpire to make sure they don't get it wrong.

Just about every sport has specific rules concerning the public criticism of officials. Mostly they amount to "don't do it." In AFL, there is plenty of media pressure to have umpires face press conferences the same way coaches do, but the argument against (and a very convincing one) is that there's enough trouble recruiting and retaining umpires at grassroots levels, and adding more scrutiny wouldn't help.

But here comes ultimate with its "players are the refs" system. If we were to go primetime on Fox Sports 3 and we have situations like the one above, would the player then face the media who ask, "Why did you contest when clearly you were in the wrong?" Would they even face disciplinary action? Or would being labelled a "cheat" by fans be punishment enough?