10-minute time-out strikes the perfect balance between yellow and red

Game 3, 2021-22

The home team's number 7 is the key creative force in his side's central midfield. Just before half-time, with his team 2-0 down, he goes on a long run through the middle and then passes to a team-mate on the edge of the penalty area. The striker's shot is parried by the keeper, but the number 7 follows up and heads in the rebound. Half-time: 1-2. And what will happen during half-time, as sure as floods and fires in a twenty-first century summer? The away team's coach will tell his team's midfield and defence not to let that happen again. 

How to stop the number 7? Start fouling him every time he embarks on a dribble. Despite the opposition's best efforts, he often escapes with the ball anyway and I play advantage. The fouls that succeed are the tugs and obstructions, not quite enough for a yellow card until they accumulate to a persistent pattern of targeting this single player. It ends with the away team's number six going in way too hard, the number 7 goes down with a shout of pain (though he doesn't require treatment), and the home team and its fans are morally outraged. The tackle also thwarts a promising attack.

Yellow or red? I feel the foul deserves more than a yellow given its severity and location about 40 yards from goal, but that red for this particular player would be too harsh - he hasn't been dirty so far. In our state - on a trial basis for the next three years - we now have an alternative: the time penalty. So I send the number 6 off for a ten-minute spell on the bench. Only the player

Refereeing while injured

Games 1-2, 2021-22

I feel the hamstring in my right leg twitch around 30 minutes into the first game of the weekend. As a player, the troublesome muscle rarely allowed me such a warning, usually it just twanged like an eager rascal's catapult. But I can't just walk off and announce that I'm going to put my feet up with an ice-pack and a six-pack. There are no second, third or fourth officials to take my place.

Instead, I adjust my game. Instead of running with the play, I walk and occasionally trot from side to side to make sure that I have the best view of the ball and the players challenging for it, regardless of how far away they are. The hamstring perseveres with its cautionary twinges as my ageing body tells me that I need to rest. Still, the unruly muscle keeps itself in check until half-time.

At the interval, I massage the back of my upper leg with heat cream, pull on a hamstring support, and swallow two glucose