Well, bollocks. The playoffs are gone. The draw with Sydney coupled with Perth Glory beating Brisbane 3-1 means the Phoenix’s season has just 90 minutes left, ain’t gonna be no bonus footy for the Wellingtonians. But… the drama!

Before we get into that, it’s best to throw out some unhelpful truths. The table doesn’t lie, to quote Zlatan, and with the Nix sitting guaranteed in seventh place with eight wins from 26 games you can’t really make the claim that they deserved to finish in the top six. They had a coach resign, they got two-thirds of a season worth of poor form from key recruits, they had three separate winless streaks of at least four games. They never held a position higher than sixth on the ladder after a round. Every time the Nix got close to making a run they’d go through another slump.

Those three straight defeats in February were pretty much the killer. Going down 3-1 at home to Western Sydney especially, as well as later on when they blew a 3-1 lead at home to Brizzy to draw 3-3. These little missed opportunities that amass along the way.

Even if the Nix had won that Sydney game, Perth’s win would have made them uncatchable anyway. The Wanderers would’ve remained in range but barely. The Nix would still need to win in Brisbane against the Roar next week and they’d need Western Sydney to lose away at Adelaide, overhauling a goal difference margin of at least three (depending on how many they hypothetically beat Sydney by). With results going the way they did, the finals chances that were so slim before this week were gonna be shrinking either way.

Right, now with all the disclaimers outta the way… how about those video refs!?

FIFA’s been trying out this thing for a few months, getting Video Assistant Referees to help with the odd decision during games. It was used to pretty satisfying effect a couple weeks back when France were on the wrong end of a VAR call at each end in a 2-0 friendly defeat to Spain. Antoine Griezmann had a goal ruled out for offside and Gerard Deulofeu had one confirmed after the flag had initially denied him. Both looked like the right calls and it was a big win for the inevitable rollout of this system across top level footy worldwide.

It was used at the Club World Cup last year as well, plus in various other friendlies. Funny thing is this isn’t the first time the Nix have used it themselves, they were on the benefiting end of a decisive penalty call in their February commercial friendly against Beijing.

And after “more than a year of preparation, testing and training of VARs and operators” it was announced earlier in the week that the A-League would become the first major league worldwide to utilise the video ref system as the powers-that-be implemented it for the last two weeks of their regular season. Late notice for players and fans, maybe, but the groundwork for this goes back ages. Still there must’ve been plenty of confuddled folks who missed the media release and got a bit of a surprise when they turned on the telly/up to the stadium.

Here’s what they reckon. There are nine trained VARs and they watch the game from a little booth where they have access to a dozen camera angles. Those VARs have a radio link to the refs and will let the whistler know if they’ve spotted something drastic that might need a review, then it’s up to the ref to signal for it. He doesn’t have to take the advice of the VAR but they pretty much always will. There are four types of calls which the VAR is allowed to interfere on too: goals (as in goal or no goal, including offside, goal-line stuff and all that), penalties (foul or no foul, inside or outside the box, etc,), red cards (same thing, red or no and who deserves it) and mistaken identity (making sure the cautions go to the right fella).

With the game still at 0-0 and a little over twenty mins to play, a corner was swung in from the left by Michael Zullo and Marco Rossi rose up to apparently clear it to safety. Several Sydney players surrounded the ref appealing for a handball which was declined as play continued for about 30 seconds, the Nix on the counter attack. When the ball went out of play the referee, Shaun Evans for those of you who feel the need to blame people (just doing his job as he’s been instructed, wasn’t his fault), gave the mythical air-box signal and the video refs were in action for the first time.

They gave the penalty. Bobo scored it and Sydney had the lead. Mike McGlinchey pulled back an injury time equaliser but it was too late to grab a winner (well… not strictly true, they did have one last chance for a legendary moment but Roly volleyed a difficult one over the top). It was a decisive moment in a decisive game and thus the drama ensued. Like when Wellington players were pretty pissed at the end that the ref wouldn’t look at a late penalty shout of theirs, you know just for the sake of it. They were desperate. That was never-ever a penalty… but you can’t blame them for feeling hard done by.

This is a complex issue and there were always gonna be teething problems with it. The system is pretty much inevitable at this stage and as much as the traditionalists will argue (fairly) that if it ain’t broke why fix it, FIFA wanna protect their officials and keep things happy. They’re the government of footy. It’d be cool if they took the ambiguous view here and embraced the fact that we footy fans do love a good moan, that feeling stiffed by refs is one of the great unifiers in sports, but governments tend to prefer thick lines of black and white and they like them as clearly defined as possible. Of course the A-League are only gonna play along.

It’s a tricky thing to figure out at this nascent stage of technology in football though. The goal-line tech in the Premier League has been fantastic: comprehensive and unobtrusive. The VAR experiment in the A-League on Saturday night didn’t quite fit that description. But it’s complicated. Probably something best explored in stray thought format… so here goes.

Was It A Penalty? Umm, it was a handball, sure. Definite handball. The question that Des Buckingham raised was whether the handball came about because of a push in the back. Given his hand was up so far from his body though (and not in a natural way), that’s a spottie that if the ref would surely have given himself had he gotten a clear view of it.

Can’t argue too much with the call beyond the possible push but that’s where this gets weird. The push in the back is a subjective call for the ref, the handball is less subjective but it still has elements of doubt (as in: it’s possible for the ball to hit a dude’s hand and it not be a handball). Yet the VARs supposedly exist to make objective calls, black and white calls. In this case it’s clear enough to live with but there’s potential there, like we saw in that Phoenix-Beijing one, for major over-officiating. The penalty area has always been full of black magic with shirt tugs and late tackles, stuff that would be called up anywhere else on the pitch but are let go in the box because of the consequences of giving a penalty kick away. Video Refs are probably gonna take a different, stricter view. Which is gonna affect the outcome of games.

Replay, Replay, Replay. Plus some things don’t reflect well on camera. Watching slo-mos of Neymar taking a tumble and getting all Zapruder on whether or not he might have dived… you can’t definitively tell that from any camera angle. Even offsides can be hard to judge when the cameras aren’t fully in line with the defenders (though that’s the area of the game that should benefit most from VARs). There’s judgement in deciding if a guy was through on goal or if another was the last man when the foul was committed. That’s only gonna create more drama and if drama’s happening one way or the other, the best thing is maybe to let the game carry on without an extended break for replays and muppetry?

The Tactical Appeal. Which makes you think – what kind of managerial wizardry can be wrought from an extended VAR break? What game-changing instructions can be dished out? Not saying that’s a bad thing, probably the opposite actually, but any break in play is a chance to reassess. It also means a refresher for the players, a quick drink and all that. A break in momentum for the team stuck defending their lines. They’re trying to make these things as swift as possible and teams already milk injuries for this purpose so no dramas… just a thought.

The Cricketing DRS. You know what the problem with cricket’s referral system is? For one it’s given over to the captains/batsmen to make the appeals which automatically makes it a tactical tool rather than an unbiased tool of justice. For another you’ve gotta judge it from the base of the umpire’s original decision, although that might still be better than the alternative (if you’ve gotta defer, defer to the boss). And also, most dramatically, you’ve got technology in place which everyone assumes therefore means 100% proof… but you’re leaving the interpretation of it up to human error. Even worse than the cricket for that last bit (and the second bit too) is rugby league’s Bunker system in the NRL. You’ve got human error trying to make up for human error and dumb tries are still awarded. The VARs are trained pros but so are video umpires and NRL bunkerites. This stuff ain’t comprehensive.

What’s If The Nix Had Scored? They attacked all the way down the other end before the referral was finally made. If they’d scored and then it was disallowed to go all the way back for a penalty at the other end just imagine the chaos. There’d be a thousand Yellow Feverers on the pitch rioting. This stuff is all about process and that’s what’ll get ironed out over time with the VAR but right now it’s a worrying thought. Remember that time the Phoenix lost to Sydney in the preliminary finals after that Payne sunnovabitch scored from a handball? This isn’t exactly poetic justice.

Rallying The Ref. The rules strictly prohibit players appealing to the ref to check the video replays. They say that clearly, you’re not allowed to do it. You can get carded for doing so. Except… you can get carded for doing that anyway and it never stops a bugger. Players hound refs for penalties already, they jump and dive and scream and yell and usually get away with it. Now there’s another avenue: ‘but can’t you at least take a look at it, sir?’ - the Phoenix tried the same thing for a desperation call near the end and as the ref initially waved off the handball one, he was flanked by two Sydney players each making invisible box signs with their fingers like they were playing charades or something. Two different examples of how referees are gonna be pressured under this system. The procedure is for the VAR to recommend the ref checks it and then he either does or doesn’t based on that so yelling at him is stupid, he’s waiting for the call. And it’s not your call to make. But then, yeah, this ain’t a new situation.

Really, Though… With Two Weeks Left? This is the real sense of injustice for Nix fans. Not that there wasn’t reason to give the penalty but that if this game had been a week earlier the game would’ve carried on with the initial no-call and the Nix might have still saved their season. Probably not, but they might have and hope is the island that sports fans all die on. Different rules for different stages of the season… that’s sorta weird. It’s also sorta distorting coz the rules are the same, they’re only being policed differently. Presumably the A-League didn’t wanna wait until next season in case some bigger league beat them to it and they couldn’t someday sell themselves as the pioneers who first harnessed the power of future technology.

Fatalist Finale. Ultimately the result reflected the game though and the Nix missing the playoffs reflects their season. VARs will even out just like regular calls even out and if there’s one more thing to moan about now, that’s what twitter’s for. It doesn’t really matter. One more step along the irreversible journey towards robots someday destroying humanity, is all.

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