[Back In The Saddle]

A well thought out response, thank you.

One quibble, however, is with the notion that the only, or perhaps just the best, way to ensure consistent application of advantage is for the center referee to be the only one with a whistle. As I understand it, when you get to the highest levels, you very likely have a crew composed of seasoned center referees. In other words, the center referee for today's match was likely an AR on yesterday's match, and the ARs on today's match may each be center referee on tomorrow's matches. Every one of the officials on the field are qualified to read the play and apply advantage.

We do it every night of the week on the basketball court, and usually manage to be fairly consistent in our application of advantage/disadvantage.

I would be curious to know how often ARs make "foul calls" during an average match. Being as the center referee has the whistle, and I don't really know what to watch for, nor are the cameras on the ARs most of the time, I have no idea if this is done occasionally, frequently, seldom, 20 times a match.