6 Men on the Floor

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally Posted by ma_ref

Don't have my rule book in front of me to cite a rule, but doesn't everybody count the number of players prior to start and verify that the teams have at least that number of players in the book? I always assumed that was one of our pre-game responsibilities by rule. It helps to avoid, but doesn't totally prevent, the situation I got into where we had an administrative T for not having a player listed...

I never counted the players pre-game in my life. It's the team's job to supply a correct roster and starters. It's the scorer's job to enter the team rosters and starting lineups as given into the book. It's the officials job to react if either the team or the scorer fails to do their jobs properly.

If somebody screws up pre-game, it ain't the officials' fault. It's also nonsense imo to place any blame at all for a pre-game screw-up on the officials.