Confirming a Field Goal
 

5-6-7 man mechanics.

Two officials under the posts. How do you signal or do you signal whether the kick is good or no good?

Canadian Mechanic
 

CANADIAN MECHANIC:

Remember that our uprights are on the GL, and missed FGAs are live balls, which lends to the excitement in our kicking game.

We have only one official under the uprights signal good ("blow and show"), or signal wide: point wide away from the other upright, or verbally assign who handles if the FGA is short.

5-man: short side wing goes under the upright on his side. Other upright covered by the 5th guy on crew, the Back Umpire.

6-man: uprights covered by two deep guys: Back Umpire and Back Judge.

In 5- and 6-man, it is the BU's decision as to who blows and shows. If (a) he deems it his decision, the other official should swing into the EZ to cover the restraining zone action. (The RZ is our method of protecting the receiver.) If (b) he deems it the other official's decision of good/no good, he will peel back into the EZ to cover the RZ action. If the kick is short, (c) the official under the upright on the other side of the field as to where the ball went will run up to cover the RZ action. In each of the 3 above cases, the official that doesn't move covers the GL. Any decision by the BU should be made soon after the ball is kicked.

In 7-man, the SJ and BJ cover their respective uprights. If wide, the BJ in the EZ covers the RZ and the S and BJ stay at the post. If short, follow the 6-man mechanic.

The officials confirm the call. Then one step forward and signal.

Both signal good. If wide, only that official signals no good.

Just make sure they communicate with one another with words that cannot be confusing as to the actual result..

YES YES YES or NO NO NO
is far far better than saying NO GOOD vs GOOD

One thing I've heard is that if the kick is no good that the calling official should not look at the other official. The rationale is that some feel that when looking at your partner on a missed kick, that the calling official is unsure of the call. Again, this is speculation on the viewing public's part. Right or wrong, who knows, but it's something I've heard in the past at clinics.

So for me, I confrim on a made field goal saying "YES YES YES", then it's step, step, and up and hold until the R is done with his signal. If the kick is missed, I don't look and say "NO NO NO" then step, step, signal.

As grantsrc said, don't look at each other use your voices (YES YES YES, NO NO NO) but the reason my association don't look at each other is not because of what the crowd might think, but rather that the 2 guys under the posts should keep their eyes on players for dead ball naughtiness.

Our philosophy is that one of the most likely times a player will want to sock an opponent is when they have just let in 6 + 1 points.

This is something where no code gives the best mechanics for the officials under the posts. An official under (or immediately behind) a post has an unbeatable view of which side of that post the ball passes, but hardly any view of which side of the other post the ball passes, if it's at all close. So why doesn't any game that has that type of goal (rugby, American football, whatever) have a signal that the official under one post can give that means, "The ball passed inside my post & over the bar."? Like for instance, at the instant the ball passes over the bar, pointing "inside", i.e. toward the other official. If they point at each other, that's a strong indication to the referee that the kick was good. Plus, the ref can sight the ball at the instant they put up their arms as add'l evidence the ball was between the posts. If either one points "outside" or down, that's a strong indicator to the ref that the kick was wide or low.

But nooooo! The codes all provide only signals that say "score" or "no score".

Robert

Why do we need to know anything more than if the kick was good or no good?

Exactly how we do it.

Peace

We really don't need anything else beside the score/no score signals.
Anything else is redundant.
Some mechanics manuals (NCAA for sure) do say that the covering official may give a sweeping motion of the arms to indicate the kick was outside the uprights. No real need to IMHO. If the kick didn't score, it must have been short or wide.

None of the Refs in my Association had better be doing this. They had better have their eyes on players or they won't be white hat for long. Our UK/European mechanics specifically say:-
1.Maintain a position where you can see the kicker, holder and players threatening them.
2.Wait until the ball is dead and there is no threat to players in your area of responsibility before looking to the officials under the posts to find out the result of the kick.

To make Robert happy though,
Australian Rules has extra signals. The goal umpire will give our PF signal if the ball touches a pole, and will thump his chest and point to a side if the ball passes outside of a pole.

Important because if they have 4 poles and if the player shoots between the INNER uprights they get 6, but if the ball touches the pole or goes between the OUTER uprights they only get 1 (or if a D player touches the ball, than there is our tipped ball signal).

I just wish my white hat would take a look at us sometime. We have started to not even signal because he turns to the box and does it without even looking at us.

Throw a flag for him for roughing the kicker. ;)

Better yet, take the ball and put it at the 20 and when he asks what you are doing tell him that you had a touchback because they missed the field goal. You've got to get this guy to let his crew make their calls. Otherwise he is just working a three-man game.

He is in his late 70's and we think he is going to retire after the season. He's very hard to communicate with because he learned the game so long ago. He was a very good official at one time but does not keep up with changes in mechanics.