Every season presents its challenges in relation to the range of on-field foul play and off-field misconduct matters that our hardworking Judicial Committees, Code of Conduct Committees and Appeal Committees are required to deal with. Unfortunately however, there has been one constant in SA this season that has occupied our disciplinary committee members and that is the issue of inappropriate behaviour towards our match-officials, many of whom give up inordinate amounts of time to voluntarily turn out weekend upon weekend and ensure that all of our matches across the state can go ahead.
Despite our zero-tolerance approach to match official abuse, we have seen a range of such conduct committed by players, team officials and spectators. This behaviour is utterly unacceptable and a scourge on the game. It remains the case that we all therefore need to do better to ensure that this type of conduct is properly dealt with and that robust sanctions are imposed to ensure, not only that the offending persons are appropriately sanctioned for their conduct, but also that these sanctions act as a significant deterrent to others.
To read the full letter, click here
