Sir Purrcival wrote: ↑Mon Dec 06, 2021 1:21 pm
I can't quite go along with the analogy. A referee is making real time choices happening at speed. That can be a hard thing to get right at that moment. It is precisely for that reason that replay was introduced. Choosing to ignore a policy currently in effect because you don't agree with it is very different to my way of thinking. It isn't like is was a life or death situation here. It was about attending a sporting event in direct contravention of current policy. It didn't happen in a split second, there were multiple people involved. It was, in essence, a direct contravention in full view of the public.
If you are a boss and someone does that, you deal with it decisively or you end up sabotaging your own authority. Would it have made a difference if say, a group of players had decided to juice a few days before the game? Now who can be sure. Maybe the player(s) are too important to suspend, maybe the game is to high profile to risk having it be a stinker. I'm being deliberately over the top here but the principle is the same. It sends a poor message to fans, players and coaches. That the rules are flexible depending on who it is and when it is. If it had been a backups or 2nd stringers, can you say they would have been allowed to play. I'm not certain. I think you are correct, the league has worked hard to establish that fly by the seat of your pants reputation and has done so for years. Time to change.
Therein lies the problem. It was the boss (MLSE) who told MBT (the employee/property) to go there for a cross promotional exercise. Is MBT going to refuse to go there? He's going to assume that no one is putting the Argos at risk of being shorthanded for the EF. As Hambone says, due to the stage of the pandemic we are at, double vaxxed players are not likely to run into trouble now. It was only because Banks publicly complained about what he was told. When was that? Probably months ago.
This is all about the league being asleep at the wheel, because there wasn't another potentially season crippling incident after the EDM debacle back in August (fortunately for them).
