What concerns Birmingham Bulldogs - well to first buy a spot, ref the first event (without fulfilling the demands!), then do poorly in the next 2 events AND then simply not showing up to the last 2 events is just beyond me !!!
While I do not see why the Bulldogs have been pin pointed as the root of all things evil about the Division 1 2008 season, I will not contest that missing out on the last two events has affected the over all scores. But there are two other teams who did miss those events as well.
I would like to point out that saying that the team had done poorly in the 2nd event is just a jab at the team. Seeing that the team that you play for placed 30th while the Bulldogs places 21st at that 2nd event. While 21st is not the highest rank it would only be the Iberian Cup ranking for Flora Charms that was higher than our poor performance.
I honestly am gutted over the last two events, I returned to the UK after finishing up a contract with the UNDP and attending a conference in Canada in August to finish out the Millennium Series for 2008.
If it was just a case of cut of run on the season I would agree with your view points but when you attack the team in regards to reffing as well without talking about the other teams at fault there seems to be some person issues with the team.
I would like to point out that there is a major flaw in the current Millennium Series reffing scheme. While helping out teams this past weekend at the Disney French Open seeing that there were players on the field playing with illegal masks, and even when it is brought to the head refs attention I was told to get off the field or the team would get a 1 for 1 call. I then went to get in touch with the Millennium staff to get this addressed but was told that it was the head refs call on the issue. Which begs the question should these refs be head refs if they are going to bend the rules for teams? Teams which just happened to also be from the same countries as the head ref. Not to mention the other safety issues of no tanks being checked and the inconsistency of checking markers before they go onto the field.
Being a trained ref for the PSP I could not get over how even telling the correct people that this illegal mask issue was just dismissed. How can there be any advancement in the sport when the basic rules of safety are not taken seriously. The last thing the sport needs is someone going deaf and that being the main media exposure for the sport. The worst part of the whole issue was one of the teams in question went on to win first place in the M5. Is this the same as the Div1 problems no but it shows that there are some changes needed to be made for the 2009 season.
I also agree that if they are going to get teams to ref throughout the season they should never be reffing the same division they play in and that should be corrected.
