Agreed on all points, Bill. My sense is this is a Rubicon for the sport in some incremental way; it is either going to ramp up the violence -- and concomitant need for equipment -- or the rules will get enforced in a manner that retains the sport's essential elegance. If I want to watch women get hit in the midsection with pipes, I'll watch roller derby.njbill wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 4:25 pm In a lot of respects, wlax is a very difficult game to officiate. But illegal crosschecking is one of the easier fouls to spot and call, I think. Sometimes officials will call a game closely and whistle and then card illegal cross checks in the early part of the game. But not often.
You often hear complaints from the fans (I’m as guilty as anyone) if someone on the team you are rooting for gets carded for an illegal cross check.
We probably naïvely think that most crosschecks, at least where the attacker is facing the defender, aren’t all that dangerous. Oh, it’s just a bruise. Blah blah blah.
But this injury to the Yale player evidences how badly someone can be hurt by such a foul and perhaps should be a wake up call for all of us.
Doc, same here. I remember attending an officials meeting with coaches my kid's freshman year of high school (so, like 2012-13) and hearing the officials warn everyone about the point of emphasis.
