(Same post as earlier but removed one word as I think it was removed due to that)
Hi everyone. I have been playing netball since I was 8, especially competitively. That means my netball knowledge is extensive. Due to covid and ankle issues, I haven’t played for a while so thought i’d join a friendly league to get back into it and test my ankles out.
My last game was awful. Most of the players don’t know how to play so I feel like they don’t understand the rules and whats allowed and now i’m being blamed for a situation I didn’t start and things I never said or did.
So it all started with me marking the GA. I was using my body (without contact) to stop her going into the goal circle as a C. She did not like this and was rude to me straight away because she was frustrated. It was a 10 second interaction and I left it alone and went on with the game. Her daughter on the same team tripped over someones foot as GD in our goal circle and hurt her ankle. She couldn’t walk off court so I went over and showed her team how to chair carry her off court. Then whilst we were waiting, I walked back over to suggest that she needs to lie down in a safe space and raise her leg by using a bag etc and ice it. Her mother (the GA that got annoyed with me marking) immediately snapped at me and said they didn’t need my help. Again I didn’t say anything except ok and walked away. The mother then comes over and asks if one of us can play the game after instead of her cause she wants to take her daughter home, so I ask if she knows which court or team because walking around trying to find the team isn’t fair on one of us. She gets snappy with me and walks back to her team. I
then hear the mother complaining about me to the rest of her team and I don’t stand for people complaining about me without me doing something wrong (not even joking). I then see the umpire coming over so I ask the umpire to help because i’m being verbally abused by the mother (who I find out later is actually the captain of the team) and about half of her team who have joined in. The umpire does nothing except saying “emotions are heightened. Can we get back on court please”. So I leave it and go back on court playing as WD. The WA was one of the ones verbally abusing me so I don’t speak to her and get on with the game. Soon, the GS has the ball on the backline and I mark the WA to stop her getting round me on the edge of the circle so she can’t get the ball. Again I want to make it clear that I never contacted her at all, just a little feet shuffling, no arms etc. she then starts shouting at me and saying rude things to me. So again I ask the umpire for help deescalating as its clear I can’t do it and its the umpires job to keep the game clean and protect players being verbally attacked. The umpire looks at me and says that if I want to raise anything with her, I can do so once we’re off court. Bare in mind its not the first time i’ve asked for her help in this situation and she hasn’t stopped anything. So I said “I tried that but nothing happened and i’m still being verbally attacked”. The umpire then says that she can’t deal with squabbles because she’s busy “managing the game” (I understand she’s the only umpire on our game; which i’ve raised to the higher ups because thats not on if she can’t do her job properly) and to stop disrupting the game (aimed at me). So I am starting to get annoyed now because I am being verbally attacked on court for doing nothing wrong except trying to stand up for myself and the only person that should be helping, isn’t.
Later on in the game the umpire calls an obstruction against the WD on the opposing team. As we all know she is supposed to stand by the person on my team with the ball as she is “taken out of play”. This doesn’t happen and so I asked the umpire nicely if we can take that again since the WD wasn’t stood by her side in centre court. The umpire says that the play stands as the WD was by her side but I know for a fact she wasn’t because she intercepted the ball to our GA in the goal third. So I then said that she didn’t because she caught the ball and again the umpire said I was disrupting game play. She then jumped to “C you need to leave the court, C leave the court please” without any warnings or anything and personally I don’t think it was based. So I do the worse thing ever and stay on court because I know that you don’t ask someone to leave the court without providing them warnings first. And you can tell the umpire is annoyed; she’s been snappy with me since I asked for her help the second time. So anyway after the game she asks to speak to me and immediately starts having a go at me saying I went against her judgement several times and embarrassed her on court. She kept saying that I vocally debated against her judgement several times (it was only for the obstruction but I guess it could be classed as “twice” since I said the same thing twice). And she asked for my name which I gave to her and asked for hers in return and she told firmly not to speak to her in that tone. I was actually speaking to her nicer than she was speaking to me but I did get defensive towards the end because she basically blamed everything on me and said I constantly disrupted the game and that she’ll be putting in a complaint. She then tried to walk off without me giving her my side, which was literally - I was unjustifiably being verbally attacked on and off court by several members of the other team and I asked her for help several times and she did nothing. Yes game management is important but so is protecting players, especially if its in your code of conduct.
I have since received an email from the manager pinning all the blame on me, including me supposedly making offensive comments at the other team which I did no such thing. I have been placed on a 3 week suspension from playing and all they said is that they’d “speak to the other team” and mentioned nothing about the umpire. I understand I was rude to the umpire and thats never been an issue with me because I have been umpiring and playing for years without any issues like this. The email stated “whilst I appreciated that other players may not have appreciated your style of play, which may have led to heightened frustrations and emotions boiling over verbally- it felt that your behaviour escalated the situation”
What style of play? Netball? I know how to mark and I know when i’m playing aggressively, this was not one of those times because its a friendly game. I was just the only one marking the player rather than constantly standing 3 feet away 🤦🏻♀️ and I’m genuinely not joking, but I wish I was because its actually pathetic how marking someone is considered aggressive. I’ve emailed back with clarification on a few things in the email because I don’t think its fair at all that i’m on a 3 week ban when no one else got any sort of punishment. It literally feels like they’ve blamed me for the whole entire thing and it all started with a GA in a bad mood. So AITA?