Western United coach Mark Rudan has slammed the VAR and Fox following his side’s controversial draw against Melbourne Victory.
While both Besart Berisha and Dylan Pierias had respective goals disallowed either side of half-time, it was the 20-year-old’s 77th minute effort which evoked a passionate response from Rudan post-match.
”Let’s go to Dylan’s goal…fact number one is Fox don’t use as many cameras as they did in the past,’’ Rudan said.
”Let’s rewind and ask why the linesman was so quick to put his flag up when it was so close. Everyone has been brought up a certain way and that’s to err on the side of the attacking side. Keep your flag down. You’ve got the ability to go back and review with the VAR and he chose not to and they pulled the goal back, which turned the momentum of the game.
”It just seems as though the referees are very quick to put the whistle in their mouths when it’s against us or when the ball’s half out for them it’s fully out for us. It was disappointing to see and it’s not a one off. Everyone makes mistakes but when it’s as consistent as it was tonight you have to ask questions.
”I don’t know why people are looking at those lines because Fox don’t use as many cameras as they used to. I worked at that company so I know how cameras they use and are now at a stadium, so don’t tell me you can put out an exact line because they don’t have enough cameras and that’s fact.’’
This match was classified as a ‘tier B game’ by Fox, who would normally allocate seven cameras for these types of matches.
While Fox only opted for six for this match, the only camera not in play was one positioned behind the goals.
Tier A matches, like the Sydney derby, would see cameras in each net as well as one roving the touchline on the side of the benches.
In conjunction with Fox’s cameras, Rudan also directed his frustration towards the VAR.
”I’ve said it before and it’s easy for me to sit here because we were on the wrong side of the result,’’ Rudan said.
”We’re taking the human element out of it. I can understand if we make mistakes, the game has been around for over 100 years. People try and make it better but for who? People want to be entertained and see teams play attacking football.’’
Western United dominated in the second half with Alessandro Diamanti striking the crossbar twice from near identical positions, while the Victory had the chance to steal the points late when Birkan Kirdar’s attempt was tipped over by Fillip Kurto.
Mark Rudan’s side will look to channel this frustration ahead of next week’s match against the Central Coast Mariners in Gosford.
In contrast, despite not recording the win either, the Victory walk away the happier of the two sides; keeping a rare clean sheet as well as its first point over Western United.
”There’s positives to take, we kept a clean sheet which is fantastic for our back four,” Brebner said.
”We will take a lot of confidence that we can hold out defensively…three weeks ago we would’ve lost that game, so we will get better.”
