Official Reviews-How, Why, When

It happened, you are standing at your bench and that gosh darn OPR just missed a cut call on the opposing team's jammer. You are angry, frustrated, and gosh darn it you are going to do something about it! Time to use that official review. But wait, should you? Are you prepared to effectively challenge that call (or no-call)?

First of all. Do you know the rule? If you can't explain the infraction you claim was missed, then you have no business wandering into the center of the track. You should be able to describe every bit of what you saw, who was involved, as well as why it was a penalty. Racing up to the head ref to yell, "she forearmed my blocker" is not going to get you anywhere. Many times teams will ask for a review on something where there was no impact or their skater initiated the contact that caused the thing they are questioning. They waste their review on a call where they did not even clearly understand the ruling they were contesting.

Secondly, is there actually a chance that an official other than the one that called the penalty (or didn't) saw the thing you are contesting? If not, your chances of winning that review are almost zero. Without extra eyes on the call it is pretty difficult for a ref crew to discuss and assess whether the ruling was appropriate. Once again, this is why it is so important for you not only to explain exactly what happened, but also how you feel the rule should be applied in the situation. If you can do that there is a slight chance you could get a reversal of call but it is still unlikely. I have avoided using my review on a number of occasions because very simply, only one ref saw it.

Next, does it make sense to use your review? I always go into reviews with the assumption that I will be unsuccessful. I do this because I am assuming that I will no longer have a review. With that assumption, what can I hope to gain if I actually win? Did my jammer go to the box and then get released before the end of the jam? I can't get the points the other team scored back with a review, so probably a waste because my jammer is already out of the box. Ultimately, situations involving jammers end up being a large percent of official reviews. It only makes sense. Large point swings can come from a jammer being in the box. If you were pretty sure the other team's jammer cut the track and it was missed, it is probably a good situation to use that official review. This is not to say that reviewing calls or no calls on blockers is useless, just overall less effective in the grand scheme of an entire game.

Sometimes there are other reasons to use an official review that don't involve one specific rule infraction, called or not. Per the rules now an official review can be used as just another timeout if a team so chooses. (I will admit I will miss coming up with pointless things to review to use my OR for like "are the other team's numbers big enough on their jerseys." but that is just me.) Another one I have often used my official review for in the past has been to make a point and force the ref crew to have a discussion. I will do this when I feel like the same call is either being called or missed and I feel like the head ref hasn't given enough credence to the situation. One recent example I can give was a game where one of the jam refs continually awarded points to the opposing team after the four whistles when their jammmer wasn't even close to passing my blockers. After it had happened multiple times I used my official review to ask that the points be removed that had just been awarded. They weren't but we also did not have that issue for the remainder of the game.

The last, and probably most important part of an official review, is your behavior towards the refs and somewhat more specifically the head ref. It is my belief that when it comes to an official review the way you treat the people in stripes throughout the game matters. While it really shouldn't affect how they call a game, respect goes a long way. Approach the head official with a calm assertive manner. Don't yell, don't scream. It isn't going to impact their decision and it just makes you look like a jerk. None of us make money doing this but that does not mean you shouldn't treat the situation as a professional.

Without video replay, official reviews in roller derby will never be perfect. You are working with nothing but the human element. Remember this going in and heed my advice and you may not always be successful but I bet your rate of retained reviews will grow.