USAWP sent out new rule interpretations today. Two caught my eye:
A player may now score by visibly putting the ball into play inside 6 meters and then swim outside 6 meters to shoot, including after a stoppage or delay. Once they move outside of 6 meters, they are considered live and can score from anywhere in the field of play.
I know a coach got red carded last JOs when this happened and the refs allowed it. Glad it’s clarified.
6. NEW WP 22.21 - If at the taking of a penalty throw the goalkeeper moves forward before the referee blows the whistle and the player takes the shot and a goal is not scored, the goalkeeper shall be excluded for 20 seconds and the penalty throw shall be re-taken. Another defending player in the field of play may take the position of the goalkeeper but without the goalkeeper’s privileges.
If I read this correctly, if the field player reaches for the ball with 2 hands, would that be ANOTHER 5m?
Instead of warning the goalie not to move forward they get excluded. Then the other team can opt to put a field player in, however that field player doesn’t have the goalkeeper privileges so if they try to block with 2 hands it’s another penalty.
Neither the shooter nor the goalie may move or shoot before the referee blows the whistle. When the whistle blows, the goalie can move, and the shot must be taken in one continuous movement.
I think the intent is that the shooter gets a free option - make it and it counts, miss and you get to exclude the goalie and reshoot.
This one of only two instances of optionality, the other being the option to decline a penalty.
The place we really need optionality is the act-of-shooting penalty calls…most sports allow continuation or declining of a call and it’s a major oversight in the polo rules made worse by the inside water penalty rule modification 7 years ago.
Agreed 100% on all your points. That’s exactly how I read the rule. I think even if the offense scores their penalty in this situation, though, an ejection should still be tallied to the goalie in the books, since he still broke the rule.
And, yes, we should definitely have an advantage rule in water polo similar to soccer at this point.
I asked a veteran referee about the advantage rule that other sports have, and he said that it was actually written, or used to be written, (in the water polo rules), to allow ‘advantage’ such as in soccer for example. However it started getting out of hand, because players were taking really hard fouls to make sure they prevented the goal from happening. So now the defensive player can just do a simple foul and they know the whistle will blow and stop the goal
I understand that, but it seems like the easy fix is to give game misconduct or exclusions to solve the hard foul problems. I feel like we’ve seen a shift to where defenses are really trying to play extremely soft and if they are going to be over aggressive, then a game, misconduct or exclusion that doesn’t necessarily result in being reported if it isn’t egregious, seems like an easy way to bring back the advantage rule.
Just my take, but I know that there might be other people that feel differently if we are really trying to protect players. I’ve seen a couple tournaments over the past couple of weeks for the age group level where refs have let some really physical play go with not even an ordinary foul being called so we’re trying to rely on referees about interpreting what is over aggressive in warrant a game misconduct or a game exclusion then maybe just a quick whistle to disallow the goal in the best interest of the sport overall?
Back to the original question about the new rule. I’m having trouble wrapping my head around how a referee administering a penalty throw could make the exclusion call on the goalie after the throw has been taken and blocked or missed. As I read this clause–”the goalkeeper moves forward before the referee blows the whistle and the player takes the shot and a goal is not scored”–in that situation the referee has BOTH the goalie moving before the whistle AND the offensive player taking the shot before the whistle. Once the whistle blows, they are both free to move. I think the only possible where this call would be made would be in the official administering the throw did not see the movement and their partner–or a goal judge–makes the call instead. Hard to see it happening very often. Better practice would be to catch the movement BEFORE the whistle and either warn or excluded the goalie then.
Agreed completely. If the goalie is moving before the referees whistle, that’s a referee error! Don’t blow it if goalie is moving. I’ve seen refs redo a missed penalty after making this error. This is technically a correctable error since the timestamp and score are recorded in the book but it is outside of the rules, hence this rule modification. Better to just guide refs on proper time to commence the penalty throw.
I’ve even seen refs incorrectly waive off a missed penalty because a shooter has a big long slow motion wind up and the goalie gets out to 2m by the time the ball leaves the hand. “The goalie came out early” type stuff. Low level ref mistake.
Can someone explain the significance of this rule change? I’m confused how its different than the current status quo.
1. WP 5.1– Seventh Field Player: A team shall field seven players, one of whom shall act as the goalkeeper and shall wear the designated goalkeeper’s cap, thereby assuming the privileges of that position. Following the start of the match, a team is not required to have a goalkeeper in the water and may instead have seven field players.
Additional Comments:
- A seventh field player shall not be granted goalkeeper privileges. If a player attempts to block a shot or play the ball using both hands, the appropriate penalty shall be imposed based on the player’s position and/or whether the action prevented a probable goal.
In the current rules a field player must put on a goalie cap which often takes time (and sometimes a timeout) in order to utilize a 7 on 6 play. The official must also notify the coach of the other team which field player has been substituted in for the goalie.
Now the team can simply sub in a 7th player without having to change caps and it would be a 7th field player with no goalie privileges. I think the idea is to save time but also especially at lower levels eliminate the need for a timeout. Also, a team could more easily do a live substitution in a full course where the goalie swims to half to meet the field player.
i know @PoloEnthusiast wrote this above but how are you guys getting these updates? do you have to subscribe for these updates? Are these published on USA waterpolo website?
According to World Aquatics you need to designate your goalies:
“Goalkeeper: individual member of a team, wearing a red cap 1, whose main role is to prevent the ball from en-tering the goal. A substitute goalkeeper shall wear any cap from 2 to 14, which must be a red cap. In case of a third goalkeeper nominated to a specific tournament where 15 players or more players are allowed on the team roaster, cap number 15 should be red and dedicated for the 3rd goalkeeper, “
I believe rotating anyone into the goal is a usawp thing that they allow.
It’s not clear to me if they have eliminated the ability to put a goalie cap on field player. If they have not, I don’t see any reason for a team to use a 7th field player without any goalie privileges.
Thank you for the info. It’s always a bit surprising how difficult USA Water Polo makes it to find and learn new information - the old-school website doesn’t help.