EDGEWORTH'S NPL men's top-grade team are the first to be one infraction away from losing six competition points for match official abuse under the new zero tolerance policy after team official Rod Linsley was handed a six-game suspension.
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Linsley was given a red card after full-time in Saturday's controversial 1-1 draw with Newcastle Olympic at Darling Street Oval for an alleged incident with referee Cal Stammer.
Three straight red cards were handed out in the game by Stammer, including a stoppage-time send off of Eagles defender Jordy Lennon which was later overturned by the Obvious Error Panel.
Northern NSW Football delivered the minimum six-match ban for R8 - offence against a match official - for Linsley on Tuesday.
Under NNSWF's new stance on match official abuse, the breach brings with it a three-point deduction for the team - a penalty which is suspended until the end of the calendar year.
A second match official abuse breach from the same team will bring a three-point deduction for that offence and activate the suspended penalty, creating a six-point sanction for the side.
A third offence from the team will incur another three-point deduction and the club will be required to attend a disciplinary hearing regarding further sanctions.
A six-point penalty for a second offence would rule Edgeworth out of premiership contention and all but end their finals hopes, given the tightness of the league in recent years.
Edgeworth appear certain to seriously consider an appeal against Linsley's ban.
Olympic keeper Adam Pearce also received an R8 suspension, and a five-game ban, this year but that came in a pre-season trial. Under national regulations, suspensions from trials are served in trial games.
NNSWF took a tougher stance on match official abuse this season after more than half of their youth referees quit in the past 12 months. At least 30 of those walked away mid-season because of abuse.
** Charlestown coach James Pascoe is not getting carried away with another winning start to the season as he prepares his side for tougher tests to come.
Like last season, Azzurri have drawn lower-ranked sides early in their campaign. They played bottom-three teams New Lambton, Lake Macquarie and Adamstown across the first five rounds in 2023, when they led for most of the year before finishing third - two points off top spot.
This year they have the bottom trio in the opening three games and have beaten New Lambton 2-1 and Adamnstown 3-0 so far. They host Lakes this Sunday.
Pascoe was pleased with the win over Rosebud on Saturday but wants more from his team.
"We've still got another level to find if we are going to be competitive against the better teams in the competition," Pascoe said.
"There's lots of little areas to improve, but you weigh up the stage of the year it is and you've got to be reasonably happy with a couple of wins to start the season, but it's all relatively to who you are playing against as well. We need to get better."
