Besart Berisha and Mark Milligan of Melbourne Victory argue with referee Strebre Dilovski after he awarded a penalty. Credit:Getty Images Delovski clearly made a mistake, and it wasn't the first time he has done so in a game involving Victory. His refusal to award a clear-cut penalty when Mark Milligan was fouled in the dying moments of a semi-final against Brisbane last year could have cost the Melbourne club a shot at the grand final; that was a mistake that Football Federation Australia acknowledged by immediately declaring Delovski could not take charge of the championship decider a week later. Victory boss Kevin Muscat took aim not just at Delovski, but at all referees in the aftermath of an emotional night, claiming that the poor standing of officiating was making the A-League a laughing stock. Certainly in the time since Delovski's error social media has been flooded by critics of the officials. There have been suggestions that Australia imports more experienced officials from Asia or Europe, or that referees are given full-time contracts, or that the FFA devotes more investment to referee training and education. Calls for goal-line technology and video referees, as exist in many other sports, have also been made.

All are worth considering, as is the notion that referees be allowed to face the media after games to explain contentious decisions and their reasoning for taking a certain course of action. If that was allowed it would certainly go a long way to clearing up some of the confusion that so often flows from matches in which decisions are not clear-cut. And if a referee fronted the cameras and said, having watched an incident in replay, that he got it wrong, then his credibility would perhaps increase rather than decline. People tend to forgive those who admit to honest mistakes. Players, too, must take some responsibility, especially in incidents like that which sparked the controversy on Saturday. Ryall is either a simulating cheat, or a clumsy footballer who fell over his own feet and didn't have the courage or sense of sportsmanship to point out to the referee that he had made a mistake. If the former, Ryall should face a ban. Cheats and divers have no place in the game and the sooner they are jumped on the better.

Australia is not always the most sophisticated soccer market and many of the people the game is trying to appeal to do not understand the nuances and culture of the sport in the way those raised in Europe or Latin America do, where gaining an edge through gamesmanship – cheating in plain speaking – is often regarded as clever or legitimate. If Ryall simply was so unbalanced that running at full speed he tripped over his own feet, it says more about his athleticism and balance than it does about his ability as a footballer. If that was the case it would have been nice to think that he could have seized the moral high ground and pointed out to Delovski that Finkler had not touched him and that no penalty should have been awarded. Of course, those advocates of "professionalism" at all costs will say Ryall did the right thing, gaining an advantage for his team where none was deserved. But in the long run he didn't: he damaged his reputation, that of his team and in the eyes of the sort of newcomers whom soccer is trying to attract, the game itself. Sometimes players should just do the right thing.

There have been instances in the past. Paulo Di Canio, when playing for West Ham, passed up a clear opportunity to score because he saw that Everton goalkeeper Paul Gerrard was lying on the ground unable to move as he had dislocated his knee in the play leading up to the scoring chance. In the Bundesliga in March 2014, Werder Bremen player Aaron Hunt went down in the penalty area in a match against Nurnburg in which both clubs were battling relegation. The referee awarded a penalty, but Hunt then told him he had dived and that it should not be given. Ryall's taunting of Finkler afterwards was also unedifying, especially after what had just happened. Ryall does have some form in that regard, having given Harry Kewell – a player whose ability Ryall could only dream of possessing – a spray when the then Melbourne Heart forward ballooned a penalty horribly over the bar in a match against Sydney in Kewell's final season in the game. That, too, was unedifying and undignified, as well as making Ryall look ridiculous. To make yourself look ridiculous in the heat of the moment as he did when taunting Kewell might be written off as unfortunate or the actions of a rash youth: to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to do so a second time, as Ryall did in the way this penalty was awarded, just looks as if you don't care.