The present

Bobo had been awarded a penalty for a handball on Joseph Mills – he’d already missed a spot kick earlier in the match – but instead of coolly redeeming himself to the Sky Blue faithful, he stood anxiously for almost four minutes, awaiting a decision that had already been made, to be reaffirmed by the referee who had originally made it.

VAR caused the delay, but it didn’t make the decision. Instead, after a lengthy referral, it asked Shaun Evans to take another look. Which he did, before re-awarding the penalty.

Glory coach Kenny Lowe was clear in his criticism of the technology.

“At the end of the day they [Sydney] deserve the win, but we have to sort that [VAR] out. It’s making a mockery of the game. Let’s get it done and dusted,” Lowe said.

“If the ref is going to make a decision, let him make a decision.”

One of the key positives to VAR technology is the pressure it takes off referees. Having a fall-back for near-impossible decisions allows a referee to avoid some of the unfair, and very personal criticism that’s dished out on a regular basis.

The other, more questionable positive is its effect on the players. There’s the old adage that football is a game of fine margins, and careers have been made or lost over a referee’s whistle.

If referee decisions really can make or break a player’s career, then it’s very tempting to do everything in our power to make those calls accurate. But there are two sides to every story.

Say Bobo had missed that penalty last night, succumbing to the increased pressure of minutes standing there, thinking about how he’s going to take it.

That would have been two penalties missed in one game. It’s fair to assume that in a team full of proven penalty-takers – Wilkshire, Mierzejewski, Brosque – that Bobo wouldn’t have taken the next one.

Losing penalty duties could easily reduce a striker’s goal tally by five or six over the course of a season, which could then cost him his job. The pendulum swings both ways.

But this is all speculation, and there are far less hypothetical issues to the VAR.

As controversial as refereeing decisions can be, it’s unlikely that a poor call does more damage to Australian football than regular, lengthy stoppages.

The A-League is ad-break free during play, an underestimated point of significance in the ongoing struggle over the saturated Aussie sporting market.

Flowing football allows for an immersive, engaging spectacle when compared to the NRL and AFL, and it’s a cohesive argument against the idea that football is the slower-paced, less exciting contest.

Timewasting is already a blight on the modern game. But if penalising minute-long goal kicks and throw ins stays in the too-hard-basket, then any other process that delays the match for more than 10 or 20 seconds should be looked at with grim suspicion.

Sydney coach Graham Arnold was more diplomatic in his review of the VAR following the match, but hardly optimistic.

“It’s what the VAR is here for; to try and make those correct decisions and make it a clear decision,” Arnold said.

“Of course it’s a bit frustrating for the time it took, but that’s what it’s here for and people have to get used to it.”