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Love them or loathe them, referees are an integral part
of any sporting competition. The problem I find is the slipping standard of NRL
refereeing in comparison to yesteryear. I've followed rugby league for almost
40 years and although refs have always been scrutinised, they actually had a
spine to make calls. You'd never see Barry Gomersall or Eddie Ward look
indecisive or almost scared to make a decision. Nor would they be intimidated
by home crowds or particular players.
Generally, most penalties were warranted and occasionally human error
caused a minor uproar with fans. These days I'm not sure what the referees, or
our beloved game for that matter, are made of. More often than not, fans are
left talking about refs decisions rather than the brilliant skill, speed and
strength shown by supreme rugby league athletes.
When two teams are competing, I feel like teams
constantly aren't refereed equally and the alleged shoulder charge has become a
farce. One team is penalised for holding down in the ruck where the opposing
team seems to be able to lie all over players! It also appears specific teams
tend to get away with a lot more than most other teams. The perceived bias due
to a player or teams reputation is also a huge concern. This is a problem for
the whole of league and this is said with no personal club bias on my part.
As I tend to watch every game, every round, I find it
happens regularly! As with any sport there will always be individual referee
interpretations of the rules, however when it appears the referee's are not in the
same book as each other, let alone the same page it tends to disillusion fans
more than any other aspect of the game. There are some refs who give and
receive respect but others are condescending and disrespectful of questions
being asked of decisions, which we, as fans, are probably sitting and asking
the same. Blow time off and an explanation can be given. This keeps teams and fans satisfied.
Another aspect of our game is player welfare and rules
allegedly changed with this aspect in mind. The shoulder charge, for example;
it is ridiculous to condemn an amazing tackle, nowhere near the oppositions
head, because the defensive player didn't wrap his arms around. Of course our
game is still the best game, however this small change has sanitised our game
beyond player safety into the realm of taking excitement out of our game. The
number of good hits (alleged shoulder charges) now resulting in penalties or
reports is ludicrous considering there are other areas needing attention when
it comes to player welfare. Having a Bachelor of applied science I believe a
lot of player injuries are caused due to wrestling and holding techniques,
which nearly ALL teams do, added to the considerable time refs take to call a
tackle held! NRL needs to look at this before other rash measures which
obviously aren't popular or extremely relevant.
One last note, I
believe a huge amount of time wasting and slowing down of the game is due to
some teams wrestling the ball carriers onto their backs in every tackle with 2
or 3 defenders adding to the time it takes to rise from the tackle. If it's a
case of time wasting, instead of penalties resulting in further time wasting,
rules should change to call time off whenever the ball isn't in play! Problem
solved and everyone is happy!
Thanks for reading,
Love,
@LadiesWhoLeague
Great - referees and rules, 2 of my favourite topics.
ReplyDeleteRules first. If we're all honest the biggest blight on RL is the holding down in the tackle. Will this solve it? A rule change that requires all players involved in a tackle to not be able to be the markers. So, if 3 players commit to the tackle, they must leave the play the ball area and get back into the defence line. So the interest in committing 3 or more players to a tackle (as well as players coming in late) would be reduced. To prevent the dummy half simply running from dummy half introduce the rule that the little kids used to play under (and may still do?) that if they are caught with the ball - handover. Hopefully attacking teams will see this as an opportunity to spread the ball more often (after all, do you want to seen players like Martin Lang bash it up all day and as far as I can remember never pass the ball in what seemed like a 100 seasons ... or a flying outside back with the ball in hand?)
Refs - let's look at the stats ...
A ref is involved for a full 80 minutes - every play of every game. How many mistakes do they make? Work that out as a %age of the number of plays. Now, work out how often a player/team is involved and how many mistakes they make - and they make some absolute clangers (bombing tries, giving away stupid penalties etc). Refs aren't doing too badly. At least they know the rules (mostly). They are operating in the same pressure environment - often with limited vision and so can "only play what they see".
As for "respect" - the current trend in refs and players calling each other by their christian names is a worry to me. There is a big difference between the person playing and the person officiating and IMHO the terms should be "captain", "player number ..." and "sir".
I have to disagree with the comments about explanation of decisions. The captain is entitled to ask a referee - but the referee is under no obligation to answer. Often the issue is "ref - why aren't you penalising them ...?" - rather than seeking explanation of decision. The old adage of "the ref is always right, even when they're wrong ..." applies here. I am assuming here that we all agree that the ref's are not biased?
That said, as anyone from south of the Tweed of a reasonable age will probably say - "... we did have our doubts about The Grasshopper". Put "Barry Gomersall" into Google and the second search line comes up with "Barry Gomersall cheat".
GGG
Great article.
ReplyDeleteThey must bring back the shoulder charge
Definitely agree with the bias towards some teams. Refs favour Manly & Broncos. They dislike Storm, Cowboys and Titans.