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Matt Cecchin

Messages
14,028
Can't blame him. The powers that be let the wrestle take over the game about a decade a go. Whenever an attempt is made to eliminate it from the game the refs just get pasted. It's a simple concept, if a player infringes the rules......penalty. All this rubbish about game management has made them into scapegoats. It doesn't help that there are coaches out there that cannot take an L and have to blame them for their own failures.
 

Bronco18

Juniors
Messages
1,071
I think everyone could agree that there's something personal they'd like to fix if they were referee's boss....

But what is really played down in the media is how many we've been through since the NRL has reformed. Haven't we been through 7(?), and none have exited on their own terms. The height of the idiocy has come from News Corp. calling for Harrigan to come back, when they were on the sack Harrigan bandwagon when he was last in charge.

It's time the fans and especially the media take leadership and acknowledge it's an inherently difficult and thankless task to referee. I think apart from a rare comment from Sterlo and Vossy, no one praises the referees for a difficult yet correct decision, but we love to highlight an incorrect call. Fox and Nine commentators can argue about scrapping the bunker/two refs and naively say how we'd "all accept the on field decision and move on", but then show all 17 different angles that "prove" (often subjectively) a referee's decision is incorrect.

Reality is, there's no consensus in how to "fix" refereeing (even if it needs fixing), so they're going to just continually cop abuse unless more people in high places look to change the culture of ref bashing.
 

Hello, I'm The Doctor

First Grade
Messages
9,124
The NRL refs get most of the focus, but the genuine RL crisis is in the abuse of refs at junior levels...

When i was playing as a kid and again recently when my cousins and nephews were playing, the refs would be screamed at all match by the parents. Sometimes theyd even need security to walk the refs off the field at the end of the game.

Personally i put most of this down to C9s dogshit commentating. They whinge about the refs so relentlessly (even contradicting themselves) it has just become normal for RL. When the "voices of RL" are acting this way, is it any surprise the fans follow?

I dont know what can be done about the NRL reffing abuse, but at the junior level it should be ZERO TOLERANCE. In the local Netball, if a parent says anything about the ref, they stop the game and dont start again until the parent is in the carpark.
 

Life's Good

Coach
Messages
13,971
The NRL refs get most of the focus, but the genuine RL crisis is in the abuse of refs at junior levels...

When i was playing as a kid and again recently when my cousins and nephews were playing, the refs would be screamed at all match by the parents. Sometimes theyd even need security to walk the refs off the field at the end of the game.

Personally i put most of this down to C9s dogshit commentating. They whinge about the refs so relentlessly (even contradicting themselves) it has just become normal for RL. When the "voices of RL" are acting this way, is it any surprise the fans follow?

I dont know what can be done about the NRL reffing abuse, but at the junior level it should be ZERO TOLERANCE. In the local Netball, if a parent says anything about the ref, they stop the game and dont start again until the parent is in the carpark.

My son (U/10's - North Sydney comp) is playing his first season in league and I've not seen any issues in relation to referee abuse. It has genuinely been a very good experience thus far. We also recently travelled to an invitational tournament in Tamworth and whilst you had parents yelling 'oh c'mon ref.....' , it was pretty tame with no sign of trouble to my knowledge.
I agree that the commentators could turn it down a notch or 10, especially Ch9 where Rabs struggles with players names, let alone the rules.
 

Cockadoodledoo

First Grade
Messages
5,045
Can't blame him. The powers that be let the wrestle take over the game about a decade a go. Whenever an attempt is made to eliminate it from the game the refs just get pasted. It's a simple concept, if a player infringes the rules......penalty. All this rubbish about game management has made them into scapegoats. It doesn't help that there are coaches out there that cannot take an L and have to blame them for their own failures.

The clamp down was a joke because it was still extremely selective. The penalties given are largely random when other infringements are repeatedly ignored. I can understand a few purists getting excited over it, however no one goes to the football to watch 30 penalties blown and if you want to kill the game then that is exactly what it was doing.
 

T-Boon

Coach
Messages
15,146
I agree that the commentators could turn it down a notch or 10, especially Ch9 where Rabs struggles with players names, let alone the rules.

They could make a big step forward in this respect by getting Gould off live coverage of games. His sole purpose is to undermine the referees.
I understand Nine have some obligation to Gould based on Packers old love for him or some such. Give him his own TV show...called it The Muppet Show. See how popular it is.
Just get him off live coverage.
 

TheDMC

Bench
Messages
3,340
Personally i put most of this down to C9s dogshit commentating. They whinge about the refs so relentlessly (even contradicting themselves) it has just become normal for RL. When the "voices of RL" are acting this way, is it any surprise the fans follow?

I agree, same with Fox commentators, especially the ex players. And half the time they don't know the rules properly, and just mouth off from their own ignorant perspective. That just fans the fire. In my opinion, the refs are generally pretty useless and the rules are a bit of mess and hard to apply consistently, but the commentators should shut their pie holes and focus on commentating the game not judging the refs.
 

T-Boon

Coach
Messages
15,146
The clamp down was a joke because it was still extremely selective. The penalties given are largely random when other infringements are repeatedly ignored. I can understand a few purists getting excited over it, however no one goes to the football to watch 30 penalties blown and if you want to kill the game then that is exactly what it was doing.

Coaches started deliberately giving penalties away in the red zone last year (maybe it was earlier than that but that is when it started getting noticed). It was a scheme to help the defence stay set.
There was a big increase in penalty shots at goal, Wayne Bennet and Brisbane started getting criticised last season because they were taking the 2 points on offer all the time.
Everybody started noticing it around then and I guess realised that was one reason the try line defences were getting better. Coaches were preparing the players through the week to breach the rules of the game inside the red zone.
The refs just picked up on this and I guess did some film study of their own.

The problem the game has is the coaches not the referees.
 

Springs09

Juniors
Messages
1,903
The clamp down was a joke because it was still extremely selective. The penalties given are largely random when other infringements are repeatedly ignored. I can understand a few purists getting excited over it, however no one goes to the football to watch 30 penalties blown and if you want to kill the game then that is exactly what it was doing.

No one goes to football to watch all the rules get broken either. The crackdown went a bit overboard but it was a step in the right direction from the garbage put on display in 2017. It's no surprise the teams best at cheating (Storm, Roosters) have barely lost since Greenburg told the refs to back down.
 

Saxon

Bench
Messages
2,545
Coaches started deliberately giving penalties away in the red zone last year (maybe it was earlier than that but that is when it started getting noticed). It was a scheme to help the defence stay set.
Try the Roosters, starting in about 2012.
 

Meth

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
34,475
Cecchin reffed a bloody good game last night. We're losing the best. Warriors showed their respect at the end of the game- hopefully it was redemptive (on the same ground as the Tonga v England game)
 

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