Harrigan is an embarassment to the game

[imported_justme]

Willow, I just finished reading your article on Bill at http://www.leagueunlimited-online.com/. First rate job mate and I fully recommend it to everyone here. I thinkitsums up the whole sorry storyabout Harrigan and answers all issues raised in this thread.

I also hope when you guys finish compiling those stats on Harrigan you publish them here.

 

[pepe]

this ones for el duque,

''in bill we lust''.

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

Bill should be dropped if the NRL has ANY consistency

Just say its part of the 'rotation' system....

Moffo.

 

[HappyRock001]

Hey Docker dont have a go at my darling Bunnies...so you reckon we should be in the metro cup hey...youll eat your words next season I can assure you of that...listen who do you support then by the way? The Cowboys?

 

[imported_midas]

Don,t know if any of you caught Billy Boy,s interview with 2UE on Saturday.Apart from the inadvisability of allowing Referees or Umpires to publicly defend their actions,Billy,s was a classic.
When it was suggested that one of the tackles was partiocularly quick,BB replied "You can,t just look at the individual tackle,you have to look at what led up to it."
To me this would be akin to Darrell Hair saying "Look,I know Tendulkar missed the ball by a foot but the little bugger was really annoying me so I fired him."
His other classic was when questioned on Nathan Cayless objecting to the manner in which BB was adressing him.BB,s reply was "Nathan must have a short memory,what about 3 weeks ago when he gave me a real gobfull."Not the forgive and forget type are we,Billy?
Can anyone recall an adjudicator from any other sport giving as many media interviews as Billy?.Can anyone recall an adjudicator doing as many commercials as BB? Can Billy Boy be fined for being over the ego cap?Time to go,Billy Boy.

 

[Willow]

"Nathan must have a short memory,what about 3 weeks ago when he gave me a real gobfull"

Referees are not supposed to bear grudges. I know they do but they are not supposed to. For Bill to make this announcement shows further proof that he is not fit to be a first grade ref.

Severalyears back, Referee McBlane made a similar comment on the field to a Canberra player and was picked by the microphones. He was made answerable and had a harrowing time explaining that he didnt bear grudges. The NRL told him to keep his comments to himself in future. Bill is apparently above all that.

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

Hold on for a bit.....

Playing the devil's advocate for a minute if i may, referees are mere mortals. What i mean by that is, they can hardly be expected never to hold a grudge. I know, all the stuff about professionalism and so on, but in such a heated environment, that just isn't going to work. People do weird and wonderful things under pressure, and out in front of 22,000 would qualify as a pressure cooker for me.

Holding a grudge is undoubtedly to detrement of the contest. However, we have to be realistic here. Referees have emotions, and they are going to over-rule at times, just like it does with players. Billy definitely went over the line last Friday, but come on, if you were in his spot and players started saying things like "Lets just ignore him", would you get pretty pissed off pretty quickly? Add to this the comments of Cayless a couple of weeks ago and Buettner shooting his mouth off during the game and all the ingredients for a blow up are ensured.

Harrigan should be dropped, but don't for a second think that referees could act without emotion 100% of the time, because the simple fact is that i just don't think its possible. Just think about it

Pulling out the pitchforks and hunting down refs will never achieve anything. Cos at the end of the day, fans are still going to bitch, refs are still going to make foul calls and the media is still going to jump on them. Driving referees out of the industry, and at the same time, deterring others, is a dangerous practice. Sure they get it wrong, but he without sin cast the first stone

Moffo.

 

[El Duque]

Did anyone notice that on the Sunday Footy Show or on Fox they showed a whole heap of players and referees talking and one was of the Cayless/Harrigan incident and another wad an O'Davis/Harrigan incedent where Billy said the exact same thing after he'd overheard something.Something like "I hope you weren't talking to me or you know what I'll do" as if implying he'd send him off.
Why didn't Billymention that incedent in his interviews??
Did Billy forget it???

 

[imported_justme]

Well I actually got a reply from the NRL today, didn't say much but at least they acknowledged it. Who is Lori?

Thankyou for your letter regarding the refereeing performance of Bill Harrigan on Friday night. The performance of every referee is analysed following a game by the referees coaching staff. This procedure will be followed in relation to Friday night's match and all matches from the weekend's round. Your comments in relation to the performance will be recorded and passed on to the NRL Management. Best regards
Lori
NRL I also thought Smith's article in the Australian, http://sport.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,4663337%255E5927,00.htmlwon't exactly endear him to Harrigan in future but it was quite funny in parts

 

[Willow]

Moffo: "...referees are mere mortals.... he without sin cast the first stone"

What I sais before that was: "Referees are not supposed to bear grudges. I know they do but they are not supposed to. For Bill to make this announcement shows further proof that he is not fit to be a first grade ref. "

Now, Referees are human... offcourse just as us other mere mortals. But referees have to show that they are unbiased. Some have been dropped for making silly comments on the field... and this is during the heat of battle! But with Bill, he says things to the media the next day! Surely, thats where you draw the line.

 

[imported_justme]

Pulling out the pitchforks and hunting down refs will never achieve anything.
LOL, not so MFC, in Billy's case it would achieve immense satisfaction on my part. Now stop putting ideas in my head like that, it is far too tempting

 

[Cronulla_Mania]

I'd never promote violence JustMe....Buttttttttt...

Willow, i will agree, Hollywood Bill is a bit of an egotist. Thats why he should get punted, only if its for one week, just to dent the budding ego a bit. I can't think of any other official in sport that is as well known as him, its ridiculous

Moffo.

 

[st ted]

Arthur Tunstall.
(I'm expecting the obvious,but boring comeback,Who?)

 

[imported_justme]

LOL ted, good ole Arthur of boxingand Cathy Freeman fame.
But you'll have to enlighten me as to how he fits into this context?

 

[st ted]

justme,
A reply to Moffs statement.Last sentence of his post prior to mine.
Yeah,I know it is a tad tenuous,but this is a thread nearing completion so I thought I wouldn throw it in for fun.

 

[imported_justme]

Ah yes, sorry ted I missed that. Arthur was indeed a very recognisable sports official remembered for all the wrong reasons. Actually I think he may be Billy's father as they do have very similar traits. Well picked St Ted, a very apt comparison.

 

[imported_midas]

Well now,Billy Boy has been punted temporarily.According to David Gallop ,management concluded that decisions 1 & 4 were correct and that 2&3 weren,t.Given that decision 1 (buettner) happened in the 58 th and number 4 (Buettner again) in the 73rd that means Parra should never had less than 12 men on the field.It may not be too ridiculous to suggest that without 2&3,then 4 may never have happened.
Reading (or listening ) between the lines ,I get the impression that BB was disciplined for his out-of -control media appetite rather than the Friday Night fiasco.In the 72 hours following the game he made 4 radio gigs and at least one Tv appearance(there may have been others) and yesterday following his demotion,he cancelled interviews on 2UE and 2GB (again there were probably others.)I half expected the media junkie to show up on Romper Room.

 

[imported_midas]

Just a further thought on the egomaniac Billy Boy.Does anyone believe the garbage he spouted about having discussions with senior Rugby Union officials.
The only games of any significance in Union i.e Super 12 and Tests, are handled by neutral refs.
So does BB expect us to believe that the ARU would part with their hard-earned just to provide a show-pony for the All Blacks,Springboks and Poms.
Give me a break,Bill-are you having delusions of adequacy?

 

[imported_justme]

I half expected the media junkie to show up on Romper Room.
LOL, you must admitit would have been the most appropriate gigfor him.

I doubt anyone believed his "talks" with union. It's just too ridiculous but doesgive an insight into his mental state.

 

[El Duque]

Incident 1was correct but I seriously 4 would've happened if it had noy been for oincidents 2 and 3.

Bill apologists keep going on about all the warnings and crap but when I was watching NRL scoreboard last night they said he'd only given 2 or 3 penalties for the infringement before he started going sin bin happy.

Everywhere you go someone's got a different story.You visit the Knights MB ad some clown thinks there was a massive difference in time according to his timing(no doubt he shows no bias)yet on NRL scoreboard their timing of the tackles showed less than 1/4 second in the 1st half and in the 2nd half when Bill went mad it was something like .1 of a second difference.I couldn't be bothered sitting down with a stopwatch and timing it to the nanosecond but from just watching you couldn't see any difference.

The only way you could find fault was if you went out on the field and intentionally scrutinised one side because you thought they were going to commit a foul. If you look hard enough for something you'll find it.If this is what Bill did(which it seems he did from his ravings since the match)then your mind is not fully on the job and you'll miss other illegalities because your brain is only focused on one area and on one team.

The other losers from this are Newcastle as it had nothing to with them.I still don't know why some of their fans are carrying on like moaning whores(see their MB)as nobody is blaming them but yet they still moan and 99% of them praise Harrigan.
Very onfusing people.