souths_pride
Juniors
- Messages
- 1,155
People ask why we're the least penalised team this season. I think it's because we treat the referees with respect. Maguire has never complained about a ref's performance in his 76 press-conferences so far in the NRL. Sutton is one of the quietest captains in the comp.
On the other hand, look at Toovey, Hasler, and Stuart: if you treat referees with disdain, you will be more heavily penalised. The only exception to a degree is Robinson.
Are we the least penalised team? I don't know the statistics but on face value, I would have said that our discipline is one area we need to work on! I actually still think we need to work on not giving away 2-3 quick penalties within the first 10 minutes of games and putting ourselves on the back foot!
People are going to say we're biased but I agree with what you say about Maguire handling refereeing controversies very well. Very rarely does Maguire lose it with the referees in the post match press conference. Even last week, when we had two shocking decisions go against us, he didn't go on a rant about the quality of refereeing. Last night, he again calmly dealt the issue of poor refereeing. I thought he really played down the issue of Ennis constantly badgering the referee and only pointed out that at the start of the year he attended a coaches meeting where it was decided that captains were not allowed to talk to refs at scrums and penalties.