The Axe of Druss
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FTR I agree with most of what you've said here and I myself am guilty of feeling my club is reffed differently, at least when it comes to the calls that lead to tries and are comparative to ones in other games that get pulled up, because my team is down the bottom of the ladder.This is something i think is pretty unique to RL fans
And not ref blaming because of course that happens in sport everywhere, but the way in which refereeing is talked about, the extent at which its blamed by fans and scrutiny on referees and how it seeps into the day to day discourse is unlike any other sport i follow
You can go into any match day thread on this site, or any club specific forum and for every single club you find fans who genunely think they're refereed differently, and that they're getting screwed
The journo's in the papers and the talking head shows lean all the way into it too. Which of course only makes it worse
And im not even divorcing myself from this, for sure i've been one of those people too, 10 years ago i was shocking for it. I make a concerted effort these days to try and be more measured about this, and for the most part i am. And of course in a big spot and particularly bad call that changes the outcome, like any fan, i blow up
But it's made my footy watching experience better when im not losing my mind at any 50/50 call that doesnt go our way as if its the greatest injustice anyone has suffered or pretending as if the referees have gathered pre season and determined they'll stop at nothing to stop the Canberra Raiders.
But its a real ugly side of RL fandom imo.
However its far easier to not "lose your mind" over these calls when your team is at the top and you're not scrapping for wins on a weekly basis. We live and breathe our teams and being starved of success makes us crave it all the more.
I've never tried to justify a loss when the scoreline has blown out, ever. Wizardmong just has trouble with comprehension and Bobby is a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to looking for excuses for a loss