Is this the solution to the abhorent refereeing?

[coolsteve]

it all started a few years ago with channel 9 commentators (especially gould , rabbits and so)who put so much pressure on the refs by scrutinising every iota of play, finger tips and all,that the refs were too scared to make a decision, so they sent it upstairs.then gould and co started on the video refs (no no no no no)(it`s not about you , phil)and now they are passing it back to the onfield ref.just f*ck gould and co OFF. and take harrigan too.f**k , he thinks he invented the game . he`s the refs boss, buck stops with him.

 

[super_coach]

When a team had what ever chance they had of winning a game taken from them by brain dead officialdom we have a major problem. Harrigan has to take the fall, its his men who are getting wrong week after week.

Its the BILLION DOLLAR GAME RAN BY TWO BOB OFFICALS

 

[Marshall_magic]

I'm a believer of the theory that if 5 minutes after a game finishes you can't remember who the ref was it means he has done a good job. Unfortunately Bill Harrigan isn't and he's the one in charge.

 

[Billythekid]

Well at least if the reffing still suck we wouldn't be wasting our money on an extra ref plus the video refs. Crazy how much money we must be spending on them to f*ck up every game.

 

[Ausguy]

Those calling for the video ref to be abolished are kidding themselves.

If we went back to every decision being made by the refs there would be a massive outcry everyweek.

The solution is to get the decisions right not go back to having no helpful technology.

 

[The Eagle]

Poach all the pommy refs IMO

 

[some11]

The solution is to get the decisions right

Thanks Laurie Daley.

 

[johns_reds]

Do a little exercise - go watch a game of chooseday night football that shows a game from say... 1990-1996. Doesn't matter who is playing, watch the entire game. At the end of the game count how many times you even knew there was a ref on the field or heard his whistle.

Tackle that slips off the shoulders into the neck/head - nothing heard, ball played quickly.

Play the ball a bit messy - play on, nothing heard.

Contentious try scored - within 5 seconds the refs says try or no try. Bang, he makes a decision based on what he saw. Captain might argue for 20 seconds but the game and commentators quickly move on.

I've enjoyed some great games with little but very decisive reffing on chooseday night footy. It's how i recalled the games growing up too. Sure some games had controversial decisions back then but it was a rairty, not the norm. So by taking away the empowerment we placed in one referee to keep a game flowing and limit his needed involvement by been decisive and backing himself we find ourselves in this situation.

Was it super league creating a snowball of refereeing and rule changes? Was it fans whinging about a under-refereeing and that 2 is better than one.

It's a cluster f**k of a mess - but we once had it right. One referee - one whistle - one onfield boss. It's not too late to go back.

Again, go watch a game from 15-25 years ago - count how many times you even notice the ref. How did we let it slip this far...

There were no forums back in the 90's, people would complain at the pub but wouldn't log on their pc to complain about it to the masses, that and there was only one angle to see what happened and it wasn't in HD so no one realy knew. The game has changed, we are never going back

 

[Nerd]

Also get more referees trained and ready so the ones that have f**ked up can be sacked permanently.

I have been harping on about this one for awhile. All the NRL refs are only selected if living in NSW. All QLD based refs are not considered. I'm not saying one is better than the other but if you double the amount of refs that you get to pick from surely poor performers like Hayne could be more quickly demoted after bad performances.

 

[Kurt Angle]

Bill Harrigan's name should be mentioned, he has changed the game a lot.

If anyone remembers pre-SL, players could rake the ball.... except if Harrigan was reffing. Ian Roberts used to be a proponent of raking.

The rule was that the striking player couldn't raise his leg until the ball was placed on the ground, too early was a penalty.

Harrigan used to blow 'too earl'y no matter what.

A player playing the ball could place the ball on the ground and let it lay there, scratch his balls, ask for the ball boy to chuck him a bottle of gatorade, then look back down at the ball to play it.

Harrigan would still blow you up if you then decided to strike.

He single handedly took that part out of them game when he was consulted by SL to modify the rules.

 

[no name]

Not to mention the tap forward when there was no marker.
Ask Tigers fans about that one, it was up there with Benny's field goal and Mal's ankle tap in terms of turning points.

 

[Lambretta]

Get that Pommy ref who was out here for the test..Silversen or something his name was.
Let the game flow ,made quick decisions & you hardly knew he was on the field.


One ref & piss off BOD,& Video ref.

Richard Silverwood is the man and he was the ONLY referee in that game

If you watch the Super League (which I record every week on Eurosports) you will notice that the European game employs one referee on field and he makes the decisions. The game is much better for it and they have far fewer contentious refereeing decisions.

The more I see of the two ref system the more I believe we have gone wrong with the experiment.

One of the main issues is that the referees swap and change roles during the game and referee to different f**king standards. It's no wonder the players get confused and concede stupid penalties with one man getting a hard on for certain offences and the other ignoring them. Then they hold different bloody distances for offside, so sometimes you can stand back 10 yards, other times you have to get back 12 or 13. It's f**king useless.

If one ref did all the line work and the other did all the ruck work for BOTH teams ALL of the game it would be an improvement, but you only have to look at the Super League to know that they were right not to experiment with what wasn't broken.

 

[undertaker]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fePv3Wrc0do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnwMe1rey7s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKWh6IhH9xg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JOmtrvUQsg

I know these clips are to do with AFL and as much of a controversial figure as he is, I 100% agree with Sam Newman on his comments regarding the match officials. It's not just the NRL that has this problem; it's also the AFL. Everything he said about AFL umpires in those videos is exactly applicable to the dilemma we are having with NRL referees and one of the pivotal points he mentioned as a STARTING POINT to the solution is to take the microphone off the referee. The microphone, which I believe was a Super League invention in 1997 (along with a lot of other unwanted inventions, such as the gradual movement towards playing most games at night time), is one of the things that is a blight on the game. And over time, no, the reason it was introduced wasn't so that we, the fans, could understand the rulings and interpretations of the ref.

I'm bloody sick and tired of hearing the quintessential Tony Archer "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELD! SURRENDEEEEEEEEEER! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLD! GO!" ad nauseum throughout a game and this is one of the grating aspects of our game that never existed pre-1998. If a player is offside, he shouldn't have to be told "John, get back! You're offside" 50 times. If you play the game, you should know the rules, simple as that. And if John is offside, penalise the bastard rather than saying something over and over again which will make John think that he can repeatedly get away with being offside as he knows he wasn't penalised in the previous instances.

Like what Sammy said, the match officials have almost become just as important and receive just as much attention as the players when the initial purpose of a referee in the first place was always just to referee the game according to the rules rather than trying to be the "Hey! Look at me!" 27th player on the field, which sadly is what referees like Brett Suttor have evolved into. Even as a Knights supporter, I have to say that incidents such as what happened in the Rd 23 Knights/Bulldogs game with Brett Suttor's comments during the game was absolutely disgraceful and another thing which validates my previous sentence. The refs have become like the Moscow Circus - one big, laughable act.

Take the microphone off them and it will greatly reduce their need to be the "centre of attention" and noticable: an attitude which was fostered by Bill Harrigan since the mics were introduced, and now other refs have started to follow his lead

P.S. Also the point about Jeff Geishen (who I think is the boss of the AFL umpires) is just like what Bill Harrigan has been doing, going on radio/newspaper/tv to explain the rules. Disgraceful

 

[bileduct]

Two things need to change with refereeing.

The two referee system needs to have a fixed dominant referee and pocket ref that don't change places during the game. One of the things I have noticed when listening to the refs with sports ears is how differently they call out instructions to players. Some referees call when a player is held and then call for players to move, other referees like Tony Archer don't call held at all and instead just start barking at players to let go or move away. If the refs don't swap places for a while you get one team who is allowed to hold down in the tackles longer than other the team.

The video ref is a f**kin' joke and is overused. It seems now that referees rely on the video ref whenever a try is scored. A lot of the times you actually hear the on field referee say "I'm happy with everything but can you check the grounding" and then the video ref looks at absolutely everything. Last week in the game between Canberra and Cronulla there was a try from a Croker kick, and the ref said it was a try but wanted the video ref to look at whether Croker was hit late. Of course video ref looks at onside, grounding, the works. It's just ridiculous in high scoring games where every f**king try goes to the video ref. They need to change it so that refs can only ask for specific rulings.

 

[bileduct]

Another thing I have noticed this year is that you hardly hear "surrender" or "dominant tackle" calls anymore.

Instead all you ever hear these days is "MILKING MILKING MILKING" but noone ever gets penalised for trying to milk penalties. If they are attempting to milk a penalty by holding onto a defender then they are deliberately stopping that defender from getting back into the line SO f**kING PENALISE THEM!

 

[Phil McGrawhan]

Agree ,about the 2 refs not swapping during game..
You will get some consistency in the ruck & defensive line.

& i cannot believe that refs call out milking,get off him etc or scream at a player that he is offside..
Penalise them ,
Jesus H Christ it is not hard.hey know the rules ,& they will soon learn to get onside if they keep getting pinged for it.
Why should the ref be telling a grown man to get onside..you learn that in under7s.

 

[eozsmiles]

This ... Or get rid of the video ref alltogether

If a ref misses something in the heat of the game - fair enough

But for the video ref to stop the game for 5 minutes to make a wrong call is stupid.

I would still keep the two refs though

When this happens people talk about it for days, post photos and videos on the net, the tv shows and newspapers talk about it, and coaches talk about it to the media. The social media go mental as soon as these things happen. A big section of the footy community all vent together. This didn't happen back in the day because you could only talk to your mates. Now the reaction to bad decisions is bigger, instantaneous, and takes longer to die.
Not many people will say fair enough. They usually want the ref sacked and blame it on their teams loss. The tv will always show the replays because they have the technology. People won't tolerate bad calls just because the ref made the decision on the spot.

 

[LineBall]

IMO, this is what needs to happen:

1. Go through the rule book and update/simplify things as much as possible.

2. The refs can only adress players by their number and the captain as "captain".

3. The only player that can talk to the ref is the captain and must address him as sir, and can only do so at a natural break in play, such as when a try is scored or a ball goes into touch, NOT when a penalty has been awarded (the ref signals what it is for and isn't going to change his mind).

4. The refs are not to "coach" the players. No warnings about being offside, not square etc, etc. No more dominant or surrender calls. The ref is to call held (if necessary) and the tackle number only. Sure there will be more penalties initially, but they will soon learn.

5. Get rid of the video ref.

6. Touch judges are to stay in line with the ball to help determine forward passes. They are not to come onto the field of play unless they are reporting something, or time has been called off.

 

[Phil McGrawhan]

IMO, this is what needs to happen:

1. Go through the rule book and update/simplify things as much as possible.

2. The refs can only adress players by their number and the captain as "captain".

3. The only player that can talk to the ref is the captain and must address him as sir, and can only do so at a natural break in play, such as when a try is scored or a ball goes into touch, NOT when a penalty has been awarded (the ref signals what it is for and isn't going to change his mind).

4. The refs are not to "coach" the players. No warnings about being offside, not square etc, etc. No more dominant or surrender calls. The ref is to call held (if necessary) and the tackle number only. Sure there will be more penalties initially, but they will soon learn.

5. Get rid of the video ref.

6. Touch judges are to stay in line with the ball to help determine forward passes. They are not to come onto the field of play unless they are reporting something, or time has been called off.

 

[Vic Mackey]

To me the biggest thig is the ruck. It is a complete mess. As OP days Watcha choooseday night game from anything over 7-8 years ago and the ruck is a million times faster, no wrestling, no flops. When was the last time a flop was penalised in today's game?

Basically EVERY single ruck SHOULD be penalised.however the refs pick and chose random tackles that were the same as last 20 and penalize one. Neil Henry was 100% right after Fridays semi.