Been thinking about this for a while, and the whole Slater incident has made me think about it even more.
When the bunker is asked to judge on a try, I believe it's possible the decision could be influenced by the current score/time left in the game. The blokes in the bunker are only human and I believe a potential match winning try adds extra pressure (particularly if it's a finals game) and could play a part. As such, as a minimum, I think the blokes in the bunker should not be allowed to know the current score, or time remaining in the game. That way, they are simply judging on what they see, without any emotion or consideration for the ramifications.
As a potential build on this, you could take it a step further, I'm sure there would be technology out there that would enable the footage to be anonymised - essentially black out the colours/faces so that they don't even know which team/players are involved. This could then also be used for incidents of foul play - the match review committee is part of the bunker and review the incidents immediately after the game, they don't see the score, the result or the players involved and simply see the incident (anonymised) and make a decision on whether a charge should be made purely on the incident, again without any knowledge of the ramifications. That way, emotive stuff like the Slater situation is completely removed from the situation.
Removes any potential questions a out integrity.
The first part about bunker not knowing score is an easy fix. Second part is more difficult, but in this day an age, I'm sure it can be done from a technology perspective.
Thoughts?
When the bunker is asked to judge on a try, I believe it's possible the decision could be influenced by the current score/time left in the game. The blokes in the bunker are only human and I believe a potential match winning try adds extra pressure (particularly if it's a finals game) and could play a part. As such, as a minimum, I think the blokes in the bunker should not be allowed to know the current score, or time remaining in the game. That way, they are simply judging on what they see, without any emotion or consideration for the ramifications.
As a potential build on this, you could take it a step further, I'm sure there would be technology out there that would enable the footage to be anonymised - essentially black out the colours/faces so that they don't even know which team/players are involved. This could then also be used for incidents of foul play - the match review committee is part of the bunker and review the incidents immediately after the game, they don't see the score, the result or the players involved and simply see the incident (anonymised) and make a decision on whether a charge should be made purely on the incident, again without any knowledge of the ramifications. That way, emotive stuff like the Slater situation is completely removed from the situation.
Removes any potential questions a out integrity.
The first part about bunker not knowing score is an easy fix. Second part is more difficult, but in this day an age, I'm sure it can be done from a technology perspective.
Thoughts?
