Blaming the Ref Syndrome

[Billythekid]

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 it’s a real ugly side of RL fandom imo.

I disagree with this, complaining about refs is about as universal an experience as there is in sports. Shit just go to your local sporting ground for most kids sports and you’ll hear this nonsense. Hell I’ve even read posts like yours (complaining their sport is uniquely bad on this topic) from people talking about multiple different sports.

I’m not denying RL fans aren’t worse than other sporting fan bases, it’s near impossible to quantify that anyway.

I don’t agree with blaming the media either. IMO there are 3 main things that lead to people complaining about the refs and they are:

-How often the refs are involved in the game.
- how subjective the rules are
- the general behaviour of fans.

In league the refs are CONSTANTLY involved in the game. Literally every tackle has the refs coming in to decide when the tackle is completed and then if players are onside etc. Near every second of the game you have refs making a decision.

Not only that but the rules are highly subjective. When is a tackle complete? How long is too long to hold someone down? Did a player actually try and wrap their arms making a tackle? Did a player intend to take someone out contesting the ball? Did the pass float forward etc.

Our game is littered with these types of decisions which players, fans, coaches, refs etc will disagree on and that naturally leads to people complaining.

That 3rd point I don’t think applies to RL and is more something you see in soccer. Refs have lower involvement but because fan bases are so incredibly f**king toxic like in the EPL you still get endless bitching.

 

[Bobby DIGital]

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.

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

Oh yeah, when was that?

 

[Det.Wojciehowicz]

I don't think it is accurate that other sports do not fixate on officials.

I'll never forget growing up with an Italian fella who openly stated 'all [soccer] refs should be killed'. It was clearly a Northern Italian cultural thing he'd grown up with.

Yep. My best friend is Italian and he is a rabid Juventus fan. He whinges about the ref even when Juve wins.

 

[BadnMean]

...

 

[The Man Shake]

Andrew Voss has become the worst at this. He's really become such an unprofessional and self indulgent wanker in recent years. Does he know his job is to call games, not provide opinions and blow up at referee decisions.

I think it’s a management directive from Fox…generate controversy. Warren Smith is well known for it.

You would think the product itself is entertaining enough. But no, we need to have this soapbox drama.

 

[BadnMean]

Yep. My best friend is Italian and he is a rabid Juventus fan. He whinges about the ref even when Juve wins.

You may be aware but most league fans will not be.. not only was fan perception that the "big club" got all the calls in Serie A (Italian soccer) correct- they even managed to prosecute a mofo and dump the team down to NSW Cup for a penalty... this is the team hard done by the refs in Italian soccer!

 

[jonno_knights]

In the Knights v Canberra one the ball didn’t touch the ground but he def didn’t have any momentum. I’ve got no problem with the ref getting it wrong it’s just the video ref getting it wrong. Unless I am wrong about the rule?

My understanding is the bunker cannot rule on momentum when it comes to held calls. Only can rule in the case of double moments.

Just another one of those "can't call a forward pass due to camera angles but can call an offside on a kick" head scratchers we've learnt to live with.

 

[Woody90]

I'd echo what others have said, that blowing up about shit calls against your team is different to saying they are the reason your team lost

100%. I’m not sure why fans of the losing team blowing up about the officials making some absolute changers has been misconstrued as the officials must be getting blamed for the loss. Very one tracked.

I’ll just add, although we all say it, outside of one or two Raiders fans I don’t think anyone actually thinks the refs have a known agenda against their team. However, it’s also obvious that they’re so scared of making mistakes they usually officiate the way the game was expected to go to reduce controversy. Or sometimes they’re just clangers. It’s the inconsistency from week to week and sometimes within games that’s the most frustrating part.

 

[Canard]

Yep. My best friend is Italian and he is a rabid Juventus fan. He whinges about the ref even when Juve wins.

Particularly odd, when you consider they are ringleaders of the biggest officiating scandal in our lifetimes.

 

[Apey]

While an interesting topic, its truly bizarre this thread was born out of failed comprehension. Nobody thought the controversial calls cost us the game. Arguing against thin air in a new thread after losing the argument in the original thread is certainly something.

 

[Apey]

Fans everywhere and of every sport take exception to match officials and officiating, it's a tale as old as time. RL definitely isn't the worse I've come across; that crown belongs to Premier League fans who have made mainstream the notion that refs are all corrupt, and will scream blue murder that there's a transnational conspiracy against their club.

The aspect in which RL differs is the media and the way they constantly weigh into it with their biased opinions. I have not witnessed a sport like ours where media figures are loudly and repeatedly telling us (in their opinion) what a decision should be and if not, why it's wrong. You being a former player or coach does not make you an expert on the rules - shut up and call the game impartially.

NRL officiating and the bunker are not perfect - no system is or will be, but if I compared what we have to VAR it's MILES ahead. And Rugby League was literally born and developed as a result of consistent rule changes. It's the very essence of the game. If you didn't keep changing the rules to suit the needs of the game and its fan base you'd have a boring, dog shit product like Rugby Yawnion does now.

Warren Incredulous "and they're gunna say... <100% correct call>!" Smith is the absolute worst in the business for this, god I hate him.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

Oh yeah, when was that?

I recall you suggesting the Kiwis failing to fire a shot in last years Pacific Champs was due to injuries etc

 

[soc123_au]

100%. I’m not sure why fans of the losing team blowing up about the officials making some absolute changers has been misconstrued as the officials must be getting blamed for the loss. Very one tracked.

I’ll just add, although we all say it, outside of one or two Raiders fans I don’t think anyone actually thinks the refs have a known agenda against their team. However, it’s also obvious that they’re so scared of making mistakes they usually officiate the way the game was expected to go to reduce controversy. Or sometimes they’re just clangers. It’s the inconsistency from week to week and sometimes within games that’s the most frustrating part.

Go and check out The Kennel. A vast majority on there seriously believe the NRL hold meetings with the only thing on the agenda being how can we f**k over the Dogs today. Very funny stuff.

As a supporter of a team who has been pretty shit for a lot of its existence and now very successful I can see both sides. When we were going badly there were occasions where the subconscious ref bias toward the worse team cost us wins. The majority of the losses (and there were many) were just because we were actually hot garbage.

In 2020 when we started to get good it took a while for the turnaround on the 50/50s. Early season we couldn't buy a 6 again call, and we gave them away like lollies. As the wins stacked up the calls evened out.

Overall in most cases I think the results sort themselves out. The Kiraz call in the Dargons game probably was the decider, so it would be an outlier. It's only relevant given when it happened, both teams had chances to have it decided well before that, but f**ked it up.

Game management is something that is definitely a thing. It doesn't usually alter the outcome though. 2020 GF is a good example where it came close though. We had a few rough calls in the 1st half, but we were also diabolical. We were managed back into it in the 2nd half and came close to getting away with it. Gould was right when he said we didn't lose, we just ran out of time, only thing is we shouldn't have been that close. To'os try was a shocking call.

 

[Bobby DIGital]

I recall you suggesting the Kiwis failing to fire a shot in last years Pacific Champs was due to injuries etc

Well over half the team which beat Australia 30-0 the year before was unavailable. It's a reason, not an excuse.

 

[Bobby DIGital]

Your team got annihilated yesterday Axe. Nothing would've changed that.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

Your team got annihilated yesterday Axe. Nothing would've changed that.

Never said otherwise

 

[Vee]

Does he know his job is to call games, not provide opinions and blow up at referee decisions.

It's all the result of the push by broadcasters to raise the profile of their callers, to try and manufacture fan loyalty to them. Witness the faux outrage provoked by clickbait comments.

 

[This Year?]

I believe there is bias in refereeing and games are managed to achieve certain results.
I've seen teams reffed out of a game in the 1st half only to get a few calls late in the 1st half or in the 2nd half to "even up" the count. I've seen games where teams get a 6 again on tackle 4 or 5 consistently while the other team gets them on tackle 1 or 2. The higher placed teams on the ladder are better at exploiting referees with cynical play and testing referees than the lower placed ones.
Having said that I believe the team that has deserved the win most has won in about 98% of games.

 

[macavity]

My understanding is the bunker cannot rule on momentum when it comes to held calls. Only can rule in the case of double moments.

Just another one of those "can't call a forward pass due to camera angles but can call an offside on a kick" head scratchers we've learnt to live with.

the ref specifically asked him to rule on the pass off the ground.

the issue I have is the calls were wildly inconsistent... "didnt try to get across" and "tried to get across but only to get a call" both asserted as reasons to give the try.

 

[mave]

No one can convince me the Raiders weren't reffed out of that game v Manly.

That was as blatant as you will ever see....except all those time Manly have been reffed out of games.

Manly vs the Tigers late in 2024 so their spoon bowl vs Parra could be a thing comes to mind immediately.