Brian Smith: Stop time-wasting - the referee saga is getting us nowhere
BY BRIAN SMITH
24/07/2008 9:43:00 PM
RUGBY league must be one of the toughest sports of all to referee.
If you think about the number of rules that can be breached, the number of players on the field and the pace of the game, there can be no argument whatsoever that the man with the whistle has a bloody tough job.
I know this for a fact, having spent every Saturday afternoon in my teenage years refereeing junior games in Casino, my home town.
In any single game of footy, there are hundreds of tackles. And virtually each and every time a tackle is completed, there is a potential penalty waiting to be blown.
Was the tackled player held down too long?
Did he play the ball correctly?
Were both the markers square?
Were all 13 of the defenders back 10 metres or however far the referee insisted they retreat?
Was there any suggestion of an illegal hold, such as a grapple tackle? Did the defenders make any high contact with the head or neck, or did the man with the ball illegally raise his elbow as a fend?
The list goes on and on.
Even with all the technology we have available via the video referee, it is impossible for the officials to get 100 per cent of the decisions right 100 per cent of the time.
As an experiment, when you are watching tonight's TV games, concentrate hard on every ruck, especially on the defensive players as they peel off their tackled opponent.
Eventually a penalty will be awarded. But was it really that much different to any of the rucks which preceded it?
Over the past few weeks, I've spent a lot of time thinking about the referees and the role they play in our game.
It has been well documented that the Knights have been on the receiving end of some horrendous penalty counts this season.
It is very disappointing, and a bit embarrassing, to realise that we are the most penalised team in the competition.
It is absolutely bewildering to know that we have received the fewest penalties in our favour.
The stats would suggest we are an undisciplined team. But are we really that much worse than any of our rivals?
I'm the first to admit that sometimes this season we have been our own worst enemies. There were four or five penalties in our loss last week to Cronulla that were simply unprofessional.
But the penalty count was 11-6 against us, so there were a number of penalties that I believe fell into the "subjective" category.
Now I am not casting any aspersions on the integrity of our referees, because I know they are doing the best job they can.
And I'm not the type to bother wasting my time on conspiracy theories.
But I have a couple of hunches about why we keep falling out with the NRL's law enforcers.
The first reason is what I call the underdog factor.
The media, fans and bookmakers usually expect the favourites to win. They doubt whether the teams lower on the ladder, or teams riddled with injuries, are good enough.
I wonder whether this has some sort of subconscious effect on our referees. Certainly they come under a lot more scrutiny if a high-flying team are beaten in a boilover, and the losing coach then proceeds to criticise the ref at the post-match media conference.
Life is sometimes a lot simpler if everything proceeds as expected.
Unfortunately, more often than not this season, we have been underdogs.
The other major factor I have identified is that the flow of penalties tapers off in the final quarter of a game.
That is a statistical fact, right across the NRL.
Given that teams are more fatigued in the latter stages of a match, it is hard to believe that somehow their discipline has improved.
Instead this trend suggests that referees, for whatever reason, become more lenient the longer a game goes on.
This counts against us, big time.
In most of our games this year, we have been coming home strong in the final 20 minutes.
Statistically the Knights are one of the leading teams in terms of tries scored in the last quarter of games.
We have staged a number of comeback victories this season and pride ourselves on our overall fitness.
But it is very hard to keep fighting back if the opposition are trying to slow the game down and the referee is not as vigilant as he may have been in the early exchanges.
Anyway, we have wasted enough time and energy debating the referees this week.
The best thing we can do is move forward before we become bitter and twisted.
In many ways, I see the Knights as being like a young challenger taking on a heavyweight boxing champion.
We have to accept that it will be hard to get the judges' decision and win on points. But nobody can argue if we land a knockout punch.