Commentators are leading the anti ref sentiment.

[Sphagnum]

Bwaif is insufferable... but the majority of them do it....it’s like they think the more they whinge about the refs the more the general public will like them or something.

Joey looked like a clown a week or two ago, can’t remember the game or the exact incident, but a ref made an onside call of a knock on (as I remember) and Joey coughed up on commentary with a real arrogance saying x player was offside I’m certain of it... then Ch9 replayed it and sure enough the ref had made the correct call, instead of Joey giving the ref his dues they just all went quiet and waited for play to start back up.

So it’s okay for commentators to make mistakes but not refs?

He complained about 1 on Thursday night.

'Why is he calling so and so off side, he was nowhere near the play the ball. Ridiculous.'

They then showed the replay and old mate made the tackle. You could hear a pin drop in the commentary box.

merkin didn't even apologise for being an idiot.

 

[Lemon Squash]

He complained about 1 on Thursday night.

'Why is he calling so and so off side, he was nowhere near the play the ball. Ridiculous.'

They then showed the replay and old mate made the tackle. You could hear a pin drop in the commentary box.

merkin didn't even apologise for being an idiot.

That was the ones Sphags! Felt like it was a while ago for some reason (probably due to the 4000 beers over the weekend).... Looked like an absolute twat, then none of the others had the spine to call him out on his balls up.

 

[Lemon Squash]

100% Footy should be interesting tonight, will be a deluxe whinge session

 

[simmo05]

If you actually look back

Most of those commenators were promised jobs for life during the SL War

Fox is starting to move away from this

Correct! Just like the cricket, there needs to be a change in broadcaster to get rid of the rusted on bludgers. How good is the cricket going to be without the pretentious cockheads waffling on for days.

 

[Lambretta]

Correct! Just like the cricket, there needs to be a change in broadcaster to get rid of the rusted on bludgers. How good is the cricket going to be without the pretentious cockheads waffling on for days.

To be fair to cricket callers, f**k all happens for hours on end
They have to waffle on about some bollocks sometimes

If I called cricket it would be "well the sun is shining and some people are walking around. There is some grass growing under the feet of these idiots who seem to not be bothered by a lack of shade.

Silence


8 hours later, ooh look, a wickets been taken. Well done.. One of them threw a ball and the one wearing the bollock protector missed it and wood went flying. Awesome. Try doing that again without the 8 hour wait you f**king nongs"

 

[adamkungl]

Commentators bagging the ref has been happening for years and it's an ugly thing to listen to.Does the game no favours.

And people need to really get over the whole "consistency" thing. Players on both sides go out of their way to push the rules, slow down the ruck, things commentators often laugh off as "gamesmenship" depending on the players involved. The players are the ones who create so many of the 50-50 calls ijn the game and then whinge about consistency when some coin flips go against them. Fans just follow suit.

The idea that 34 players and 6 officials are going to achieve absolute consistency in comparison to an entirely separate set of 34 players and 6 officials from game to game week to week is ludicrous.

Things like obstruction/groundings/video ref etc - sure there should be more of a uniform consistency amongst those things, but unless people want the game slowed down so it's played out over a 2-3 hour period so everything can be checked then accept that in the moment of a fast moving sport where the refs don't get multiple replays and looks at everything, some things are going to be missed and sometimes the coin flip will go against you.

Absolute consistency is a myth that people refuse to let go of.

This needs to be repeated again and again

 

[adamkungl]

Anasta and Finch managed to make a Voss-called game unlistenable the other night. Going on and on and on about well deserved sin bins ruining the game.

These 2 dopes played through an era where constantly pushing the rules was ignored and now are shocked that someone's flicked through the rulebook and found this thing called the sin-bin which existed for 100 years to prevent all the shit everyone's been whining about for a decade.

 

[Fangs]

I can't remember Rugby League ever being this bad. Same goes for the efforts of TV commentary teams.

Channel 9 are all over the shop. Fox Sports a tad better but too many uninformed members of their team.

 

[Springs09]

I think rugby league is fine. Commentators are talking up a bad image. If there is anything wrong with rugby league, it is not the referees, it is the coaches that have continuously broken the rules.

Listening to the radio on Saturday night Souths/Cowboys - a commentator literally said 'I haven't seen the replay yet but games shouldn't be decided by referees'...so are we supposed to let players be offside if the resulting penalty would decide the game? Matthew Elliot then rambles on the next day about how he hates seeing games decided by penalty goals. For the last 5 years everyone was whinging that refs would refuse to blow penalties in golden point for fear of deciding the game. Now they have the guts to do it and make a correct call and it's all 'the game shouldn't be decided by refs it should be about the players'!! A player did decide the game by being blatantly offside.

The other thing is this whinging about the sin bins. I've never seen players so blatantly give away penalties before. Pangai Jr boots the ball out when the Roosters are about to play the ball with 5 seconds left, what do you expect? It should nearly be a suspension for that kind of shit play. The last 2 years everyone was complaining about deliberate penalties inside the 10, now we are sin binning obvious professional fouls and it's somehow ruining the game. And Gould the idiot going on about how it's the referees fault there are so many penalties inside the 10, what are we supposed to do? Let the defending team lay all over the ruck for 15-20 seconds?

If rugby league goes the way of rugby like the idiots are suggesting it will be because of the negative tactics of NRL coaches, not the refereeing.

 

[adamkungl]

Everyone would be much happier with the sound off tbh.
You would forget about half the calls that you get the shits about if the media didn't harp on about it for the next week

Try attending a live game for once, it's much like watching it on TV except with an enjoyable atmosphere instead of some f**kwit ex-players and a current club CEO telling you why you shouldn't be having fun.

 

[Stormwarrior82]

I also think a lot of this rests on the shoulders of the players. Maybe Greenberg needs to sit down with the Rlpa and make them aware that the type of negative play that the players are currently imploying like offsides all the time, hookers passing the ball into offside players etc are negitive plays that don’t help promote the game. A player has the choice to make changes for the better like gilly did when he got out and walked. Sportmanship goes a long way and I don’t by the excuse that my coach forces me to play like that.

 

[Fangs]

These days I can't watch Rugby League on TV unless my team is playing.

Its a bit better at the game and if I'm pissed it beats Neighbours.

 

[TheFrog]

Anasta and Finch managed to make a Voss-called game unlistenable the other night. Going on and on and on about well deserved sin bins ruining the game.

These 2 dopes played through an era where constantly pushing the rules was ignored and now are shocked that someone's flicked through the rulebook and found this thing called the sin-bin which existed for 100 years to prevent all the shit everyone's been whining about for a decade.

Actually the sin bin was introduced in the 1970's.

 

[adamkungl]

Actually the sin bin was introduced in the 1970's.

Point still stands

 

[Frailty]

Watching the game these days is painful. But it's not because of the quality of play - but the commentators.

You can not sit through a game without the commentators complaining about something - if it isn't the referees, it's the block plays, the rules, etc. If you showed someone new to the game, they would come away thinking that the commentators do not actually like the sport at all.

Commentators have always pointed out mistakes that referees had made, but it wasn't a persistent sustained attack for the full 80 minutes. They would say 'I think that call is wrong' and then move on commentating about the game.

This weekend highlighted this problem. It was probably one of the most entertaining weekends with lots of amazing tries, close games, and compelling story lines, yet all we here are the referees are destroying games. At no stage have the players had blame placed on them, why? They are the ones consistently breaking the rules of the game.

For years you had Gus, Mole, and Buzz complain about referees not enforcing the rules, and then when they start doing so they are complaining about that. It's a blight on the game.

 

[typicalfan]

Fox are bad at it too. Braith saying the worst ref decision he has ever seen happens weekly. I mean no ref decision ever tops that Broncos player that got binned for offside when he was chasing a line break. Gillett I think it was.

Its ok to commentate on mistakes but you rarely hear them acknowledge the refs when they blow up and see a replay that confirms the refs decision. Needs to work both ways

 

[typicalfan]

A League commentators blow up deluxe too they are probably almost as bad as league. Whenever you skip through Bosnich is always bagging someone

 

[Timmah]

Most of the nine guys just love the sound of their own voice and Gould is the worst. He continually bleats on about the "problems that exist in the game" and the minute something is done to address them he's dead against it.

Continual offsides is a good one. Last year he'd crap on whenever an offside was missed and he'd say that all the refs need to do to stop offsides is blow more penalties.

This year, the refs are blowing the pea out of the whistle on offsides and now Gould is complaining that we have too many penalties.

He is also the one that thinks there should be some Grey area in the game where we should play on if something is technically against the rules but leads to a passage of play that's entertaining.

If someone makes a spectacular jump to get over the try line but the ball slips out of the fingertips before it's planted down you'll often hear him say "Oh, just give that as a try because its so brilliant."

Yet, if the refs throw the book out and allow entertaining but illegal play to continue, he'll be the first to bitch about it. Especially if it costs the Panthers.

You almost pre-empted his rant on 100% footy last night. Epic fail from Gould, who is blurring the line between club official and media figure.

 

[Perth Red]

No, the problem is that a 50/50 call is treated like a clear-cut decision and the commentators wont drop the issue until they find something else to bitch about...

And if they arent death-ridding the refs, then they talk about how shit and unwatchable the game is becoming.

And if they have nothing to bitch about, they just ignore the game and talk about totally irelivent shit.

Its like tey WANT fans to hate the experience...

We need to clone Vossy! only commentator who actually sounds like he loves the game. Innes started off well but noticed even he is being dragged into the bag a ref-a-thon these days.

 

[Bring back John Fifita]

Been away for a while - rekindling with LU. This topic has been eating at me for ages - glad it's been raised here.

I couldn't agree more with the sentiments of most here. It seems to me that commentators (including ex-players who "think" they are commentators) and journo's are all in a frenzy to be the most outraged these days..

It's the biggest blight on the game by lightyears these days - and much like the Australian Cricket Team recently, the Media needs to take a good hard look at itself for all the crap they've been sickeningly dishing out this year. Buy some mirrors guys - Serious Culture Reset needed.

What really nailed it for me was two things last night. Paul Kent (Russell Ingalls' Son) on 360.. insanely ranting on about anything everything against the NRL - referees, "consistency", Dylan Napa's tackle, the fight - Phil Rothfield wasn't behaving as ridiculous but still picking fights with the NRL as always..

Then on 100% Footy I thought there might be a bit more objectivity but no.. On the back of more referee-bashing and speculation on the refereeing for SOO - Adrian Lam made the comment akin to "wouldn't it be ridiculous if the state of origin was decided by an offside penalty like the other night".... what?? a team breaks the rules and it's absurd to penalise them??

Ie - these Media types DONT want referees to referee to the rules because its a bad look for the game. YET they also howl about consistency...

What sport on earth allows or demands the rules to be overlooked by the referees to "better" the sport...?

The race to be the most outraged will sadly continue all season.. At least there's always the mute button..