I heard Bill Harrigon the other day say something allong the lines that refs could blow a penalty every set of 6 in a game. Kent then said they should which then Bill replied no one would watch the game if they did.
So basically if a ref can blow a penalty each set of 6 shows how much power they have to influence the result. They can find a penalty anywhere and give the opposition a leg up to make the game close. Against Manly Saints were all over them, the the Refs came in and gave Manly as much ball as possible. Luckily they realised how much of a mockery the game became and did not give Manly a penalty in the last seconds. THey made fools of themselves and had to defend the bad call in the end and not the others way before that got them to that stage.
Same with Parra, Saints were clearly on top then that kick off penalty which was absolute crap. But what bothered me is soon after that, the Parra hooker took a quick tap and split the saints which led to a try. No mark was given, no whistle nothing. He actually walked a step or 2 in front of the ref before taking the tap and ran. 100% of the time the refs call it back but that one, no way. So they were strict with the halfway penalty but lenient with the quick tap.
The refs have way to much power compared to other sports. If teams dominate in other sports they usually win but in NRL, the ref can actually starve a team on a role of possession so easily like we witnessed against Manly, Parra and Roosters 1st half where Saints just got no ball due to ref's.
