Three-minute spray, gobfuls of abuse - what the tribunal did not see
Roy Masters
August 17, 2006
WHAT did the NRL match review committee see that last night's Andrew Johns judiciary hearing did not?
Surely, when the committee - consisting of an ex-international referee, a retired NRL coach and a past Australian player - decided to charge the Newcastle halfback with a possible four-week offence, it saw more than the tribunal of former footballers who discounted it by half.
The answer lies in the over-confidence of the committee to charge Johns with only a portion of his tirade against touch judge Matt Cecchin and referee Paul Simpkins.
Because the vision of Johns saying "f- - - you, c- - -" to Cecchin was so definitive, the committee, led by former top referee Greg McCallum, decided to proceed with this part of the tirade and not the rest. The tribunal was shown only four camera angles and did not see an outburst by Johns against Cecchin and Simpkins when they walked from the field with their microphones off, nor did it witness Johns spitting.
When NRL operations manager Graham Annesley called Channel Nine sports boss Steve Crawley on Monday morning for additional footage of the incident, the committee was probably of a mind to charge Johns with only a grade-two contrary-conduct offence.
After all, like everyone else in rugby league land, its members had probably seen vision during the weekend of Johns abusing Cecchin for failing to rule Manly's Steve Matai had played at the ball at a critical time in a tense match. But Annesley specifically asked Crawley if Nine had an ENG camera angle of the incident.
Crawley was obliged to provide it under the rights' holder agreement with the NRL, even though he probably preferred to protect his prize product, Johns, who is under contract to Nine.
The portable ENG camera vision was not part of the broadcast of the match. It is essentially news camera footage and was not supplied to the broadcast van. It told a different story from what fans had seen in last Friday night's broadcast.
Johns's Cecchin spray lasted three minutes and was punctuated with him looking downward and spitting on the ground. Because players often do this to clear their mouths, it could not be assumed he was spitting in the direction of the touch judge.
When it comes to "Great Expectorations" in the history of the game, Joey's liquid lob was not in the same league as Wally Lewis's golly on the Gold Coast 15 years ago. Nor did Johns's later barrage clearly identify what he said, although some believe he used words which rhyme with "yucking fog."
Although the audio evidence of Johns mouthing a belligerent "f- - - you, c- - -" was not apparently clear, the ENG film makes it easy for anyone enrolled in Lip Reading 101 to know what he said.
Anyway, the committee, which included former Norths coach Peter Louis and Roosters' international centre Mark Harris, must have been incensed by what it saw on the ENG angle to lay a grade-three charge but clearly too reliant on only a small section of the outburst to sustain it.
So the case of Joey being put down by footage of his mouth was only half done. A judiciary panel of ex-players was, therefore, asked to act only on two words they had heard a thousand times on the field.
The final judgement won't stop swearing in sport, not even in the direction of officials. Cursing can be therapeutic, as anyone who has hit their thumb with a hammer knows, an observation made by Mark Twain.
Some go further, such as John Singleton, whose Hunter Valley Blue Tongue brewery is a significant sponsor of the Knights.
"Anyone who doesn't say f- - - and c- - -, shouldn't be allowed to play rugby league," he observed.
Singo, whose larrikin streak identifies with Johns as much as his business sense recognises an opportunity in a thirsty city that loves a conspiracy theory, says: "No one wants Newcastle to win because they don't have a power base. They are not owned by News Ltd and are not in Sydney."
Before the hearing, Singo said: "The best player in the world is being sacrificed for the worst linesman in the world."
But Cecchin is nicknamed "The Rebel" by his fellow referees because of the similarity of his surname to the breakaway movement fighting the Russians. Maybe the "Rebel" and Joey have more in common than they think.
