Matt Cecchin's performance tonight

[Canard]

12th for penalties received over the past decade and you f**kwits turned "penalty broncos" into a meme.

Dribblers.

Imagine believing that penalties received are the only criteria that referees have influence on?

That's almost as naive as some Roosters supporters.

 

[Bazal]

This is an incredible rant but I don't think penalty counts alone tell the story.

Refereeing issues are as much about penalties that aren't given, or the location of penalties given, or the time they're given.

You can lose the penalty count 7-1 but if the 7 you concede are coming away from the opposition line and don't deliver a repeat set... and the 1 you get is a penalty goal to win the game on the final siren, then 7-1 doesn't tell the story, does it?

And even then, good teams, as the Roosters have shown, can overcome a lopsided penalty count apparently, so why is it even an issue? Well, refer to the above.

I'd also add that across much of that time, the Roosters wouldn't necessarily have been heavyweights.

Much like I don't subscribe to the "Roosters are obviously massive cheats look at their roster!" derping, I don't believe they are anywhere near as kissed on the dick by the refs as some of the short poppies on here. In fact I think they've done remarkably well to overcome some very poor discipline at times. But I do think that the successful teams get far more favourable calls than unfavourable. So for me it's not "oh the Roosters get all the calls", it's more that the successful teams get all the calls and that happens to be the Roosters in recent times.

The other thing I would say is that the Roosters are one of the teams who are very good at giving away deliberate penalties. It's all well and good to talk about penalties given/received, but it's meaningless to a large extent without context. What the Roosters, and other clubs like the Storm and the Sharks, are very good at is managing penalties. And I'm not talking conspiracy theory shit, I'm talking gaming the system and I wish Parra were as good at it in many ways.

For example...If they're on top and give away a cheap penalty, on the first tackle midfield somewhere, it doesn't necessarily affect them all that much. It might even give them a better defensive line. But if you do that a few times, the refs (who are all about balance it seems) worry less about looking hard for penalties, or they're just that little slower with the whistle at big moments because they're gutless. Especially when reffing the top teams. Bellamy and Robinson and Flanagan and Bennett all know (or knew, in Peptide Shane's case) that and they use it to their advantage. Brad Arthur did it well in 2017 too, before the rule changes hammered his tactics in 2018.

Ultimately I think the root of any of these discussions about penalties or favouritism or whatever boils down to the referees needing to be better. Are they swayed by the likes of Cam Smith? Absolutely. Do they have preconceived ideas? Absolutely. Do you they want penalty counts to generally be nice and even? It certainly seems like it. Do they referee the game differently in the first minutes as opposed to the 79th? Definitely. There are heaps of complaints but all they boil down to IMO is needing more accountability and better referees.

 

[Uncle Kraka]

12th for penalties received over the past decade and you f**kwits turned "penalty broncos" into a meme.

Dribblers.

Bet they still won a LOT more penalty counts than they lost

 

[skeepe]

In fairness to Stephen Kearney he is always reserved in terms of talking about refereeing calls in the press conferences but it was fairly clear he thought it was a bollocks call and that Chicken Legs was riding Melbourne home. Appalling call. But the one that baffles me is the penalty when Munster was three metres out. The only thing I can come up with was we tackled with too much intent. Old mate is tackled second tackle and they are in a world of trouble, Munster puts his best pain face and glares at Chicken Legs, four seconds later he blows a penalty with no explanation.

He has form for this. A couple of years ago against Manly, one of the Raiders has a hold of the Manly ball carrier, who is still making forward progress, albeit slowly.

The ball carriers ribs are exposed so Josh Hodgson comes in and smashes him and takes him to ground. Cecchin blows a penalty, and the only word he says? “Unnecessary”.

Literally penalised for tackling too hard.

 

[Meapro Ham]

The scary part of it is that Cecchin is usually by far the best of them

 

[Card Shark]

12th for penalties received over the past decade and you f**kwits turned "penalty broncos" into a meme.

Dribblers.

Takes 1 to know 1.

Regardless of penalty counts, the Broncos are the most obviously favoured team by NRL officials (on & off the field)
in the comp.

Some of the leg ups your team gets defies belief at times & what I fear most about playing them today.

 

[some11]

Bet they still won a LOT more penalty counts than they lost

https://afltables.com/rl/misc/penalties.html

2018 Broncos won the count 38% of the time, Cowboys 75%
2017 Broncos won the count 43% of the time, Cowboys 79%

 

[forby]

Could be worse. Penrith have lost 22 of 28 games under Klein, including the last 8 in a row. Try and tell me there is anything wrong with that!
He obviously goes in with preconceptions and referees accordingly.

 

[some11]

I'd also add that across much of that time, the Roosters wouldn't necessarily have been heavyweights.

Much like I don't subscribe to the "Roosters are obviously massive cheats look at their roster!" derping, I don't believe they are anywhere near as kissed on the dick by the refs as some of the short poppies on here. In fact I think they've done remarkably well to overcome some very poor discipline at times. But I do think that the successful teams get far more favourable calls than unfavourable. So for me it's not "oh the Roosters get all the calls", it's more that the successful teams get all the calls and that happens to be the Roosters in recent times.

The other thing I would say is that the Roosters are one of the teams who are very good at giving away deliberate penalties. It's all well and good to talk about penalties given/received, but it's meaningless to a large extent without context. What the Roosters, and other clubs like the Storm and the Sharks, are very good at is managing penalties. And I'm not talking conspiracy theory shit, I'm talking gaming the system and I wish Parra were as good at it in many ways.

For example...If they're on top and give away a cheap penalty, on the first tackle midfield somewhere, it doesn't necessarily affect them all that much. It might even give them a better defensive line. But if you do that a few times, the refs (who are all about balance it seems) worry less about looking hard for penalties, or they're just that little slower with the whistle at big moments because they're gutless. Especially when reffing the top teams. Bellamy and Robinson and Flanagan and Bennett all know (or knew, in Peptide Shane's case) that and they use it to their advantage. Brad Arthur did it well in 2017 too, before the rule changes hammered his tactics in 2018.

Ultimately I think the root of any of these discussions about penalties or favouritism or whatever boils down to the referees needing to be better. Are they swayed by the likes of Cam Smith? Absolutely. Do they have preconceived ideas? Absolutely. Do you they want penalty counts to generally be nice and even? It certainly seems like it. Do they referee the game differently in the first minutes as opposed to the 79th? Definitely. There are heaps of complaints but all they boil down to IMO is needing more accountability and better referees.

Brilliant post.

Smarter coaches study this while the rest twiddle their thumbs thinking naming injured players on Tuesday is the height of tactical nous.