On air Video Referee decisions

[azsportza]

Under-pressure video referees to publicly explain decisions to millions of viewers

Story: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...lions-of-viewers/story-fni3fbgz-1226706952336

THE NRL will revolutionise rugby league forever on Friday with under-pressure video referees to publicly explain their decisions to millions of Channel Nine viewers.

The Daily Telegraph can exclusively reveal that video refs will be called upon to explain each contentious decision to television fans for the next two NRL rounds and then throughout the finals series.

After a decision is reached, Nine viewers will then hear audio from the video refs revealing why the decision was made and which rules were employed.

Play will not be stopped, the video ref’s explanation running for between five to ten seconds.

If the system is successful over the final two rounds, the NRL will look to play the video ref's audio through the public address system at every NRL ground for fans attending games.

Channel Nine and Fox Sports, the game's two broadcasters, have approved the plan.

Nine and Fox Sports commentators will discuss the controversial try, as usual, before then handing over to the video referee.

The senior of the two video referees will make the announcement.

"We are looking at ways of expanding the communication process around video referee decisions," said NRL head of football Todd Greenberg.

"We hope to achieve a greater level of transparency for the fans in relation to decisions made by the video referee.

"It's important to point out that it won’t mean that everyone will agree with decisions that are made, but they may at least understand the basis for the decision that was made.

"This will be in place for all matches in round 25 and if it's well received, we will consider other opportunities to also feed audio into our stadiums for the members and fans during the finals series.

"It's important rugby league continues to be innovative and progressive and this continues with our overarching vision to be regarded as a sport that is both entertaining and engaging at all levels."

Video referees have been under fire over the past two years.

They were involved in a number of blunders last season, culminating in the sacking of NRL referee co-coaches Bill Harrigan and Stuart Raper.

Their decisions may not improve but at least the public will be aware of the reasons behind each verdict.

Friday's game at Allianz Stadium between Wests Tigers and South Sydney will be the first time viewers hear from the video referee.

"It sounds like a great innovation," said NSW State of Origin coach Laurie Daley.

"The fans have always wanted to know why decisions are made from the video referee’s box and now they will.

"It is all about the game being transparent.

"It will be great the viewers – they will be involved in the game and the video ref's will probably be more understood too."

An on-line Daily Telegraph poll, which attracted more than 10,000 respondents,- actually gave the NRL video referees some support.

Asked what was worse - the NRL video referee or cricket’s DRS – only 20 percent voted for the rugby league version.

Cricket's DRS attracted nearly 36 percent of the vote.

Fans have not exactly given new Referee's Coach Daniel Anderson a strong endorsement.

Nearly 38 percent admitted the standard of refereeing had gone down since Anderson took over this year.

 

[some11]

Great idea, would've loved to have heard how they decided on awarding this:

 

[Pierced Soul]

Great idea, would've loved to have heard how they decided on awarding this:

"well we can clearly see the ball being grounded before going into touch and..oh shit is his f**king hand out?"


The idea is good though. at least it might take a little bit of confusion out of their moronic decisions

 

[cleary89]

Great idea

 

[azsportza]

It's a step in the right direction for the NRL. I would have liked to see the NRL use what they did for the Challenge Cup Final and have the video referee mic'd up as he spoke to the TV director.

That way we could hear them work through their process and come to the decision instead of just explaining it after the decision has been made.

Better yet, for those at the ground, it would be good to be able to hear the video referees through the SportsEars system.

 

[Card Shark]

Dumb idea - will lead to more frustration & anger.

Maybe a spiel along the bottom of the screen may be more appropriate. As if asking a video ref to talk is gunna help them make a clear decision .

It's more bloody pressure & they can't handle it now.

 

[Puntastic]

"well we can clearly see the ball being grounded before going into touch and..oh shit is his f**king hand out?"

:lol:

This is all I am expecting this little experiment to yield.

And I am totally okay with that.

In all seriousness, while the video referees have had some shockers, it's the on field referees that have been equally atrocious and some accountability there would be nice too. I know the video referees have the luxury of replaying, in slow motion, from various angles, multiple times...

But maybe if the referees were explaining themselves more often we'd understand why they were missing things or reaching the conclusions they were reaching, even if it's as simple as "I couldn't see properly" and we can then find a way to counter recurring problems. Transparency and accountability would be nice.

Have a referee presser after each game. Let them field questions like coaches and players do - just 10 minutes after the game to justify some of the calls. I don't see why not?

 

[Mr Saab]

Dumb idea - will lead to more frustration & anger.

Maybe a spiel along the bottom of the screen may be more appropriate. As if asking a video ref to talk is gunna help them make a clear decision .

It's more bloody pressure & they can't handle it now.

Whilst i would like an explaination for their decisions, i do agree with you on this....they are going to be under the pump when it comes to the howler decision....and they will be some big ones coming up in the big games.

 

[bor]

"Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe!"

 

[Puntastic]

Dumb idea - will lead to more frustration & anger.

Maybe a spiel along the bottom of the screen may be more appropriate. As if asking a video ref to talk is gunna help them make a clear decision .

It's more bloody pressure & they can't handle it now.

Agree also on the extra pressure, frustration and anger.

But f**k it. They deserve critisism if they cant do their jobs properly and making them inaccessible and untouchable only shelters them more from the people their decisions effect - fans.

But... going into the finals is where my support for this openness falters. Added pressure + increased anger from fans around finals time risks some jeopardising decisions occuring.

So while I think them explaining is a good step in general, maybe round 25 isn't the time to start. And if we do, don't keep it going into the finals.

 

[Canard]

Be interesting to see how it plays out.

It will still be better than just getting Phil Gould's explanation, which is treated as gospel by some viewers, but sometimes so far off base its not funny.

 

[Hutty1986]

Agree also on the extra pressure, frustration and anger.

But f**k it. They deserve critisism if they cant do their jobs properly and making them inaccessible and untouchable only shelters them more from the people their decisions effect - fans.

But... going into the finals is where my support for this openness falters. Added pressure + increased anger from fans around finals time risks some jeopardising decisions occuring.

So while I think them explaining is a good step in general, maybe round 25 isn't the time to start. And if we do, don't keep it going into the finals.

+1

Teams work their arses off all year and for them to have a season possibly decided by yet another video ref f*ck up is disgraceful...Manly v Cows semi last year being a prime example.

It's time these blind, incompetent f*ckwits had some accountability and seeing their thought process is a start.

Or maybe this could just prove once and for all that the numpties just toss a coin to decide most tries anyway.

 

[Sleep]

Waste of time. If they've given it, they've given it. 99.9% of the time you can see how they would even if you disagree with it. The dumb ones all you ever get is "we've reviewed it and we got it wrong, sorry" anyway.

 

[Apey]

This is going to be awesome, gameday threads just got even better. Just more ammunition for Skeepe.

 

[POPEYE]

Should be an improvement if a decision that is normally frivolous can no longer be fobbed off. I'd expect more final say to be handed back to the ref where it belongs, something that can't be explained rationally won't want to be explained at all. Easier to bullshit to a mate than 1000 people looking for a reason not to like you

 

[newman]

:lol:



Have a referee presser after each game. Let them field questions like coaches and players do - just 10 minutes after the game to justify some of the calls. I don't see why not?

Being a ref is a hard enough job as it is without being harassed after each game by reporters.

-Why did you call it a knock on?
- Cause I thought it was a knock on.
- But you can see on the replay it wasn't?


There would be no refs left.

ACCEPT THE DECISIONS AND MOVE ON WITH LIFE.

 

[Springs]

I don't really see the point. Any really bad ones we see the ref explain to the captain straight afterwards anyway. And the ones that are even worse (like the Panthers one above) are only explained by 'I'm an idiot/blind'.

Most fans know why they give the try, they just disagree with it. Like the Hodges try in Origin game III last year. The video ref thought it wasn't an obstruction, a lot of fans thought it was. I don't see how the video ref 'explaining' this afterwards is going to clear up much. It will just lead to fans yelling 'you're a f**king idiot' at their TVs again.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

Id love to get Toovey's reaction if we used this now.

"That's ridiculous"

 

[Pierced Soul]

i'd like there to be little boxes in the corners of the telecast with the coaches reactions. i'd love to watch manly and storm and be able to keep an eye on bellamy and toovey both going mental

 

[Quidgybo]

Dumb idea - will lead to more frustration & anger.

Worked great in the Challenge Cup this year. For once we didn't have to listen to so called expert commentators going off half cocked, misleading viewers into thinking the decision is wrong for one reason when it was really based on something entirely different. But too often the commentators, obsessed with the sound of their own voice, miss such subtleties because they won't shut up long enough to listen to what the officials are saying (perhaps we should start holding commentators accountable for their poor reads and stand them down for a week when they make a howler).

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem the NRL will use the same system as was used in England. From the article it sounds like we'll still sit thru the commentators bullshit until after the decision is made and then hear a summary from the video ref. In the Challenge Cup coverage they went straight to the video ref as soon as the on field official called for him and we heard him requesting angles from the director and talking thru each thing he checked and his decision on each as he made it. As I said, it worked great. You knew exactly how he reached his decision and what his call was on each individual aspect of the decision...

"The first thing we want to check is onside, can we have a wide angle? OK, freeze it there... Clearly onside, no problem. Let's check the grounding please... Grounding looks good but can we get an angle of his back foot in relation to the sideline? Foot doesn't touch the sideline, that's a try."

Etc etc.

Leigh.