R23 | Knights 10-23 Storm @ Hunter | Sun 3.00pm

[RHCP]

Was at work so I missed most of the game. From the little I saw Tets didn't look out of place starting in the front row. What was this professional foul everybody's on about?

 

[IanG]

I now hope the Mexiaco City Breeze crash and burn in the Grand Final qualifiers.

 

[Apey]

I liked Wayne's response about what the sin-bin is for in the press conference...

"I don't know what the sin-bin is for any more, because nobody ever goes to it so, it's irrelevant in the game"

 

[Swarzey]

Refereeing is destroying my enjoyment for the game. I'm just not as passionate as I used to be.

So this. Just this.

The consistent penalties for having "hands on the ball" when the player plays the ball without an issue. Pulling players offside when they ball had just been played and they haven't even laid on them. Putting players on report for clipping someone above the shoulders when no harm is done. It completely removes me from the game live and I change channel at home.

The quality is just ridiculous and it seems there is not one single referee who can do the job without making a ridiculous call that turns the tide of the game. There are some teams that constantly get the rub of the green and I hope to god we won't ever see a decision as poor as the one today decide a grand final.

 

[Yosh]

Been saying for a while now. We need another genuine star in the team. We're one star forward and Hayne away from the premiership.

Though Kurt was good today. Some terrible passes but was direct and kept the storm ruck defenders busy.

If Cronk gets sent off we win, imo. Refs f**ked that one up.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Though Kurt was good today. Some terrible passes but was direct and kept the storm ruck defenders busy.

Agree.

 

[The Showstopper]

Jeremy and Willie would have made plenty of difference out there. Gower might have added the right play at the right time. We actually have too many ball runners. We need Gower from here on out.

 

[Noname36]

I don't think Gower offers much more than Roberts tbh but given how quiet Tyrone was today I think we should definetly give Gower a go. He's not going to be our Knight in shining armor though like some seem to be expecting. We're not going to go to another level unless we get another star or Boyd suddenly decides to play.

 

[AceAv]

Seriously, you can't blame the team for today, the refs got played once again by Melbourne.

We never got a quick play the ball because the Storm were wrestling and lying in the tackle constantly. I reckon the refs gave 3 penalties in the first quarter of both halves and then let they get away with anything from then on. The storm knew the refs would give up trying to police this aspect and they did.

They got away with never getting back the 10 and the refs lost interest in policing that aspect.

It's the refs total lack of consistency and their passiveness in the face of obvious storm tactics.

The storms first try came off two clear knock ones which were so obvious as to be farcical.

Everyone including Bellamy thought Cronks should have went and that should be enough to see both refs dropped for next week but helps us nought. Adding insult to injury, Cronk kicks for Slater to score, of which Slater was infront of the kicker again.

Newcastle will never be able to compete with the likes of Melbourne whilst ever the refs are gamed so totally by the Storm.

Look at the joey pass called forward, there was no chance in hell it was forward, but the refs got it wrong and we lost a good chance, I saw 3-4 passes from Smith that were highly questionable but not a word said.

The refs are just reffing the Storm on reputation, not what they do on the field.

It was nice to see Bennett call out the obvious tactics of the Storm and he should go further and publicly state that if teams have to game the system to win then so be it, he will get on board.

Reffing was consistently bad -Pass was 100% forward Joey called. Try to look at it through non biased eyes. Cronk 100% should have been sin sinbinned . But you lost with a 10-4 penalty count against Storm....???? -Can't say you didn't have any rub of the green to give you opportunity to beat them.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Reffing was consistently bad -Pass was 100% forward Joey called. Try to look at it through non biased eyes. Cronk 100% should have been penalized. But you lost with a 10-2 penalty count against Storm....???? -Can't say you didn't have any rub of the green to give you opportunity to beat them.

No, it wasn't

 

[God-King Dean]

Yes, it was.

 

[Rod]

Reffing was consistently bad -Pass was 100% forward Joey called. Try to look at it through non biased eyes. Cronk 100% should have been sin sinbinned . But you lost with a 10-2 penalty count against Storm....???? -Can't say you didn't have any rub of the green to give you opportunity to beat them.

It ended up 10-4, and if the refs didn't put their whistles away 20 minutes into the second half it would have been 15-4.

Like I said after the Roosters game, teams seem happy to concede multiple penalties on their line because even if you concede 5 penalties on your own line in a row the most points you can score that whole time is 6. We didn't attack well enough yesterday sure, but receiving twice the amount of penalties as the opposition doesn't necessarily mean you should automatically score twice as many points.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Yes, it was.

No, it wasn't

 

[Nuffy]

Reffing was consistently bad -Pass was 100% forward Joey called. Try to look at it through non biased eyes. Cronk 100% should have been sin sinbinned . But you lost with a 10-4 penalty count against Storm....???? -Can't say you didn't have any rub of the green to give you opportunity to beat them.

Mate, you are kidding, I just hope the Karma bus comes along and runs the Storm down preferably in a GF qualifier.

I'm sick of giving refs the benefit of the doubt and then getting screwed for it.

There was a straight dropped ball in the lead up the first Storm try, Cronk should have been binned which meant he could never have kicked for Slaters try and if the refs were fair dinkum the penalty count would have been 30-4.

The Storm know that the refs will give up policing the delays in the play the balls and they just play to that fact.

 

[RHCP]

This penalties on the line bullshit has to stop. Introduce a five in the bin for anybody who gives away a second (or maybe third) slowing down the ptb penalty within one defensive set inside the 20. I don't know. Something has to happen to fix it.

 

[AceAv]

I agree with RHCP -perhaps even a 3 point conversion? -Also think if you give away a penalty on the 1st tackle the other team should get 'zero tackle'. -There's a lot of change still needing to be put in place when it comes to reffering.

I'm not defending Storm at all. I wanted NC to win and thought they did enough to win it. But blaming the loss completely on the refs like nuffy was trying to do here: "Seriously, you can't blame the team for today, the refs got played once again by Melbourne." was what I was debating.. End of the day NC just didn't have what it took to finish storm off when on paper they did everything right...

 

[Dave_]

Not to worry boys, we will smash most other sides if we keep improving on a performance like that.

 

[K-Man]

This penalties on the line bullshit has to stop. Introduce a five in the bin for anybody who gives away a second (or maybe third) slowing down the ptb penalty within one defensive set inside the 20. I don't know. Something has to happen to fix it.

Absolutely 100% agree. As I've said before, when giving away penalties becomes a genuine tactic, something has to change.

The top teams are doing it deliberately, how can the referees not see that and realise it's no coincidence?

Listening to Phil Gould talk about how the Roosters give away the most penalties but have the best defence and how AMAZING that is drives me insane. They are happy to give away all those penalties because they win the ruck, slow teams down, don't concede when pinned on their line because of it.

And the refs will indeed feel that eventually they just have to stop blowing penalties because lopsided counts look bad. So the Storm and Roosters just ride out the wave of penalties then slowly assert their ruck dominance as the match wears on.

When it's late in the game and they are under the pump, they resort to repeated infringements a) to halt all momentum, b) in case they get away with it, which they sometimes do, c) because penalties defending your line never hurt as much as conceding them to allow the opponent to actually get near your line in the first place, and hence the overall penalty count looks misleading (4 in a row on your line early in the tackle count doesn't hurt at all as teams build their attacking structure around 4th and 5th tackle movements. The early ones are often just settlers anyway), and d) because nobody ever gets sent to the bin, so you might as well just keep doing it over and over.

It's a disgrace.

I can't believe people are stupid enough to think that teams like the Storm and Roosters giving away penalties in certain situations (and even conceding that they will lose the overall penalty count) and the fact they are up the top of the ladder are not connected. It's because they do it, not in spite of doing it.

 

[Yosh]

If we're all honest with ourselves, we didn't lose becasue of the refs. They did a terrible job and if Cronk was correctly sent off and Uate scores, we probably could have won. Still not much of a difference because it's gonna take a cold day in hell to win the premiership this year. I think our team has improved 10 fold compared to last year but we're never gonna beat one of the top 4 in the finals.

I think we have a really good team and a great game plan. We just lack a genuine star. To be honest if we had signed Hayne, Dugan or even Mini instead of Boyd, we'd be in a much better position.

If you look back on most of our games this year, we dominate metre making and limit opposition forwards really well. Yday, the Storm constantly kicked early because they weren't making any metres. We need someone who can make a try outta nothing, either by himself or lay one on for someone else.

I think we have one of the best 2-6 in the comp (if not the best) but we're having trouble scoring... What does that tell you?

 

[RHCP]

I'm not blaming the refs for our loss. In my opinion, a good team will just about always beat the referees.

But there has to be some kind of punishment for this bullshit. It's not even a f**king grey area, you can see what they are doing. Early in the tackle count, hold them down so everybody is recovered. Still not quite ready? Hold them down again.

5 in the bin, 10 in the bin, 3 point conversion, send off, suspension, fines, I don't know, I just wish the NRL would do something for once instead of shoving their heads in the sand and fining anybody (eg. Toovey) who dares question them and their officials.