Merkins are talking about rule changes so it won’t happen again. FFS every team gets a call or gets shafted every season.
IMO the Walker try, Taufua try and the Oregon try could all have gone either way,
It was definitely very disappointing how the media has jumped on that decision from the very get go, and then entertained a sooky coach's after game whining about the inconsistencies by the referees. Hell inconsistencies, welcome to Rugby League Dessie old mate.
If anything the one ref and 6 again ruling have made the games refereeing way more consistent then in any recent memory and by enlarge the whistle blowers have been invisible since the restart of the comp and praised accordingly by most everyone. Sure was that decision dodgy, yeah maybe, but who can really blame anyone for a call that can and does go either way so often?
In hindsight with a million slowmo replays and freeze frames you can still argue one way or another and these pundits go off like the refs nailed their grand mum while she was bending over taking care of her bunions. Before the restart of the game media pundits like Matthew Johns and Jurnos like Kenty, said that when wrong decisions are made and controversy ensues that they(the media) need to back off and not fall into the trap of the all controlling coaches manipulation of the media so they can prize back the control of the ruck and the game to suit them.
This is the beginning of that and master manipulators like The Mad Professor Hassler know exactly how to do it and create the sound bites that the media will then carry in the never ending looping news cycle. I just hope that media types like Johns and Kent put these "looking for a headline" boofheads in their place and slam them for slamming the ref for one call that can and does frequently go either way in real time and point out how good the refereeing has been overall this season.
Can and could the refereeing be better in games especially policing the ruck? Sure and I think that at times the refs have eased off a little to much in that area. They need to stay on top of it or as I have noticed players are beginning to take liberties again and hanging on to long and peeling off to slowly again. But otherwise the refs have be superb by their standards of late. So to hang them on one 50/50 decision like they have is ridiculous but not surprising.
The trick is for the refs boss to show some balls and state with no uncertainty that the refereeing has been fantastic this season overall and back the decision in that game due to it being such a line ball decision. Then go on the front foot and state that it isn't a howler in your face error by any account therefore why attack the game the way they do? Praise the game. The headlines should be about how great it was. Not an almost 50/50 call. Move on. Even Manly's coach admitted that they shouldn't of been in that position to win the game in the first place. They had ample time and opportunity to win it and that the better team won. But then he goes on like a the sook he is and says that they won it. Typical manipulation.
Only howlers should be prosecuted like the way the media have gone on with that decision. Not maybe's. But the biggest concern is that the coaches will subtly and then not so subtly get their way. They will start by praising the new rules, as they already have, "BUT" then start suggesting how we can "IMPROVE" them and make the game better and more "CONSISTENT".
But we must resist everything that they say or try to do. That is the way we got into the mess of the wrestle in the first place. Listening and allowing coaches to get their controlling little fingers on our game. I stopped watching games because of the stop/start nature of the modern game and that freaking wrestle. They just dragged on way to long and unexciting. Now I have been watching again. So I say ignore all coaches, especially losing ones no matter how bright and amicable they might sound. It is in their nature. Remember the scorpion and the frog people?
Never forget.
