Referee Officials for 4N Annoucned - No NZ Ref

[Burns]

http://www.rugby-league.com/england/article/38722/superleague/music

"Super League referees Robert Hicks and Ben Thaler will be joined by the NRL’s Ben Cummins and Gerard Sutton to officiate at this year’s Ladbrokes Four Nations.

The appointment panel that confirmed the officials at the Ladbrokes Four Nations consisted of: Steve Ganson (Chairman of the Match Officials Appointment Panel and RFL Head of Match Officials), Tony Archer (NRL General Manager, Officiating) and Luke Watts (NZRL National Referee Development Officer)."

No Henry Perenara! Which also means there will be no neutral ref between Aus v Eng matches. Thoughts?

 

[roughyedspud]

Disgraceful....like always

 

[TIM !!!!!!]

Perenara is a hopeless ref anyway. Most refs are unbias anyway

 

[Burns]

Are there any refs from nations outside the big 3?

 

[langpark]

Disgraceful....like always

My thoughts exactly. Disgraceful, but not at all surprising.

 

[miguel de cervantes]

Are there any refs from nations outside the big 3?

T. Alibert

 

[langpark]

T. Alibert

He retired from refereeing two years ago.

Besides, a Kiwi or Frenchman, irrespective of their refereeing abilities, will never be considered to be 'good enough' by the Aussies.

 

[deluded pom?]

He retired from refereeing two years ago.

Besides, a Kiwi or Frenchman, irrespective of their refereeing abilities, will never be considered to be 'good enough' by the Aussies.

They were in the 1980s and 90s.

 

[langpark]

They were in the 1980s and 90s.

Yes, well, something has clearly changed since then hasn't it.

Another thing I don't like, is all this chopping and changing crap that both NRL and Super League are now doing with their refs. You look at 2014, they had Phil Bentham as their top ref and he reffed all the big matches. 2015, it was Ben Thaler. 2016? Here's what we had:

WCC: Silverwood
CC Final: Hewer
SL Final: Hicks

Now suddenly Thaler is a top ref again and chosen for the Four Nations. I don't see why they've suddenly gone from having a 'top ref' for a few years, to having to go through four in one year. Anyway.

 

[deluded pom?]

Maybe we see singling one ref out for all the top matches as counter productive.

 

[langpark]

I'm just a bit confused as to why they are all of a sudden doing it now after years of doing it the 'steady' way. Thaler seemed to be coming a long nicely as a ref, he's still quite young too. Seemed a bit unnecessary, unless something major has gone on that I'm unaware of.