The problem is absolutely having 2 refs. Refs shouldn't need to be debating calls on the run. We'll always have 50/50 calls but with 1 ref he picks which side of the 50/50 he's on and everyone moves in that direction. With 2 refs unless both see it the same way it gets messy and ultimately you have 2 officials undermining each other and will always end up with at least 1 bloke getting it wrong.
What's the point of the pocket ref standing over every tackle/PTB calling "strip/knock-on" if the bloke 10 meters away patrolling the 10 is just gonna ignore him? It has to be confusing hearing "penalty, penalty, penalty!" followed by "play-on".
We've only got a squad of 16 NRL refs. The absolute bare minimum required to cover a round of footy. If the best 8/10/12 of them were put in charge of 8 games a week I think they'd own it a bit more. If they cock-up deluxe there is room to actually drop them rather than just a "demotion" to pocket ref. At the very least I guarantee greater consistency throughout a match and if there isn't you can pin it on 1 bloke rather than shirk back to "well ref 1 seen this but ref 2 seen that".
The game got to a point where NRL basically said it's too big of a job for 1 man, so we add another. Where do we go if the game descends to those levels again? A third ref?
