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Brown blows up over ref chief's late call
By Greg Prichard
July 18, 2004
The Sun-Herald
St George Illawarra coach Nathan Brown is fuming that he was told of a crucial rule interpretation change only a day before the Dragons' 18-14 loss to the Sydney Roosters on Friday night.
Brown was talking about a NRL directive that defenders should be able to lie on a tackled player longer because dominant tacklers were not getting the reward they deserved.
Referees boss Robert Finch told the Dragons about the change at lunchtime on Thursday.
A furious Brown, obviously upset after losing on Friday night, approached NRL chief executive David Gallop in the dressing room afterwards and asked: "Do you reckon the Roosters would have known about that on Thursday lunchtime or earlier?"
Finch has defended his methods of communicating with clubs after Brown raised the issue.
NRL coaches were made aware of the directive through telephone calls from Finch, who is the father of Roosters halfback Brett Finch.
The Dragons received the information - related to dominant tackles and the fact referees would allow defenders to stay on the tackled player for a fraction longer from this weekend because it was felt the play-the-ball had become too fast - just before lunch on Thursday.
Finch said yesterday he could not believe his integrity would be questioned over an issue he believed had been blown out of proportion.
"It wasn't a rule change," he said. "It had been noticed that the amount of time defenders were being allowed to stay on the tackled player had decreased and we wanted to get it back to where it should be, that's all.
"We're talking about a fraction of a second here and I rang a number of coaches that I was due to ring this week to let them know that we were going to work to get it back to where it should be from this weekend.
"I'll be speaking to the rest of the coaches in the coming week.
"It isn't something so major that it demanded a memo being sent out.
"If it was a rule change or something else dramatic it would have sent out as an official memo. But this was just reiterating exactly what the rule stands for."
Finch said he spoke to coaches all the time and did not issue information in any particular order.
"I speak to the coaches at least once every week or every second week," he said. "Sometimes I'm able to contact them straight away or I have to wait for some to ring me back or whatever.
"I get information out and I don't think I need to detail whether I get it to one club five minutes before another or whatever.
"This is not as big as an issue as some people are making out."
Asked to describe his conversation with Brown, Gallop said: "Nathan expressed frustration with a rule interpretation. I suggested he talk to Finchy about it. I think Nathan would accept that there may have been a more appropriate time and place to register his concern."
Brown said he was upset that he not learned the information earlier than Thursday when he was preparing the team to play a game on Friday.
"I agree it didn't cost us the game," he said. "But it is a big part of the game."
Finch said he had spoken to Brown since the match and would speak to him again this week.
"I don't want to get into a slanging match with Brownie or any other coach," he said. "My way is to keep the lines of communication open and that's what I'm going to do."
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For an idiot, Brown has asked a very, very good question there
Looks like the Roosters got the inside track AGAIN
By Greg Prichard
July 18, 2004
The Sun-Herald
St George Illawarra coach Nathan Brown is fuming that he was told of a crucial rule interpretation change only a day before the Dragons' 18-14 loss to the Sydney Roosters on Friday night.
Brown was talking about a NRL directive that defenders should be able to lie on a tackled player longer because dominant tacklers were not getting the reward they deserved.
Referees boss Robert Finch told the Dragons about the change at lunchtime on Thursday.
A furious Brown, obviously upset after losing on Friday night, approached NRL chief executive David Gallop in the dressing room afterwards and asked: "Do you reckon the Roosters would have known about that on Thursday lunchtime or earlier?"
Finch has defended his methods of communicating with clubs after Brown raised the issue.
NRL coaches were made aware of the directive through telephone calls from Finch, who is the father of Roosters halfback Brett Finch.
The Dragons received the information - related to dominant tackles and the fact referees would allow defenders to stay on the tackled player for a fraction longer from this weekend because it was felt the play-the-ball had become too fast - just before lunch on Thursday.
Finch said yesterday he could not believe his integrity would be questioned over an issue he believed had been blown out of proportion.
"It wasn't a rule change," he said. "It had been noticed that the amount of time defenders were being allowed to stay on the tackled player had decreased and we wanted to get it back to where it should be, that's all.
"We're talking about a fraction of a second here and I rang a number of coaches that I was due to ring this week to let them know that we were going to work to get it back to where it should be from this weekend.
"I'll be speaking to the rest of the coaches in the coming week.
"It isn't something so major that it demanded a memo being sent out.
"If it was a rule change or something else dramatic it would have sent out as an official memo. But this was just reiterating exactly what the rule stands for."
Finch said he spoke to coaches all the time and did not issue information in any particular order.
"I speak to the coaches at least once every week or every second week," he said. "Sometimes I'm able to contact them straight away or I have to wait for some to ring me back or whatever.
"I get information out and I don't think I need to detail whether I get it to one club five minutes before another or whatever.
"This is not as big as an issue as some people are making out."
Asked to describe his conversation with Brown, Gallop said: "Nathan expressed frustration with a rule interpretation. I suggested he talk to Finchy about it. I think Nathan would accept that there may have been a more appropriate time and place to register his concern."
Brown said he was upset that he not learned the information earlier than Thursday when he was preparing the team to play a game on Friday.
"I agree it didn't cost us the game," he said. "But it is a big part of the game."
Finch said he had spoken to Brown since the match and would speak to him again this week.
"I don't want to get into a slanging match with Brownie or any other coach," he said. "My way is to keep the lines of communication open and that's what I'm going to do."
---------------------------
For an idiot, Brown has asked a very, very good question there
Looks like the Roosters got the inside track AGAIN
