Todd Greenberg is meant to be the voice of reason. Not the voice of condescension. He’s meant to be above tit-for-tat verbal sniping. He’s meant to solve the problems, not exacerbate them.
He’s meant to intelligently work his way through the NRL’s blatant problems with referees. What the boss of the game doesn’t need to do is treat his coaches like they are churlish children. His treatment of Trent Barrett and Shane Flanagan has been as immature and ill-conceived as their reactions to their teams’ losses. They have the heat-of-the-moment excuse. Greenberg does not.
Greenberg demands that coaches such as Barrett and Flanagan front press conferences after every match. No restrictions are placed on the journalists’ questions. And yet the coaches are handcuffed in what they can and cannot say.
Barrett thinks his Manly Sea Eagles have been dudded by officialdom. He deserves the right to say so. Howlers contributed to their loss. The Cronulla Sharks’ Flanagan peeled off a list of incorrect calls that were as long as your arm. His players lost their heads and their season because of it.
Manly lost because they probably deserved to. Cronulla lost because they definitely deserved to. That doesn’t mean the referees failed or succeeded. The issues are not mutually exclusive. Flanagan has the right to vent on behalf of his club and its fans.
Greenberg wants fierce tribalism in the NRL. He wants the passion. He wants the blind loyalty. When Flanagan and Barrett are asked what they think of the referees, what does Greenberg want them to do? Lie? He wants the game to grow up. The game is 111 years old. If Greenberg wants the game to grow up, make it a national competition like the AFL has done instead of dismissing expansion as too difficult.
Greenberg has ridiculed the very thing he promotes. NRL advertisements and website copy for the next Sea Eagles-Panthers and Sharks-Cowboys matches will highlight this weekend’s stinks. Guaranteed. His organisation promotes alcohol and gambling, yet wants to crack the whip about drinking and punting. Why not grow up as an organisation and find sponsors with better messages?
What does Greenberg stand for there? Anything or nothing? What Greenberg failed to see was that Barrett and Flanagan were not just talking for themselves and their players. They were speaking on behalf of every Sea Eagles and Sharks fan. Every aggrieved supporter.
So when Greenberg bagged the criticism of the officials, he bagged every person who had booed the ref. He should have made his point in a more reasonable fashion. Telling everyone to grow up was not the way to do it. He should have let them be pissed off. He should have let it settle for a couple of days.
He should have actually confronted the issues. The James Maloney sin-binning was incorrect. The Jason Taumalolo try showed the folly of the bunker’s procedure. It was impossible for the referee to make a call. He had to make a call. It was impossible for the video to see anything. So the referee’s call became official.
Josh Addo-Carr’s try was the wrong decision. It was a blatant forward pass. Andrew Fifita did not knock the ball on. Dylan Walker was not off-side. Tyrone Peachey had to have knocked-on.
Greenberg’s response was to get high and mighty in his own press conference. He “called out” his coaches — the blokes at the coal face of the sport.
What about calling out his referees? They are full-time professionals. They are not performing like it. If Greenberg wants to protect the refs, he needs to go all the way or not at all. What about the players who swarm around the whistleblower and give him a mouthful? Greenberg made no mention of them.
The coaches are easy targets. Why did he not call out Jake Trbojevic? Paul Gallen? Any player who argued with the referee? Those on-field interactions are more damaging than post-match press conferences.
Poor refs, eh? The poor old things, according to Greenberg. No one will want to be a ref if we keep taunting them, he says. Spare us. Refs-in-the-making are going to do it regardless. It is in their blood, and bravo for that.
Greenberg should have used his office to calm the tensions. To methodically go through it all, piece by piece. To show some understanding of the passion involved.
The refs cannot be criticised? What a crock. Here’s a few questions for Greenberg about Barrett and Flanagan. How much time and effort do NRL coaches invest in their jobs and in their players? How keenly and sincerely are they moulding the futures of young men at their clubs? How much praise does he give them for that? If they love their players like sons, why would they not defend them like sons when they are hurting? How understandable is it that they are gutted after a season-ending loss?
The coaches are not asking to be interviewed. They are forced to be interviewed. If you tell someone they must answer questions, they must be allowed to answer them honestly. If Greenberg doesn’t like what the coaches say in press conferences, he should cancel the press conferences.
Refereeing errors were obvious. Spectacularly so. It does not mean the referees caused the losses of the Sea Eagles and Sharks. But for the love of Harold Horder, the issues are separate. A team can lose of their own accord. There can be clangers that still need to be addressed.
Greenberg was unwilling to respect the fact that the coaches, players and fans of each tribe were appalled. Let them be. Recognise the duress the coaches are under. If any question from journalists is fair game, why not the answers? The NRL boss puts the coaches in an impossible situation. He does not want them to talk about the refs? He puts them where they are going to be forced to talk about the ref.
Good on Barrett. He was overemotional and overwrought. So he should be. That’s the emotion of sport. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you get it wrong. Does Greenberg not have empathy for that?
Eleven months of hard toil came to nothing for Manly and Cronulla. Barrett put every inch of his soul into Manly’s season. When he was pissed off about how it ended, he was fined and told to grow up. For what? For trying so hard? For defending his players? Ditto for Flanagan. Greenberg said it was time the coaches were called out. It was a poor response from head office. It solved nothing. How about someone calls out the amateur officiating and the NRL’s role in it? The message is that we just have to put up with mediocre officialdom. The message is a poor one and does a great sport a disservice.
Tony Archer is the referees’ boss. Where’s the Tony Archer press conference? If coaches cannot talk about the referees, let’s hear from Archer. Coaches demand a lot from their players. Greenberg should demand a lot from his referees.
Instead, their performances are not up for debate. What a crock. Greenberg should have stood there yesterday and said he understood the emotion of Barrett and Flanagan because of how much was at stake. He should have been the voice of reason and nothing else. Everyone has a role to play. The refs. The coaches. The CEO. Greenberg has compounded errors of judgment with a fumble of his own.
