We have to stop boring replays

[El Diablo]

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/nrl/story/0,27074,24213964-14823,00.html

We have to stop boring replays

By Josh Massoud | August 21, 2008 12:00am

THE NRL has foreshadowed a wholesale review of video referees following last Saturday night's 96-minute snoozefest between the Panthers and Bulldogs.

Fox Sports insiders believe it was the longest match in NRL history, an excruciating contest that has brought concerns about the stop-start nature of modern-day rugby league to a head.

Coaches and players have responded with calls to drastically scale back the dependence on time-consuming replays in the interests of reclaiming the code's most attractive hallmark: continuity.

The introduction of time limits or restricting video referees to in-goal decisions are two suggested remedies in the wake of players openly claiming how tedious the game has become in recent months.

And NRL referees boss Robert Finch is prepared to listen.

Finch - whose son and Parramatta half Brett recently labelled the NRL "boring" - welcomed a re-think about video referee powers during the summer.

"The more we involve technology, the longer the game will go for," Finch said.

"One of the greatest assets is its continuity and the video referee impacts on that.

"The problem is that everyone wants perfection, and in seeking that we impact on one of the best aspects of rugby league. We certainly don't want the game to become like NFL."

A Daily Telegraph investigation into Saturday night's encounter found that bored fans who managed to go the distance without nodding off were "treated" to almost 16 minutes of stoppages.

Video referee Russell Smith accounted for the lion's share of overtime, taking almost 13 minutes to adjudicate on a whopping eight decisions that were sent upstairs.

Adding to frustrations was the fact the ball was in play for only 45 minutes when the clock was actually ticking, with the remaining 35 minutes taken up by players dawdling to scrums and restarts.

The start of the second half was particularly testing. The 17 minutes after the break plodded along at glacial speed, punctuated by four referrals to Smith that took more than half that time to adjudicate. Not a single passage of play continued for more than a minute during that period, which drove frustrated Bulldogs players to boiling point.

Daniel Holdsworth and Nick Kouparitsas eventually snapped at referee Gavin Badger in the 57th minute, who ironically delayed the game for a further 90 seconds to reprimand them.

Smith has been regularly criticised for taking too long, and Finch ordered the Englishman to speed up earlier in the season.

On this occasion, however, Finch stood by Smith's performance.

"People who want to criticise, should get up in the box and see how hard it is," Finch said.

"The bloke up there has to make a call and if he's wrong, he'll be crucified."

In order to relieve the pressure on video referees and restore continuity to rugby league, Roosters coach Brad Fittler believes replays should only be used in-goal.

Distressed by the increasing number of video stoppages, Fittler has sounded fears at regular intervals this season about the NRL replicating rugby union.

"The reason why our game has been so great is the fatigue factor, and we are breaking that down and stifling the football," he said.

"There's a place for the video referee and that's in-goal. The bloke in the middle and the touch judges should make the rest of the decisions themselves."

Bulldogs skipper Andrew Ryan added that this season's new rule allowing video referees to check illegal strips had negated the 10-man interchange rule, introduced to re-emphasise endurance. He suggested a time-limit on video decisions, similar to that used in the UK Super League.

"I'm more old school - I'd like to see the referees have more responsibility," Ryan said. "We went upstairs every time the other night, which was probably too much.

"I'm not fully sold on the new stripping rule - I'd like to see it come back to the referee."

But the players were also culpable of soaking up game-time on Saturday night. Forwards repeatedly milled around the scrumbase, collectively ignoring any imperative to get on with business.

On one occasion, Badger even asked both sides whether he should call time-off. When they said "yes", he replied: "But I thought you would have wanted to get on with it."

Finch said he could live with Fittler's suggestion, but wanted co-operation from TV broadcasters to protect referees.

"If we are not going to review the lead-up to tries or strips, then I'd ask the broadcasters not to show slow-motion replays of those incidents," he said.

"It doesn't seem fair that the technology can't be used to get things right, but can be used to criticise referees."

 

[steaming stormer]

I don't have an issue with the lead-up to a try, by taking it only to in-goal, many knock-on's from kicks would be missed.
I am however more than happy to stop referring possible strips to the video. Not only is it a waste of time, but half the time they get it wrong anyway, so there is no benefit at all!

 

[Joker's Wild]

I don't have an issue with the lead-up to a try, by taking it only to in-goal, many knock-on's from kicks would be missed.
I am however more than happy to stop referring possible strips to the video. Not only is it a waste of time, but half the time they get it wrong anyway, so there is no benefit at all!

Max 3 replays for the one incident would help. There's nothing worse than the video ref having 20 looks at the same thing.

 

[Calixte]

I tell you what is worse.

A wonderful 100 metre piece of play involving up to 10 players handling occurs. But the grounding is in doubt.

What we get now is 8 replays of the grounding and the occasional quick re-cap of the play.

Talk about dumbing down your own product. Highlight the skills of the game FFS...

 

[scuzzi]

I hate when referees stop the game to talk to players about following the rules, threatening them with sin bins, and saying things like "thats the 4th penalty i've blown against you, it has to stop."

Referees are NOT coaches. It is not there responsibility to teach players the rules of the game.

And when referees yell out "marker offside" it helps the dummy half get a penalty by running at the offside player. They shouldn't tell the markers they're offside, they know they're offside! and if they continue to tackle, penalise them!

If you listen to the referee during the game he never keeps his mouth shut. The only "warning" calls the referee should give is the "5th tackle" and a brief explanation of WHAT the penalty was for, not WHY.

Also, i think a captain should only be allowed to question a referee while they are in attack. I hate it when teams are 20 metres out from the line, get a penalty, and the referee stops time to discuss with the defensive team captain why a player has been penalised. eg. steve matai last week.

He should have played advantage, then when a try is scored/souths lose possession, then sin bin matai.

arrgh. I going to go punch a wall

 

[hitman82]

It's very refreshing to see Toyota Cup matches played without the endless replays. Also forces aspiring referees to take responsibility for their own decisions. It's great

 

[NK Arsenal]

Have a video ref clock like they do in basketball.

Give video refs a max of 'x' seconds to make up there mind

 

[Pierced Soul]

train the f**king refs better so they're more comeptant. yes they'll still make mistakes but hopefully not glaringly wrong ones or decisions no one has any f**king idea about

a simple way to get rid of player spoitning at the screen is allow stripping, you drop it you lost it, cant complain with that

 

[Feej]

How about getting rid of video refs adjudicating on "incidents" during play? I've seen quite a few instances of players staying down after what would have been no more than a love tap, waiting for the ref to call time out so they can view the (non) incident.

 

[Eels Dude]

Video refs should look at only 2 things in my opinion.

1) Contest for the ball after kicks, specifically bombs

2) Grounding of the ball for a try

Do away with calls regarding strips, obstruction, offside etc.

 

[meltiger]

I hate when referees stop the game to talk to players about following the rules, threatening them with sin bins, and saying things like "thats the 4th penalty i've blown against you, it has to stop."

Referees are NOT coaches. It is not there responsibility to teach players the rules of the game.

lol

Would you rather they just sin bin players at will?!


It's much better for a ref to warn a player/team prior to the event occuring. 99% of the time - The player/team in question listen, and stop giving away the penalties that led to the refs annoyance.


I suppose it's a question of whether you'd be prepared to sacrifice a 13 on 13 contest ... all to save 30 seconds of time.
------------
Agree with the poster who mentioned the strip replays - Get rid of them. It makes the video ref look like an utter muppet when they get it wrong.

 

[scuzzi]

lol

Would you rather they just sin bin players at will?!


It's much better for a ref to warn a player/team prior to the event occuring. 99% of the time - The player/team in question listen, and stop giving away the penalties that led to the refs annoyance.


quote]

Yes!

Players should already know the rules, and players should already know if you repeatedly infringe those rules, you'll serve time on the sideline.

Why does play need to be stopped so a referee can say "It needs to stop" to the captain. All he is trying to do is avoid making a tough decision by asking the captain to control/disipline his own player.

 

[The Engineers Room]

The problem is when they warn them and so nothing about it.

 

[mxlegend99]

The easy solution to stop boring replays is to have a few beers when you're watching the game. I watched the game and wasn't bored from all the video referee decisions. But maybe that was helped by my team being on the right end of the bulk of the decisions.

The only try sent to the video referee which seemed completely pointless to me, was when they were checking the Utai try. He clearly dropped the ball before he was anywhere near the line, and at no point was the ball close to being grounded.

 

[Brownie.Kougari]

1) get rid of vid ref (referees are human, they make mistakes!)
2) if a team f*cks up in the scrum, PENALISE THEM!!!
3) if a team gives away heaps of penalties, sin bin someone (anyone, preferably the halfback :lol
4) make it so the corner post is only part of the dead ball line if the ball (not the player) touches it

 

[RLS]

I think at the end of the article Finch got it right.

Channel 9 are notorious for showing all the mistakes in a game in slow motion, especially Gould "No no no no no, you can't do that" and bemoaning it for the next 10 minutes.

if you want to reduce video ref calls to an absolute minimum, then you can't keep highlighting the mistakes. Just get on with the game and live with the referees decision.