Big Artie Beetson is angry, and so am I

Roar Guru

By Steve Kaless, 4 May 2009 Steve Kaless is a Roar Guru

Tagged:: Arthur Beetson, NRL, NRL two referees, penalties, Rugby League, Two referees

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Big Artie reckons rugby league is in trouble. But Big Artie doesn’t believe that the decline has much to do with juniors, expansion, poker machine taxes and TV broadcast deals.

The immortal reckons that the game is being killed off by the men with the whistle and those that manage them.

What is more I’m starting to agree with him.

I’m starting to lie in bed awake at night staring at the ceiling with the referee’s whistle going “peep peep peep” in my head.

Exhausted, I walk to the beach in the morning and stare at waves, but soon the madness comes “peep peep peep”.

I turn to the seagulls and they squawk “Talk to your players!”

My sanity is teetering because I have screamed at a man in a pink shirt (and more often than not with a ridiculous tan) “that is not a penalty” far too many times than is healthy. Depending on the company the language has occasionally strayed into the bluer regions.

I’ve held my tongue for many a round now, but I can’t any longer. The NRL referees are a pack of jokers.

These clowns have lost sight of the point of the game and have morphed into a bunch of fitness trainers commanding a bunch of pudgy office workers around a suburban park.

“Faster, faster, faster” they demand.

“Don’t touch this, don’t touch that, move here, move there.”

Just piss off.

These days it is virtually impossible to complete a set of six tackles without giving away a defensive penalty.

Pinning a team in their own quarter is as likely as finding a Warriors debutant without tattoos.

Make a tackle and push on the player to get to your feet. Penalty.

Make a tackle and some freak in a pink shirt will be screaming in your ear “get off him, get off him, get off him”. In your panicked state should your hand graze the ball it will no doubt fly free. Penalty.

Roll away from the tackled player, that will be a penalty.

It is joke.

This season I’ve seen players penalised for diving on a ball when a player has played it without a dummy half being present, I’ve seen players penalised for wining scrums against the head.

And I’ve seen players penalised for blowing up.

I can’t blame them.

The modern day version of rugby league is frighteningly fast, players know they can’t give away cheap possessions, repeated sets are your death knell so these blokes are trying not to give away penalties.

But “peep peep peep” goes the whistle as teams get piggy backed up the field set after set after set.

I’ve lost count the amount of tries that have been scored after what I term “bullshit” penalties. These are penalties when on seeing the replay you can’t for the life of you work out why that was a penalty, particularly when the dummy half has normally already picked up the ball and scooted up field.

It could almost be a drinking game, you have to scull every time there is a penalty for an offence which is largely impossible to avoid in a contact sport which involves tacking another player in possession of the ball. Trust me, leave the keys at home.

What compounds “bullshit” penalties is the need for referees to call out the captain (probably a dozen times a game) and explain that he has been blowing penalties and it needs to stop. He is then instructed to talk to his players.

The farce is completed as the captain bolts back in position while screaming “No more f*cking penalties boyz!” Pointless.

To this end I propose a new rule.

After three back to back penalties, the referee should call off time for five seconds and dance on the spot like a chicken.

This action should signal to all players the next infringement will result in a player being sin binned and will also result in all the attention being on the referee. Everyone’s happy.

Also, seeing we have a referees coach, Robert Finch, whose current job seems to be answering the phone to irate coaches and explaining that every single decision was absolutely spot on given the referee’s “discretion” maybe he could help out.

I don’t know, but I reckon, these referees have never performed a tackle. They should learn. They should learn how it is done and how you then get up and get back into the line. They should learn that sometimes despite your best endeavours, sometimes you can’t just roll away; sometimes in making the tackle you may touch the ball.

It would have to help matters.

But mostly they should learn to just shut up.

If for nothing else but Big Artie’s sake.

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The Crowd Says (17) | Page 1 of Comments

The Link said | May 4th 2009 @ 8:23am | Report comment

I even find myself yearning for Bill Harrigan Steve – at least he’d let a game flow from time to time.

Extra ref has meant extra penalties – simple.

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Brett McKay said | May 4th 2009 @ 9:14am | Report comment

Steve, I don’t so much mind the refs calling captains out from time to time, but when it happens BOTH REFS SHOULD BE PRESENT!! The joke on Friday night in the Manly-Melbourne game was Shane Hayne called Orford out, told him there were too many ruck penalties, and the next one would see someone getting a rest. Not five mintues later, Tony de la Heras calls Orford out again and issued EXACTLY the same caution Hayne did. Surely, for consistency, both refs need to be involved in these discussions!!

Apart form this, I’m a fan of the two refs, and on the whole I think it’s working well..

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david nolan said | May 4th 2009 @ 9:29am | Report comment

Why not have a rule like basketball…. after 5 penalties the 6th is a 5 min sin bin, after 10 penalties the next is a 10 min sin bin… why are there so many penalties in the first 2/3 of the game and then when the game is on the line the same offences are tolerated? They are either penalties or they are not….calling the captain out and then not sin binning after a warning is a massive advantage to the defensive side as it allows the players to regroup and the line to get set with no downside …for that matter why call a player out after a high shot and tell him to tackle lower ,.. waste of time he knows he hit high and has been pnenalised….these are not school boys they know the rules .. give the penalty and play on….and if they do it too many times its 5 mins with a player on the sidelines

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onside said | May 4th 2009 @ 9:46am | Report comment

Do they have the same problems in England

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sledgeross said | May 4th 2009 @ 10:09am | Report comment

I agree.

I watched the Roosters/Sharks game, and was nearly going to neck myself. The Roosters were denied a fair try, and the sharks penalised for minimal, trivial things. Example, Sharks penalised for “lying” on the player (it was no different to any other of the 50 dominant, un-penalised tackles effected on the night) and 3 tackles later, penalised for “lifting” (not dangerous at all). The ref (I think Badger) then calls Gallen out and gives the usual spiel “too many penalties, I need you to go back to your team and sort it out, or Ill have to take severe measures”.

I would have loved for Gallen to called his bluff and said ‘I tell you what, if you penalise us for consistent infringements, you go ahead and do it” and not tell his players anything, just to see what happens

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znotty said | May 4th 2009 @ 11:03am | Report comment

theres no point having two refs if they dont blow penalties if i was a ref the last thing i would do is make myself redundent by not giving them but anyone who reckons the games not better without going to the video to check for stripping their kidding themselves,mabye make one ref a ruck ref ,only police the play the ball area but in my mind the refs are under attack every year from cunning coaches exploiting loopholes in the rules ie Craig Bellamy, personally i think there are too many teams ,about four i reckon.

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Nug said | May 4th 2009 @ 12:32pm | Report comment

I totally agree with you Steve. The NRL has turned Rugby League into a reality TV show where the only thing that matters is a fast and furious game. I wonder how much input the Television Stations have had. When the NRL first advocated the two refereeing system, it was to stop the silly infringements creeping into the game (one ref was to stand back the ten metres and the other one to stand level with the ruck). But the second ref now stands in no man’s land ten metres behind the attacking side (He can’t see much from there). As for the mountains of penalities awarded, I think all the Refs have forgotten what the game of Rugby League is all about. It’s a man’s game with no quarter asked or given. A good hard tackle is now regarded as an infringement of the rules. Have the refs gone soft or are they being coached by a team of “do gooders” who want to be politically correct? Let’s get some manliness back in the game. Barry Gommersal would turn in his grave if he saw what was going on now.

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matta said | May 4th 2009 @ 1:31pm | Report comment

Steve, best post you have written by about 75%

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The man said | May 4th 2009 @ 2:25pm | Report comment

Whilst the current level of whistleblowing is on the annoying side, I expect much like in seasons past that the number of penalties will reduce as players and refs get used to the new arrangements and interpretations of the rules.

As for the continuous “too many penalties” warnings – it will take a couple of sin binnings to make the refs appeals have more of an impact. Whilst they may have held off pulling the trigger to date, given the heat now you can bet your bottom dollar that a few players will be cooling their heels on the sideline for 10 next week.

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Steve Kaless said | May 4th 2009 @ 2:43pm | Report comment

My question is this. Why is that two referees should automatically lead to extra penalties? Surely they can be mutually exclusive. I thought the premise of having the “pocket referee” in there was so they didn’t have to blow penalties but could monitor the play and instruct players…without blowing the whistle.

I just think it boils down to referees not understanding the nature of the game in many ways…or at least how it is played.

The inexperience doesn’t help either, a noted a refereeing combination the other week had 5 and 6 NRL games between them.

Matta,

Thank you, I aim to please.

Znotty,

Another good win for your imploding Knights?

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