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National Rugby League referees are finding it harder to make important calls because the video referee is doing it for them.
Was that ball grounded? Video ref, take a look. Did that tackle slip up high? Video ref, take a look.
Imagine you are in a position which requires you to make decisions on the fly. Imagine every time you are anything less than 100 per cent sure, you have somebody looking over your making the decision for you.
Will you improve? Of course not, because you have never made a difficult decision by yourself without an all-seeing assistant to tell you what to do.
So it’s about time we listen to Manly coach Geoff Toovey and have an investigation into the video referee’s role in top flight rugby league. It’s about time we back our referees to make the decisions they are paid to make.
No more pausing play to check out the if a player dived or not. The referee didn’t think it was a penalty? Play on. We have a match review committee for that kind of stuff, let them look at it. We’ve got a game to play.
Will they get it wrong? Yes, sometimes. But they’re getting it wrong now and with the video referee to lean back on, they never have any chance to improve.
There are a number of changes that could be made to video referees. We could only allow video intervention in the act of scoring a try, only in grounding, only when the coach calls for a review.
Or just bring back in-goal judges and get rid of it all together.
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