The Roar
The Roar

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Video referee stealing the heart of the game away

Roar Rookie
13th May, 2014
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The video refs may occasionally get it wrong, but it's not because of bias. (Image David Jackmanson, Wikimedia Commons)
Roar Rookie
13th May, 2014
6

The video referee is stealing the heart of the game away from the fans and the enjoyment of the game from the players.

The video ref came about because the on-field referee was failing to get crucial decisions right. It was deemed they needed help rather than criticism.

So, the NRL invested heavily into the video ref system with the intent of getting the decisions correct, however all they have done in the process is to steal the excitement and wonder from the fans and the satisfaction and gratification of individual brilliance from the players.

We have turned the game into an antithesis of what it is meant to really be. Rugby league for the fan is meant to be exciting, nail-biting and hopefully a celebration. The video ref destroys every tenet of the fans’ experience which is, of course, the life blood of the game.

We love the game for its toughness, speed and the incredible talent shown by its players. However, the greatest attribute the game offered to the fan is the thrill when their team overcome the non-relenting opposition to score a try.

Sometimes the tries are scored through incredible individual skill and sometimes its through withstanding physical and mental torment.

When that moment happens fans are riding a wave of expectation and hope. There is, at this point, a connection between the fan and the player. Metaphysical, imaginary? I don’t know, but it’s real and it’s what keeps us coming back.

During this wondrous experience, who cares what happened a moment or a tackle before? All fans care about is jumping, screaming and combining with their team to celebrate what they just witnessed and feel a part of. But the video ref steals this experience. It destroys the heart of the best of what this game has to offer. It is destroying the reason why fans are fans.

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This excitement is not just about points scored on the board, it’s more to do with the brotherhood of man.

It’s about screaming when you would never scream normally in public. It’s about jumping up and down in a public place when you would never jump up and down in public. It’s about joining together with a complete stranger and hugging them because of the experience you have just shared. It’s about allowing yourself to be unleashed by common societal norms and pressures, allowing unbridled enthusiasm to escape in wondrous ways that probably only comes second to sex for human experience.

This experience is as deep as our humanity reaches. It is spiritual. These experiences make sport the most popular past time on the planet. It brings us together regardless of our differences. Sport has proven to cross all barriers, all cultural, intellectual and financial divides that society can create.

However, the video ref is stealing and destroying the very experience a fan’s heart cries out for. The very reason we go to the game.

Instead of screaming and yelling when that ball touches down we wait for up to two minutes to see if it gets the all clear. If it does get the green light, the excitement is about 10 per cent of what it should have been.

The game will always have errors from players, coaches, and referees. We just have to learn to live with them. After all, we have to live with all the other errors that refs make when tries are not scored.

At the end of the day, it’s just a game. It’s not real life.

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We have had the video ref long enough now to know that it gets around 30 per cent of the decisions wrong anyway. We just don’t need it.

We have real life to worry about. In real life we have bosses, wives, husbands, parents, police and the courts all employed to enforce that we do their will.

Give us our game and our excitement back or I will be looking elsewhere to hug a stranger while I’m yelling, screaming, jumping and uncontrollably crying with excitement when me and my team score.

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