The Roar
The Roar

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NRL players must respect the men in pink

19th January, 2015
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Ref blaming is a mug's game.
Roar Pro
19th January, 2015
72
1014 Reads

For some time now I have become increasingly concerned at what I consider to be the new scourge of rugby league.

Almost every time a team plants the ball down over the line, in the all-important few seconds before the referee makes his decision, you can bet your bottom dollar that defenders will be making a beeline for the man with the whistle in effort to passionately remonstrate, to argue, to convince and, worst of all, to influence.

Groups of grown men will maniacally draw invisible boxes in the sky in the hope the ref will send the decision upstairs, knowing the video lottery is the best chance they have. And it has to stop.

This new plague isn’t only limited to try time, though. The manner in which players deal with referees all over the park has steadily deteriorated over the last few years. It is now considered completely acceptable to stand nose-to-nose with the referee and squabble like a sulking five-year-old, using language no five-year-old should know the meaning of. It makes me embarrassed just watching it.

There is no use debating whether players should or shouldn’t be role models for young players. Their influence on the next generation is immediate and saturating. We read articles about local club competitions where referees have to be escorted to their cars after matches for fear of retaliation.

The position of the referee as sacrosanct and untouchable is gone. And the game is poorer for it.

We are on a slippery slope, and it won’t be long until we degenerate to the level of soccer, whose players show such utter disrespect for referees that I’m surprised they can get anyone to do the job at all.

If I have to listen to one more player say that referees should treat them with respect to have it returned, I may well be violently ill. The opposite is the case. The days of referees addressing players by anything other than the number on their back should be over. The referee is the sole judge, jury and executioner, and should be under no obligation to say anything to the players outside of the odd explanation of a decision at a designated break in play. It is the players’ responsibility to respect the decision, cop it on the chin and get on with the game.

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The only way this will change, though, is if the referees (or the match review committee) are given the green light to penalise anyone who gets out of line. It would only take a week or two for the players to get the message. Any argument about the apparent lack of quality of the refereeing is completely missing the point.

If we want to attract quality referees, we need to provide a safe pathway from juniors to seniors, and we don’t have that at the moment. Addressing the way NRL players interact with the whistle-blowers is the first step in the right direction.

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