- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
In the past couple of weeks the focus has well and truly been on referees. Since the scenes following the match between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Canterbury Bulldogs on Good Friday, it seems as though the NRL community has spoken of nothing else.
To be honest, I was getting sick of it because I feel like blaming a referee for a loss is a cop out.
In sport just as in life, there are some situations where a decision will go your way and other situations where it will not. Referees are human and will make mistakes. Sometimes they will get it blatantly wrong. Sometimes they will miss things.
Sometimes they will just make a bad call. By the end of the season, it should all balance up (more or less). That’s football and that’s life.
However, today I did something different. Instead of watching the clash between the Newcastle Knights and Parramatta Eels live on television, I listened to it on ABC radio on my drive home. Listening via the radio, I had more opportunity to listen to the referees and what they were saying and I was extremely disappointed, particularly with Adam Devcich and the way he was speaking to the players.
I may be overreacting, particularly since the Eels are my team, but on two occasions (which I heard), both Tim Mannah and Jarrod Mullen were rebuked and pushed away by Devcich. I found the way that Devcich spoke to both players extremely rude and the tone he used, unnecessary.
The first was early in the second half, in the lead up to Newcastle’s first try. Tim Mannah approached the referee to question a call – one which was dubious at best. The Parramatta Eels had been penalised for what had appeared to have been the second knock on by the Knights in the space of one set of six. Instead of explaining to Mannah what the penalty was for, the referee simply waved him away saying “now’s not the time Tim, now’s not the time Tim, now is not the time”.
I shook my head in disbelief. Following what was a dubious call and after a respectful approach by Mannah – Mannah was simply waved away.
This happened once again, later in the game, but to Jarrod Mullen who was waved away in similar fashion.
I have a couple of comments.
At all times, I believe that our officials should be respected. However, respect is something which must be earned. Our referees need to ensure that they are speaking to our players with the respect that they also deserve, particularly when the captains are making an appropriate approach. If our referees want our players to speak to them in an appropriate manner, the captains needs to know when they can approach and need to know that they will be spoken to in the manner they deserve.
Secondly (and this goes to something which many people have been talking about), I feel like we need to think about referees and their status as ‘protected species’. It is clear that some players and many fans are beginning to get frustrated with incorrect calls and decisions which they do not understand.
We need to make changes to the system so that players and coaches can have a means of questioning a referees decision or asking why a particular call was made in a respectful and conciliatory manner. Currently, the system prevents this and is leading to plenty of frustration.
Until our players and coaches are given the opportunity to speak to referees – and I believe the perfect opportunity is a couple of days following the game – to understand why particular decisions have been made and the reasoning behind it, I truly feel that we are going to continue to have people frustrated with the performance of our officials. This will continue to work to the detriment of our game.
And Devcich – some advice please. Next time a player approaches you asking for a reason behind a call and does so in a respectful manner, how about answering the question? It would be much appreciated.
This is @mary__kaye from @ladieswholeague