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Despite having a personal audience with the NRL Referees’ Elite Performance Manager, Andrew Voss still doesn’t believe Jarrod Croker should have been denied a try last Sunday at WIN Stadium.
During his internet program, NRL HQ, Voss quizzed Tony Archer on why the try was ruled a double movement.
Archer explained to Voss that the video referee judged that the tackle had been completed once Croker’s arm with the ball had touched the ground with the Dragons defender on top of him.
“But he still had momentum!” Voss protested, which is true when you watch it in regular speed. And if referee Ben Cummins had have simply pointed to the spot and awarded the try, I doubt many people would have argued with a judgment that the tackle had been broken.
Except the ‘try’ was referred to the video referee and once that happens, “Jerry, we’re in Bizarro World.”
The simple fact is that the video referee doesn’t have any discretion when it comes to making rulings on the laws of the game.
Section 11 of the Laws deals with the tackle and the play-the-ball.
“A player in possession is tackled: (a) when he is held by one or more opposing players and the ball or the hand or arm holding the ball comes into contact with the ground.”
Once the vision is rewound and paused at the moment Croker’s arm is on the ground, with the Dragons player on top of him, there’s no other decision for the video referee to make. Tackle complete.
You can argue why Croker was not allowed to return to where he was tackled and play the ball just as Eto Nabuli was asked to in the second half. Yet we come back to the point of discretion. The video ref had none. As Croker advanced the ball to claim a try after he was ‘tackled’, the only decision that could be made was a penalty.
In the Bizarro World of the video referees’ box, it’s all black and white – so much so that one in particular is nick-named The Zebra.
There was no provision to simply run the Croker tackle through in normal speed and say, “well it looks like he’s broken the tackle in that replay so let’s just award it”. In the relentless drive for consistency we’ve been left with no other option.
In fact, had the try been allowed you could bet your last Sportsbet bonus voucher that come Monday morning St George Illawarra coach Paul McGregor would have been straight on the phone to Archer and emailing through a screenshot of the exact reason why the try should have been denied.
He would have been demanding an explanation for why Croker wasn’t penalised, a reason Archer would not have been able to provide.
Tony is a former police prosecutor and he is not one to overlook evidence in favour of a ‘feel for the game.’ It’s the same theme; black and white.
So that decision was examined on NRL HQ, along with two others from the Parramatta Eels versus New Zealand Warriors game. Those were, on evaluation within the Referees Department, judged to have been correct. There was also a scrum won against the feed because the Tigers’ pack were incompetent. A refereeing issue though? Hardly.
But that was it – no analysis of any other decisions from the weekend. Every week there are close calls, wrong calls, right calls and some downright bizarre calls. Every pass, every tackle, every kick chase and every second of every game is reviewed by the match officials and their evaluators.
Each time there is something found that could be improved it is discussed with the refereeing group. If an unusual law needs to be applied it is raised as well, so that whatever happens one weekend the same ruling can be applied next time it happens on another weekend at another ground.
The footy fans watching their team go around generally have no idea of the work match officials put in to get the right decisions each week. When they make an error they try and find out why it happened and how to prevent it happening again. There is almost always an answer, whether it is positioning, fatigue, loss of concentration or any other factor that contributes to an error.
That’s what I think the fans would like to see on NRL HQ.
But Tony Archer showing me three isolated decisions that were correct? That is stage-managed nonsense. Let’s look at how the game in Brisbane was at risk of falling apart with frequent intervention from the video referee.
The referee looked rattled to me by it all and it didn’t help his performance. At one point the touch judge had his flag in the air and the ref sent the decision upstairs anyway.
Instead Andrew Voss ate up four minutes talking about correct decisions. Let’s have a bit more meat on the bones next week.
Daniel Eastwood is a former NRL touch judge, running the lines between 2008 and 2014. He officiated the 2011 grand final and State of Origin series.
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