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How do we get improvement out of our referees?

NRL referees are under the blowtorch as usual. (AAP Image/Action Photographics, Robb Cox)
Roar Pro
28th August, 2016
22

Every week we watch this game and watch players concede penalties as a means for defensive lines to be reset.

Spectators cringe every time we see it – it is a professional foul by any measure – but referees these days warn the players every time yet never use the tool in their kit that can stop it; the sin bin.

It is much like the modern tackle, which no longer resembles an old style tackle, but the Bellamy-introduced wrestle. It’s a tactic to delay the play the ball so defence lines can be reset.

How I cringe when these tackles end awkwardly and injury becomes likely. Referees are responsible for this – if they had said ‘that is not a tackle’ when Bellamy-coached players first introduced the style, how much better would our game be today?

Now in addition to this blight, we now have to endure the sacrifice penalty. It can happen anywhere on the field when a half break happens, but mostly when play is camped in the goalline defence area.

All I want is for the referee to do their jobs. Rather than captains come out of the line to argue the point to give his team a rest, referees should understand they are being played, duped, and all footy fans pull their hair out because referees don’t carry out on their threats to sin-bin.

It makes watching any game frustrating and far less enjoyable. Occasionally you’ll get two teams playing an open game and the play flows, both Broncos versus Cowboys games this season as a couple of examples.

For the other games the ‘grab’ and hold the ball-carrying arm and never let go, regardless of how far the players with the ball wants to walk… they wait for the referee to call held all the while the defensive line resets itself and then rushes the next play the ball.

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Earlier this season I wrote to the NRL for their opinion on the ‘trigger’ that allows the defensive line to move forward:

26th June 2016:

So often when watching the game, I often think what is the trigger that sets off the defensive line to come off their line. Is it the ball touching the ground by the player playing the ball, his foot touching the ball, or when the dummy half picks up the ball?

The NRL’s Response:

8th July 2016:

Thanks for your email. We apologise for the delay in our response. Once the ball is heeled back by the tackled player, the defensive line are able to move forward.

In regards to clearing the ruck, the player must not play the ball until the player(s) effecting the tackle have had sufficient time to take up position opposite the player. On another note, no player is allowed to strike the arm of any opposition player.

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This clarification shoots all our referees every game. How many times do you see a boot actually touch the ball in a ‘play the ball’? If the boot touching the ball is the trigger for a defensive line to move forward, how often do you think the defence line is offside in every ruck?

Modern referees don’t referee according to the rules, but we see that week in week out on so many different infringements. Why should the players pay any attention to the rules if the referees like to tweak their own versions to suit their game management?

I’m at a loss and my joy in watching the game is at an all-time low. All because referees don’t do their job, or what they deliver is not good enough.

It starts with head of referees Tony Archer. All season the NRL has been on the back foot with its management of the game.

Poll the players after each game on the referee’s performance – it will confirm what is written here. Confirm with the fans at the game and they will tell you the same. The home viewers and commentators all with close-ups, replays, slow motion and the like, and they will tell you the referees, get it wrong more than right.

The exception being try referrals. But even then – in the Warriors game on the weekend, Aaron Woods decided if he crashed into a Warriors’ player standing in front of him, he would get an obstruction ruling. Yet replays show Woods would never have laid a hand on Shaun Johnson as he did his jink and ran in a try that was then disallowed.

How do we get a message to the referees that what they offer up every week is just not good enough. Andrew Voss does his best in his TV shows, but it has become a joke and the NRL no longer take it seriously.

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There were any number of bad decisions in that Warriors v Tigers game, and both of these teams were in semi-finals contention. The Warriors dropped out after their loss.

No game is refereed in the last 15 as it is in the first 15 minutes – why is that? If the fans can’t bag the referees and have the NRL take some type of notice, how does it get any better?

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