The NRL season is once again heading inevitably towards its climax. It’s as wide open as it has been in recent memory and the finals hopes of a number of clubs will rest on the outcomes of the final matches of the regular season.
There’s eight games left and we’re at that stage of the year when the referees love to tinker with their interpretations of the rules.
Anyone remember back in 2002 when – at about this time during the season – the ‘Dominant Tackle’ came into fashion, helping the Sydney Roosters on their way to the premiership?
Or in 2005, when the the focus shifted the other way to penalising the ruck heavily, speeding up the play the ball and allowing attacking teams more freedom to throw the ball around?
The Tigers won that year.
Does anyone remember the last time a defender was penalised for ‘flopping’?
Three seasons ago any tackler who placed a hand on an already grassed attacker was penalised. Have defenders stopped doing this, or have the referees found something new to pick-up on? How about walking off the mark, seen any of that recently?
No?
Players must have stopped doing this too.
Last week we saw – on at least two separate occasions – the referees stop play to talk to trainers who had lingered too long on the field. Likely the result of a build-up of fan’s emails and the air-time given to the issue on popular Rugby League shows like the Friday and Sunday Footy Shows and the Sunday Roast.
You have a grown man (a ref), tell another grown man (the trainer) that they have stayed too long on the field and they ought to get off. Is this the time or the place to work on trainer etiquette?
The NRL match reviewer need only look at the footage at the conclusion of each match and fine clubs who breach a code of practice drawn up at the start of the season and made available to all teams.
Another change we saw in last Friday’s match between the Wests Tigers Vs Titans was an incident involving Preston Campbell. After being judged to have been tackled, Preston got up and continued to promote the football. The ref – Gavin Badger – told him to go back to the mark and play the ball.
Which he did.
Now this is a commonsense approach to reffing. The attacking team hasn’t been advantaged by Preston having to go back and play the ball, and the defending team hasn’t been disadvantaged by having more time to set their line.
However, this is also in stark contrast to what has happened in the past.
Players who ran off their marks were penalised. This is a huge penalty for an attacking team who’s only offense was to not hear the referee call ‘held’ over a raucous crowd.
When did this rule interpretation change? or has it? Perhaps clubs were notified of this clarification of the rule, but I didn’t get the memo.
These examples might seem trivial, but they reflect a culture of whimsical and hopelessly sporadic interpretations by our men in the middle.
What would happen to the Penrith Panthers if – as there has been hints at in recent weeks – the interpretations of rules surrounding the protection of kickers were relaxed?
Or, how might the premiership hopes of teams like Souths or the Tigers improve if they decided to speed the play the ball up again?
How about the hopes of Saints if ruck penalties became ‘less important’ in the eyes of the refs?
Robert Finch and co. seem to believe that only radical changes in umpiring procedure can produce a real or measurable change to umpiring in the NRL. The introduction of two referees last season is evidence of this.
The biggest change to the fabric of the way the game is controlled since the introduction of the Television Match Review. But just like when we stopped using the TV review for everything imaginable (strips, high shots, knock-ons) so to was the double ref idea scaled back to just one dominant referee, with an assistant pocket referee.
It’s not the wholesale changes that are the most effective or game-changing, it is the subtle variations that tip the scales one way or another that allow some teams to flourish while others perish.
That’s why all of these ‘subtle’ variations in interpretation we see from referees week-to-week are so important. They may seem trivial, but they have lasting impacts.
It seems the refs are a law unto themselves.
They are above reproach from players and coaches and their late season ‘random pick-a-rule’ can have lasting impacts on the results of premierships. Here we are going round in 2010 and it’s on again, trainers beware.
In today’s game, where so many matches are decided by so few points, the difference between a penalty in front of your own posts for running off the mark or being told to go back and try again is huge.
On Friday night, it might have even changed the result of the game.
It’s time for transparency with our men in pink to be established in order to stop this frustrating merry-go-round of what the ‘pet-peeve’ is at any given time.
These differences in interpretations can help shape premierships and we as the member paying, ticket holding, TV viewing fans deserve clarity.
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