Humans like to whinge. Let’s face it, even the most placid individual has a penchant for spotting injustice and magnifying it. There’s something particularly special about bagging a referee though.
That’s not to say it’s right to unload the contents of the part of your brain that has no filter, but it’s an ever present trait of the sports fan.
Once contained in an emotion free environment again we admit, even if it is begrudgingly, that the whistleblowers have the toughest job in sport.
We concede an expectation that they make the right call in real time is difficult because it took us seven super slo-mo replays to reach the correct outcome.
Player X, writing as he does on a Saturday in the Daily Telegraph, suggested that it’s time the video ref was punted out of his standard definition television box for good.
X has provided some intriguing musings throughout the course of this season.
The veil of anonymity has allowed him to express real opinions. You remember those don’t you? They’re the ones that aren’t media monitored to within an inch of their life.
But this time you’ve gone too far X!
Yes, some of the rulings coming out of the video ref box are harder to understand than petrol prices (see Sean Hampstead in the dictionary), but it’s a necessary part of the game.
X reasoned that because camera angles “quite often” prove inconclusive, the video referee is in no better position to make a decision than the on field official.
This just isn’t true. Camera angles at varying speeds will more often than not provide clarity to a hazy situation.
How often does a replay show that a player has actually dropped the ball over the line or dragged his foot on the sideline before grounding it?
Without the assistance of replays, spectators would be forced to stomach decisions that are just plain wrong.
To make the situation even more farcical, viewers at home would see the mistake but the man with the job of controlling the game wouldn’t and couldn’t change his initial ruling (see also A-League in the dictionary).
Is that what we really want?
The problem isn’t the actual job of a video referee, but more the men charged with hitting the red or green button.
NSW aus rugby league birthplace
Guest
" get rid of the series if nsw can’t be gracious in defeat" hahahaha that rich seeing how the kiwis reacted after exiting the worldcup from going down to Argentina, Wayne Barnes still cops crap for it, so should we get rid of the worldcup cause kiwis were not gracious in defeat? hahahahaha
steve b
Guest
its not just about soo or cant you read !!!
Meesta Cool
Guest
Where do we get the EXPERT RL refereees to coach the refs,, according to THE ROAR, (And the guys that stand/sit around me at games) -- there is no such thing as even a good ref!. the problems are mostly not the refs, it's the rulebook that needs to be sorted out. Once that is sorted, make sure that each official has the same interpretation of them , and get rid of the 2nd on field ref, allow the Video ref to communicate with the on field ref for penalties etc and allow the two of them to change the call if it is found to be wrong.
Mushi
Guest
Wow zero tolerance that's the ticket
tommymonsternz
Guest
i bow out of this silliness. get rid of the series if nsw can't be gracious in defeat. i really enjoy origin matches, almost on par with a good all black match, but the whinging and moaning for the following 12 months really brings the whole experience down. grow a moustache and harden up
Dan
Guest
The refs just need to get it right simple as that, there's not too many jobs in the world where you can make huge errors and still be employed, I don't see why refereeing is any different. It's their profession that they are paid for, so get it right. -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
Mushi
Guest
So the accreditation levels aren't enough?
steve b
Guest
Agree Luke,, instead of getting rid of it i would like to see more of it the run of play ...and touchies have more input than they do,,and as you say no video ref means we are watching wrong decisions happening on the box,,, and and the pink fella has got no back up if he was unsighted which happens quite alot...Thats just plain stupIdity ,,two points are hard enough to get now,, taking away our best set of eyes to get the decisions right is not on..We need the tech !!!!
Johnno
Guest
We need a rugby league or rugby union or soccer referee academy. Where they go and do diploma courses, by proper experts, and have to pass all sorts of tests to get there diploma or registration. But lets educate it the skill of being an official, with proper qualifications. In soccer in europe they have a coaching badge or coaching star courses and you have to have i think a certain number of badges or stars to coach soccer in europe. We need a referee academy for our codes. Maybe set up a multi million dollar referee academy at the AIS Australian Insitute of sport. Get some taxpayer government funding, which i would support and want my taxpayer dollars spent on.