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Much cyber ink has been spent on supporting or opposing the introduction of harsher rules and so forth following State of Origin I’s infamous punch-up.
Are the rules too soft, too hard, too reactive? Is rugby league losing its culture? Why do we have to pander to the sissies or the dinosaurs?
Riveting discussion, no doubt, but a more important point is the issue of refereeing authority. I get the feeling the referees are losing the aura of authority their role requires.
Rugby league is not a game for marshmallows, we can all agree on that, and we can all agree it takes some doing to control 34 explosively primed slabs of athletic explosion, especially when the stakes (pun intended) are high.
To an extent, I agree with the sentiment the referee ought to be invisible and a good game occurs when you never notice him. Silent he may have to be but he also needs the gumption to carry a big stick – and the courage to use it when necessary.
The referee needs to be someone with a kind of charismatic authority, a benevolent dictator of a father who is willing to send any of his 34 kids to time-out when they misbehave.
Just as importantly, he needs to be prepared to be wrong.
The introduction of the video referee plus a second on-field one really only serves to dilute the referee’s perceived authority. It seems now almost anyone can question the referee’s decision.
This is a no-no. Only the captain should have the right to speak to the referee. Anyone else who does ought to be penalised. Not because it is fair to the player but because it is not fair to the referee.
A good referee needs dictatorial powers. He needs to have the balls to use them too. The game is not being sanitised because of the outlawing of punching or shoulder charges, it is being sanitised by the removal of the almost patriarchal authority of its most important dictator.
Remember, you don’t need to like a referee, you only need to respect him.
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