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The dirty whisper for years has been that referee’s favour the home side. But after sixteen rounds of the National Rugby League season, nothing could be further from the truth.
Manly-Warringah fans will argue that the performance of officials Matt Cecchin and Gavin Morris got the Sydney Roosters over the line in a brutal contest on Monday night at Allianz Stadium.
With twenty minutes to play and the match hanging in the balance Roosters prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves charged at the Manly line.
Eagles backrower Justin Horo scrambled across and dragged the Rooster down with an arm tackle which may or may not have made contact with Waerea-Hargreaves’ chin.
It was touch and go but referee Cecchin decided the tackle was legal.
Cecchin called for a scrum and that was that. Until Waerea-Hargreaves and company began complaining about the tackle. You could almost call it intimidation.
Cecchin backed away and instead of sticking to his guns he asked for help from the video referees.
The video referees took a number of looks at it and decided the tackle warranted a penalty.
Whether the tackle was legal or not is inconsequential. The problem was Cecchin didn’t ignore the Roosters players and continue with the scrum.
Minutes later the Roosters were awarded possession after the referees deemed Manly custodian Brett Stewart had lost the ball despite being challenged in the air by opposite fullback Anthony Minichiello.
The Roosters deserved the win either way but that doesn’t mean we can’t question the referees and their rulings.
Did home ground advantage help the Roosters here? Maybe.
But you might be surprised by the penalty counts so far in season 2013.
After sixteen rounds and 118 NRL matches, the home side has only won the penalty count on 38 occasions. Surprisingly enough the away team has won penalty counts in 80 of those 118 games.
What does that say about the mindset of the referees?
Isn’t 80 from a possible 118 a little high for supposably the closest sporting competition on this planet?
Have the home sides in 2013 been that ill-disciplined?
Not once this year has the home sides in any given round won more than four penalty counts. Even then that has only happened on four occasions and of those four, two were split rounds.
In fact home sides lost penalty counts 1-7 in rounds one, three, five, six and ten.
They’ve lost penalty counts 2-6 in rounds four, seven, nine and fourteen.
For years travelling fans have had to cop lopsided penalty counts and dubious decisions. But it seems in 2013 the referees department has made a conscious effort to buck that trend.
Alarming to say the least.
Referees are there to police the rules and make decisions based on what happens in front of them. Not “control” or dictate the flow of a match or even worst, a season.
Home team penalty counts (out of eight games unless otherwise stated)
Round 1: 1
Round 2: 3
Round 3: 1
Round 4: 2
Round 5: 1
Round 6: 1
Round 7: 2
Round 8: 4
Round 9: 2
Round 10: 1
Round 11: 4
Round 12: (4 games) 3
Round 13: (7 games) 3
Round 14: 2
Round 15: (4 games) 4
Round 16: (7 games) 4
Overall
118 games
38 home counts
80 away counts
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