Apology to the Cowboys the real mistake

The biggest mistake league officials made last Saturday was to apologise to North Queensland after the game.

That was worse than the referees getting the tackle count wrong, resulting in a seventh-tackle try, and their back-ups on the sideline and in the video referee’s box not picking up on the mistake.

I’m not saying the Cowboys didn’t deserve an apology, but if they did it should have come in due course, not in the emotion-filled moments straight after the game.

By immediately apologising for the error, NRL chief executive Dave Smith and the several commissioners who accompanied him to the Cowboys’ dressing-room effectively cleared the way for the Cowboys to complain for as long and as loud and as outrageously as they liked.

And, as we’re all well aware, it was an invitiation they gleefully accepted, through coach Neil Henry and captain Johnathan Thurston.

“The league have put their hand up and admitted they’ve had a shocker, so let’s go for broke on it,” could have easily been what they thought.

What Smith and the commissioners should have done when they entered the dressing-room was take Henry and other relevant individuals aside and say, “Everyone is aware a major error has been made. We wish it hadn’t been and we really feel for you and your club under the circumstances, but unfortunately we can’t change what happened.

“Now we have to go through a process of investigation to examine how it happened and establish who, exactly, is at fault.

“We realise you’re going to be deeply upset by what happened and we understand that, and we know you’re going to be questioned about all of this from every angle by the media.

“But while we accept it’s inevitable you’re going to display some anger and emotion with your comments, we have to remind you you’re still bound by the game’s code of conduct.

“So we ask you to think carefully about what you want to say and try to exercise some control.

“It’s obvious some people are going to pay a significant penalty for what happened, but we have to look into how and why it happened first.”

Two days after the game, when the six match officials were all dropped as a result of the mistake, was the time for the NRL to make its apology.

The suggestions by Henry and Thurston that the seventh-tackle try could have been some sort of conspiracy to ensure an all-Sydney grand final are, of course, ludicrous.

It’s not even worth discussing, apart from reminding the conspiracy theorists if there was a conspiracy by the league, it certainly wouldn’t involve helping Cronulla get to the grand final – just in case they won it and the league subsequently had to take the title off them.

The league announced on Tuesday it had decided not to take any action against Henry or Thurston for their highly inflammatory comments.

How predictable. They held the gate open for the horse to get out in the first place – there was no point in closing it once the horse had bolted.

But if what Henry and Thurston said wasn’t at least as bad and probably worse than what Manly coach Geoff Toovey copped a $10,000 fine for saying after his team were beaten by South Sydney in Round 23, then I’m not here.

Since he was sacked by the Cowboys and the team started piling up wins while he served out the last six rounds of the regular season, Henry has become a coaching god in many people’s eyes.

What I would like to know is, where is the proof the Cowboys started winning because they were upset he was going?

Isn’t it just as likely they started winning because they were relieved he was going. He had been there for five years and they hadn’t done nearly as well as they should have.

How come a team with so much talent had two three-game losing streaks and one five-game losing streak this season?

The Cowboys should have been competing strongly all season to make the top four – not having to scratch and claw at the end to get into the bottom half of the eight.

I fully expect Parramatta to show no imagination and appoint Henry as their coach for next season. But the best result for the NRL would be if the Eels asked referees’ boss Daniel Anderson to make a return to coaching.

Surely Anderson would tear a hamstring in the rush to accept the Parramatta job, as opposed to trying to tell match officials what to do.

Let’s face it, running the referees just isn’t the right job for a coach.

You could argue Bill Harrigan was a former referee and he didn’t do a good job of running the referees either, so why is appointing an ex-referee any better?

But an ex-referee is the right man for the job. They just appointed the wrong ex-referee.

Greg McCallum is an ex-referee who has been running the NRL’s match review committee for a decade, but who has resigned from that job, effective at the end of the season.

McCallum ran the referees in England in the 1990s. He has said he still wants to be involved in the game and is simply seeking a new challenge.

He would be the perfect choice to be the referees boss. He has a wealth of experience in the game, the courage of his own convictions and is a straight-shooter.

Incidentally, I don’t care if a team from Sydney, North Queensland, Melbourne, Newcastle or Mars wins the premiership.

South Sydney winning it would make for a great story, but if they don’t, well, that’s the way it goes. It’s on again next year.

What I really want to see is Peyton Manning win another Super Bowl. I can follow the NFL purely as a fan, which is far removed from covering a football code as a journalist.

And don’t I love Monday mornings. Thank God for pay television.