Did Chris Sandow cost Parramatta?

Stop whingeing Mary...Storm deserved the win...were by far the better team...didn't make the same amount of mistakes as YOUR team...and take note, Storm are on their way back to the form we've all come to enjoy and expect from a champion club.

I agree that referees should be respected, no doubt about that. But why are the referees allowed to speak to the players in any way they want, the referees speak and treat the players disgracefully sometimes. They put their hands in the players face, tell the players to go away, tell the players they don't care. Etc. Its disgusting, yet they get away from it. Players should be allowed to ask a question(as long as it's the captain) this is just another example of referees who think they are bigger and better than the game, egos are way too high. I watch the players, I don't want to see the disrespect either way but apparently it's allowed if you have a whistle in your mouth.

Marldon wake up. Did you watch the game? don't spit stats and say "look at the penalty count?" Every game the Refs are tallying them and are even caught on mic, dicussing amongst themselves how to even them up towards the end of the game. None of the the NRL refs in 2014 have any real gumption (and it seems, integrity) and it is embarrassing to watch them acquiesce to (certain)players and media pressure. SOO, Game 2 tranpsired into an ugly wrestle match and the refs (Video too) were a complete joke. Embrassing as an international spectacle. People will walk away from the game if the NRL don't wake up to it too.

I wouldn't question the integrity of the referee in question but taken as a whole it is hard to believe some level of game engineering is not occurring.

The game was in the balance. Parra down by 8 having scored 16 of the last 22 points

Finally, someone said it! +1

Yeah. Touched a raw nerve with cummins because it was true. He is a cheat.

A heap of points? What, a whole 8?!

All this talk makes me quite angry. I've been blah blah blahing since last years semis that the refs have been given a scenario from their bosses that suits the TV rights holder. I've been abused by Roarers for being everything from a conspiracy theorist to a madman. The NRL has become a spectacle on par with the Biggest Loser to The Voice. It's a reality program with the most commercially popular team taking out the prize. Admittedly, last year it was the rights holders team handed the prize, through the use of referees discretion. This year who knows who the NRL will chose to take home the prize. Like Rupert, Gina, Clive, et al, what is passed off as real and fair just serves their ends. The refs have not gone from fair to absolutely hopeless in less than two years through some random act of nature. The NRL are treating the fans as simple consumers yet even on this site we are fed the line that it is all above board. At first I thought maybe it is just me, however each day I read of fans being disgruntled about the stage managed outcomes of games. I read of celebrated players and coaches airing their doubts about the integrity of match officials. As the Bard wrote, "there is something rotten in the state of Denmark". Don't believe it can't happen. Soccer, even here in Australia, has been tainted by match fixing. The cricket is no better. League fans may hope that our game is above this. It's not. From what I've witnessed over the past eighteen months, League is in the grip of an orchestrated plan that is based on taking us on a ride to where the ends,(profit), justifies the means. It's not the game that is rotten, it is those in control who can't see past their dividends.

Marldon I'll just say this. 18 points are scored when Sandow went off. Prior to that we had just scored and it was 8 points the difference. The send off had a huge impact on the final score.

Agree with you Chop. I was pretty angry about it yesterday but in hindsight we had some good patches of football and some terrible patches of football. AS BA said in the presser you have to be right on top the whole game especially playing at Melbourne so when those calls go against you it won't have as big an impact.

as far as I am concerned the game is following rugby penalty after penalty, and to many tries are being scored off penalties in my opinion the refs are to blame one team is penalised far too often while the other team who are just as bad are let go jack

Actually Jarryd Hayne is the most over rated.

I would add that I do not think for one second that the referees are biased towards a particular team, however it is fairly obvious that they are not consistent and in some cases are actually not competent enough to be in first grade. This is why we are seeing niggling, frustration, and more headlines this year about refs than we have seen in many years. The two ref system has meant we have individuals refereeing 1st grade that are not up to it. Watching the Aus - NZ test with a single referee was refreshing for fans and players alike. A much better discussion is what to do the 2 ref system.

Sorry Mary but your comments demonstrate that you are not reading the game correctly. In believing that, in your words. "his stupidity cost us the game" you ignore the fact that the team had 18 points put on them in the first half unanswered initially which was hardly Sandows fault, if the team turned up switched on then they would have been a chance but they didn't. You call him selfish - again he has been far from selfish in his time at the Eels, to his own detriment I might add and to make the comment in the heat of the moment because of another poor decision is hardly selfish - by your comment you indicate he was thinking only of himself and not the team when in fact it was the opposite obviously. In the heat of a game plenty gets said, some gets called and some doesn't and that was really was the coach was getting at after the game also. I don't expect the Eels players to be saints, I do expect to see passion and dedication and the desire and when you have that sometimes what happened yesterday happens - even Hindy was binned in a game for a comment to Harrigan and again I wouldn't call Hindy "selfish". Making Chris the reason for the loss in unfair and incorrect and thankfully his teammates and coach understand that better than those looking from the outside.

Spot on

The Roosters defy the winning penalties = winning games idea. But as Tigerdave says, it is part of their strategy, rather than a poor discipinary thing. There's no doubting the poorer teams get the poorer referees, but that's just it, it's poorer refereeing, not necessarily biased refereeing.

Sandow was an idiot for doing what he did. Much like you shouldn't play chicken with a truck, don't argue with a man who can send you off. Nonetheless, the incident is just another that highlights the greater overarching problem: players and coaches are (wrongly) forbidden from criticising the referees in the public sphere. Coaches and players should be allowed to savage the refs in press conferences if they want (so long as they don't make it personal, or say anything liable to libel). Why is it that they can't? Why is it that in almost every other field we have the right to use the media to air grievances but coaches and players will get slapped with a fine for speaking their mind. The standard of refereeing has been pathetic this year.