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It’s another day, another controversy in Rugby League Land.
This is probably going to come across as a whinge and a rant, but good – I don’t care, because Tyson Frizell is the latest victim of the incompetence of the NRL judiciary.
Now let me get one thing very clear before I go on here – as many of you know I am a parochial Dragons supporter, but this isn’t down to that. This is much, much more.
As I mentioned, Frizell is the latest victim of the judiciary – while there were three charges pressed after the match, the one to the Dragons enforcer is just baffling.
Read more:
» NRL talking points from the weekend
» The Wrap: Super Rugby semi-finals
» AFL talking points from Round 19
He was charged with touching a referee and will miss a minimum of one match with an early guilty plea, which is flat out ridiculous. His ‘touch’ was almost a passing gesture to get back into the defensive line rather than something out of intent or disgust towards the referee.
It was during general play, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it as this will illustrate. He is almost asking the referee to move so he can get to where he needs to go in an attempt to play the game.
Video: Will @NRL_Dragons Tyson Frizell face scrutiny over this contact with the ref?https://t.co/nVA7Wbsv5x pic.twitter.com/VGxvFyit8v
— FOX SPORTS NRL (@FOXNRL) July 29, 2016
When you look at other instances of players touching referees this year and getting away with it, things only become more confusing and the whole issue is being handled very poorly by the NRL.
All of David Klemmer, Cameron Smith and Johnathan Thurston have been caught, on camera with their hands on referees throughout the season, yet not been charged at all. People have pointed it out, and the NRL have turned around and gone, ‘no no all good.’
So why then is this one any different? Those incidents have been quite obviously intentional while the players were in conversation with the referee and the game was at a complete stoppage so the conversation could happen.
For this to be charged when those weren’t is just another example of the NRL judiciary being inconsistent – and that simple fact is probably more frustrating for fans than what the ruling is.
Most people will tell you they can live with whatever the rules are, whether they be the ones that are enforced during the game by the on field referees or after the game by the match review committee and judiciary but not the inconsistency that seems to come with it.
Granted, human error is a part of the game. It happens and there is no way to fix that at the moment – but for the match review committee to have days and multiple angles to watch on the replay and still come up with the wrong decision is baffling.
In the same game, both Joel Thompson and Josh Reynolds were cited for incidents. Thompson is looking at a two-week stint on the sideline for a head high tackle – and there are no if’s or but’s about that.
It was a monster high tackle and one that deserves every minute of a couple of weeks on the sideline. How it wasn’t penalised and put on report during the game I will never know.
I’m not going to hint at bias here, but what I am going to say is Josh Reynolds should not be looking at no time on the sideline for his tripping offence on Thompson early in the game.
At risk of making Bulldogs supporters angry (and again, I don’t care), the tripping offence was pretty much as blatant as they come and stopped a nearly certain try for Thompson. It wasn’t penalised or placed on report at the ground, and given the Thompson high tackle went without punishment in real time I can live with that.
What I can’t live with is the fact the match review committee have given time on the sideline to both Thompson and Frizell but not Reynolds.
Reynolds is not exactly the cleanest player in the game as his history will show – he has multiple indiscretions leading to time on the sidelines. This is also not the first time he has tripped a player after making a bad read in the defensive line.
He was out of the way, had opened a hole on his inside and if not for a leg that was stuck out in accordance with a hand around the same time Thompson would have crashed over the line for a try.
For him to get no time is ridiculous. The way the judiciary is currently set up means past offences count against a player, especially when they are the same kind of offence and it is completely baffling that he got the lowest grade charge possible for what was a blatant trip.
It’s not the first notion of inconsistency from the judiciary and match review committee this season, and fans are fast losing patience and confidence in them.
It’s something that needs to be addressed and is a bleeding issue in the NRL undoubtedly, but for now the Bulldogs will be at full strength next weekend, while the Dragons will not when both shouldn’t be and we have the judiciary to blame.