Inconsistency from refs and the Bunker are ruining the NRL

The biggest problem in NRL is the refs are much too involved in nit picking penalties but miss many important infringements. Most Super League refs let the game flow. Our refs to me seem like a bunch of Prima donnas. The refs for a game should receive no publicity.

STILL, a forward pass, marginally out of the hands is FORWARD. FULL STOP

It's about time these alleged refs got their hand off it and got the rules right, or are they thinking of their next pay packet. Sutton in the bunker should be sacked, permanently. Just on his TV performance 's ,it's around 3/4 stuffups per TV game, god knows on the games not on TV. Just on the saint's, cronulla game, how can 2 refs and a linesman miss those Feki tries. One a forward pass and the other it came off the cronulla foot to a player offside and passed to Feki . And it's not because I'm one- eyed ,it's all games I see on TV. Smarten them up, because all those stuff- ups costs teams in the finals, past a joke, get it right, bring back the real referee who isn't ,say one- eyed on the cash.

I totally agree.

I love League but don't often watch it live on TV. The number of nit picking penalties given and the major ones often overlooked leave me bewildered. A team will be attacking the line looking almost certain to score when the ref blows his whistle for markers not square. Immediately the game loses its momentum and my interest. It's like everything has to start from scratch again. Every time a tackle is made you can't tell whether the ref is going to penalise for holding down or not. It totally depends on who the ref is Some will penalise when it is obvious the tackler cannot possibly move off in time, especially when the tackled player has him by the jersey These penalties ruin the game and slow it down much more than an extra five seconds in the tackle. Of course, blatent infringements must be penalised but not minor ones.The worst thing that has been introduced is the bunker. Not only does it slow play down but the refs aren't confident enough to make a decision. Then when the bunker makes a decision it is often wrong, so five minutes has been wasted on a wrong decision.The linespeople obviously are only to adjudicate on goals and where the ball crosses the touch line. They are of no help at all to the ref.

Besides you let any team out to a 30-0 lead after 25 odd minutes, you don’t deserve to win!

The Cowboys scored 2 tries in that game that should never have been given. The first was off a forward pass and the other should've been a Roosters penalty as Mini got taken out in mid air. And Lui 100% knocked that on at the end. The Cowboys had no one to blame but themselves and that's what they did. You can't be 30-0 behind and blame everyone else afterwards.

Don't get me started on stripping the ball penalties. Too many times the ball carrier appears to lose the ball only for a penalty to be blown. More emphasis has to be put on the ball carrier securing the ball. If a ball dropped it is not a penalty unless the ref has a clear view of the ball being stripped. Simple!

It was not meant to provide consistency, as it is still up to human interpretation. Referee's are too scared now to make a call. IMO, the tech has driven away some RL supporters, but the high prices of entry and consumables is the main culprit. Is the NRL hamstrung by venue rents? AFL seems to have responded very quickly.

How did we and why did we turn what used to be a very simple game that people of all ages could enjoy,, because they could understand the rules,into something a rocket scientist would have trouble interpreting... involving angles,projections,velocity,directions,positions etc.....bring back the the old simple rules.....if it walks like a duck ,swims like a duck and looks like a duck it probabily is a duck....which used to apply to forward passes,tries, interference and so on.Maybe then we could all get back to understanding and enjoy the simple game it was ment to be.

In my humble opinion the main things the refs should be looking at are the ruck with the play the ball being a dogs breakfast.Wrestling,rolling the ball through the legs,arms & bodies everywhere. The loose carries that result in penalties because there are 2 or more men in the tackle,the ref just assumes because there are 2 in the tackle it's a penalty.Players abusing officials & what about the knock- on rule, these days it is a case of just rule a knock-on when in most csaes the ball has obviously gone backwards.The whole game has become a game of touch/tag footy.

And you can add this too, which is very often misinterpreted by refs and this is the problem of the forward passes, the rule book says - Penalty for some forward passes - If the Referee is of the opinion that a player in giving a forward pass must have been well aware that the catcher was in front of him then the referee is justified in ruling that the ball has been deliberately thrown forward.

steveng: if you want to compare the last 141 games with Super League, a near enough estimate would be the average in 2016 combined with the average in 2017 (so far). A total of 225 games. In those games the total penalties is 3068. That is an average of 13.64 penalties per game. Still 2.62 penalties per game less than Super League. With regards to SOO, yes, there are fewer penalties in those games, but, considering how close Origin games are, traditionally, of course penalties will be lower, because a penalty here and there can cost the game. But, if you look at penalty counts in the last 7 series (2010 to 2016) there were 213 penalties in 21 games. That's still an average of 10.14 penalties per game. Not what I would call a significant difference. And just for interests sake, NSW has averaged 5 penalties per game, and Queensland have averaged 5.14 per game. If you look at this year in the NRL, each game is averaging 13.29 penalties per game which equates to 6.65 penalties per team per game. Only one and a half more penalties per game per team than in SOO...

Pipe down with the "refs ruining NRL" garbage. It solves nothing. Refs train as hard as players at their craft. It's a game, refs are human.

Jesus if you're blaming the refs for a loss you're also ignoring your teams missed tackles, poor reads, butchered tries and, ironically, the penalties they gave away. Get a grip.....and perhaps another hobby?

He must have been looking up to catch any suspect passes instead of looking down at the sideline...?

Actually that try has conclusively been adjudicated to be a no try. The correct decision was made by the referee, verified by The Bunker, and then validated by the Referee's Boss. If you still disagree with the decision, I suggest you try carrying a football using your forearm with your hand facing down, then tell me if you have "control" of the ball. https://www.nrl.com/archer-confirms-chambers-no-try-ruling/tabid/10874/newsid/104753/default.aspx What's more worrying for me, as a Broncos fan, is the lack of feedback on the Kahu no try in the same game. In this thread there's a lot of talk about what constitutes a forward pass - backwards out of the hands with the ability to drift forward due to momentum. Well, in my opinion, that pass from Boyd was backwards out of the hands and floats forwards. If Boyd had continued running forwards instead of stopping his run as the throws the pass, it would never have been called.

Geez VH , time to move on old mate .

The only genuinely poorly reffed game I've witnessed so far imo was Broncos cowboys. The ruck was inconsistently policed all night and there were way too many forward passes missed. I'm not a huge stickler for forward passes but the one for Kahus try along with several others from both teams were shockingly blatant. The penalty against Blair for a flop tackle at the death was also a joke and I found it ridiculous that it seemed whenever one side got in the lead the whistle only blew for the trailing side. At one point I thought perhaps the main referee was simply struggling to keep up. I distinctly remember him having a chat to the captains and being rather short of breath. We also got a snapshot at the consequences of life without the bunker in general play with Feldt I believe being ruled to have knocked on with the ball coming off his legs and a Brisbane player then batting the ball out. One quick look while packing the scrum was all it took to see it clearly never touched his hand, but no. It wasn't a howler by any stretch but surely a ref should be able to just say "yeah just have a quick look at that mate" while a 20 second ad for a ute/booze/gambling plays for the TV audience. Other than that one game though, while there's been mistakes here and there and a few harsh 50/50s I wouldn't say any of the other games I've watched had been poorly officiated.

while it didn't cost the roosters the GF that was a shocking miss by the touch judge. one of the all time worst.