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On Monday night’s 100% Footy, Phil Gould gave the NRL’s referees a huge serve, claiming that when he watches footy these days, it’s a refereeing show.
Gould said league is now 40 per cent football and 60 per cent about the referees.
What Gus is saying, unfortunately, is accurate.
Referees were never meant to be the star, however, along the way the likes of Greg Hartley and Bill Harrigan wanted to be part of the theatre. Harrigan was a good referee, but he got this bit wrong.
In the 1990s, with the start of pay-TV in Australia, rugby league became very TV focused. In the process, the referees had microphones put on them, allowing the viewer to hear a lot of what was said.
Soon after we had Tim Mander, just after the kick-off, carrying on and showing his excitement. Without microphones, it’s hard to believe this would ever have happened. But now, here was the referee, feeling like a star.
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With referees going professional and getting all mic’ed up, blokes who got into officiating for the love of it became household names. In days gone by we could see but not hear them, now we could do both. They could be judged for what they said, because their bosses could hear them, and they were becoming more and more known.
It’s here the sport got it all wrong.
Rugby league does not need to hear what each and every decision is about. Maybe it enhances what the viewer sees, but it takes away from the mystery and the whole idea of ‘what happens on the field stays on the field’. We, the viewer, do not need to know every detail.
The world’s biggest league, the English Premier League, doesn’t have this. Sure, hearing what Wayne Rooney is saying to the referee would enhance the coverage, but they respect their sport, and haven’t gone where they are not welcomed. It hasn’t stopped the league from flourishing.
On Friday night, the Fox sideline commentator followed poor Clinton Gutherson all the way up the tunnel, almost to his dressing room. He asked five questions to a player who was too polite to tell him to knick off, like he should have.
Does anyone really need to hear what a tired player, who just wants a drink and a rest, has to say? Leave the bloke alone.
Back to Gould, and as part of the Channel Nine team, for him to criticise the referees ignores the role the network he works for has played in making them bigger than they need to be.
Referees aren’t the stars, they are the bit-part actors who should be seen and not heard – the Peter Bradys of the rugby league world, not the Brad Pitts.
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