State of Origin needs the best refs and Bernie Sutton isn't delivering

Every league fan has been lathering for weeks now about just who should be selected in the Maroons and Blues sides for the State of Origin series.

We demand that the best players get chosen and we are beside ourselves when we feel that they haven’t.

»State of Origins Referees

Surely then those same standards should apply to who gets selected to officiate those huge games.

Surely that is just as vital, right?

Enter Bernie Sutton…

I would have been genuinely dismayed that Bernard Sutton had selected Ash Klein over Matt Cecchin for Origin One if he didn’t have such clear form in making bizarre decisions. He was Tony Archer’s right hand man – and heir apparent as it turned out – when Grant Atkins was inexplicably excluded from officiating in the 2017 NRL finals.

Here is a challenge for you the reader: find a single coach, journalist, commentator, player or official that thinks that Matt Cecchin is not one of the top two referees in the NRL.

Go on, try.

Now a second challenge for you: find a single coach, journalist, commentator, player or official that thinks that Ash Klein is in the top two referees in the NRL.

In fact, find me one who thinks that he is even in the top four.

The reason why both those challenges are extremely hard is that Matt Cecchin is absolutely one of the top two referees in the NRL and Ash Klein absolutely is not.

At the risk of engaging in hyperbole, dumping Matt Cecchin is like the Cavs leaving out LeBron, like the All Blacks dropping McCaw, like the Storm axing Cam Smith. Cecchin is the best referee since Harrigan. He just is.

And everyone knows it.

(AAP Image/Action Photographics, Robb Cox)

So why on earth has Bernard Sutton appointed Klein instead of Cecchin?

To me it feels like the answer to that question is that Tony Archer and Bernard Sutton are in charge and they’ll do exactly as they like. They’ll appoint who they want and they’ll drop who they want and there is not a damn thing anyone can do about it.

I feel that Sutton and Archer care little about your opinion or outrage. They aren’t answerable to you. In fact, they aren’t seemingly answerable to anyone. Maybe Todd Greenberg, I guess – if there is enough uproar.

And there has been some uproar from significant quarters.

And well you might ask Gus. However, lord help any official who does talk out. They’d find themselves officiating in Group 9 pretty quickly.

Unlike when you are an out of favour player at a club, as a referee you can’t up stumps and go to another club, or switch code. The NRL is the pinnacle of rugby league officiating. There is a massive step down to the English Super league and then there is, well, Group 9 – officiating the Junee Diesels and the Tumut Blues.

If the officials want to keep their jobs then they have to put up with the way that Tony and Bernard choose to treat them.

However, while any decent student of the game knows that Cecchin not getting a gig for Origin One is totally out of step with reality, lots of punters couldn’t give a crap. To many of them one ref is just like another. Who cares, right?

And it is a fair guess that attitude suits Archer and Sutton to a tee. If we think all officials are alike then the people running the refs can select who they want and sack who they want.

Those of you who couldn’t care about Cecchin getting overlooked for Origin should think about it this way: Imagine that you are pretty much the undisputed top performer in your workplace and have been for a while. Then one day your boss promotes his brother and some guy from corporate over the top of you.

You could argue that’s sort of what has happened to Cecchin.

And Sutton has also demoted him to be Henry Perenara’s assistant referee for the Rabbitohs Sharks match this weekend (with Chris Sutton appointed the lead ref for Eels versus Knights), throwing in these patronising and discourteous words for good measure:

“Matt’s form has been down slightly but ultimately this is a good opportunity for him. He has not been an assistant referee for a number of years. There is still certainly the prospect of Matt being a part of the final two Origin matches so having some experience as an assist referee will benefit him.”

What exactly are the form lapses Sutton is referring to? I seriously doubt that Sutton will specify them, mostly because I don’t believe there have been any.

I talked to Bill Harrigan about Bernie Sutton’s above justification. Harrigan was searing in his appraisal, “Matt Cecchin on his worst day is still better than the rest of them.”

Bill knows a bit about the refereeing caper too I’m told.

Further, the last bloke who got demoted by Sutton was none other than Ash Klein after the Broncos Wests Tigers match in Round 3. Yet Sutton has the audacity to put this in the press release:

“We took into account form, consistency and experience when nominating the officiating group…Both the referees have been in excellent form over the opening rounds of the season and will take that form into the opening Origin game.”

Let me repeat: Bernard Sutton himself demoted Ash Klein in Round 4 and yet has the nerve to use these words and logic in the press release announcing the officials for Origin 1.

This is audacious and breathtaking hypocrisy on display from Bernie Sutton here.

The new chairman of the ARLC thought the announcement of the officials for Origin One was definitely positive tweet worthy.

It is great that Peter Beattie has embraced his new role with enthusiasm. But if Beattie actually wants to make a positive difference for the game he should start by doing a bit of investigation.

Beattie should go find out just how Tony Archer and Bernie Sutton actually got their jobs. As far as I can establish there was no recruitment process at all, not for their initial appointments, and not for their promotions last December.

There was no open process, with a panel of qualified people assessing all the suitable candidates against established key performance indicators. It seems they were just arbitrarily appointed. Yet now they hold total sway over all of the officials who have strived so hard and for so long to get to the top level. Are you happy putting your name to that Peter?

Then the new ARLC chairman should also go and independently seek out a random sample of the officials, in private and off the record, and ask them how they actually feel about Archer and Sutton’s leadership. Go on Pete, go talk to some of them about what’s been going on and how they’ve been treated. You’ll find it eye opening.

Once Beattie has done that he can decide whether he wants to be a ceremonial Chairman who just glad hands people at appropriate times and does what NRL HQ tells him – when they tell him to do it – or whether he actually wants to make the game better by being a good leader who fights for necessary change and good management.

Next Wednesday at roughly 8:15pm Bernie Sutton’s big brother Gerry – who is a great referee by the way – will blow time on and play will get underway in the 2018 State of Origin series. It is the jewel in the NRL crown. It is the money maker and lord knows the NRL needs the money.

Bernie Sutton, Tony Archer and Todd Greenberg should be praying that not selecting clearly the best referee in the NRL for that event does not blow up in their faces.

Because while people do actually care about Matt Cecchin getting dropped, I sincerely doubt if anyone would miss them at all.