The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

It's time for NRL media to give the referees a break

(Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
23rd September, 2019
4

It may have been another scintillating set of semi-finals in the NRL, but it seems all people are talking about is refereeing.

Controversial sin bins involving Manly’s Jake Trobjevic and Melbourne’s Cameron Smith had the football media up in arms.

(The idea of people complaining about Smith getting sent to the bin is news in itself, but anyway)

Did the refs have undue influence over the semi-finals on the weekend? Or are the NRL media just too keen to get stuck into the whistleblowers?

We put Roar NRL expert Tim Gore on the line on our Game of Codes podcast to analyse the controversial decisions on the weekend and plead the NRL media to give the refs a break,

Listen to the debate:

Graham Annesley came to an extraordinary defence of the referees in his media briefing yesterday, saying, “just because people have different views [it] doesn’t necessarily mean that the people who take the negative position are always right.”

“It’s difficult for the referees to escape controversy … we tend to always jump to view that they’re wrong as soon as there’s a controversial incident. The aggrieved party in any aspect of life … tends to make the most noise. If you disagree with a decision, you’re going to make more noise than somebody who agrees with it.”

Advertisement

Visit our Game of Codes hub to catch the full episode and be sure to subscribe and review on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever else you’re listening.

close