Another weekend of finals football, another weekend of broadcasters whinging about refereeing.
Compared to previous seasons, 2019 had been one of relative calm when it came to referee bashing and lamenting the demise of ‘rugby league as we know it’.
But after Melbourne did over Parramatta 32-0 on Saturday night, Phil Gould once again went off on one of his rants about the referees. Once again, it was fact-free opining on how to ‘get our game back’.
Usually Gould goes unchallenged when he launches into these ‘look at me’ moments, but this time he was actually asked by host Erin Molan if he would get involved and be part of fixing these supposedly horrible arrangements. Gould deflected then circled back to a weasel-like “someone will fix it one day, but in the meantime we’ve all got to put up with it”.
The heinous crime that so warranted another Gould rant? It’s predictable, I think you all already know. It was referees correctly applying the rules.
Phil Gould. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
Rugby league has always had a serious problem with authority, which can be traced almost all the way back to the game’s origins. Whether it’s administrators, coaches, the judiciary, it doesn’t matter – everyone has a problem with anyone who with decision-making power.
But the code has a critical issue with its treatment of referees. Not just at the elite NRL level, but down through the grades and across all age levels. Referee bashing is hardly unique to rugby league but the way it is ingrained in the sport certainly is. It’s such a deep-seated cultural issue that is not likely to ever change.
Why would anyone become a rugby league referee? You couldn’t pay me enough to do it. Make the wrong call and get excoriated, or make the right call and get excoriated because you should have been able to sense the game situation and let it go.
You can’t win. You never will. And leading the charge against you will be the media.
As Friday’s Manly versus Souths semi final played out, journo after journo wailed and lamented online about the referees, who had the nerve to make a series of correct decisions.
The Daily Telegraph’s Dean Ritchie came out with the probably the saddest take of the weekend.
It was a typically ignorant and crowd baiting contribution, representative of an NRL media who with very few exceptions spend their time running the game of rugby league into the ground.
For all the constant bullshit being pushed about the death of rugby league there is one thing that actually could send it to an early grave, and it’s the standard of media coverage.
The Storm and Eels final was broadcast live into Melbourne on Channel Nine. It doesn’t happen often (free-to-air Storm games are usually shown on 9Gem in Melbourne) and because it was a final there were 108,000 people watching, many more than for a usual club game.
The major NRL broadcasts into ‘neutral’ states are usually the State of Origin series and the finals. Week-to-week games on channels like 9Gem usually only attract a small but ardent band of watchers.
So it’s not a stretch to say that a lot of watchers in Melbourne would have been checking the game out for the first time or with a limited NRL knowledge base. And how is the game promoted to them by the major broadcaster?
Eels players after the Melbourne defeat. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
Ref bashing, complaining and whinging about how horrible everything is and how Gus Gould just can’t stand it anymore.
It’s an appalling look for the game and does nothing to engage or attract a new fan of rugby league. Why would you watch another game if everything’s so horrid?
There needs to be a circuit breaker. But what can change? What should change? If I ran the NRL, Channel Nine would be zero chance of getting the rights again. I’d even consider buying out the last year of the current rights deal and getting them out of there now.
There are terabytes of data taken up with pieces about how poorly the rugby league media covers the NRL. We all lament the poor state of things and hit out against crisis merchants who seem to revel in sawing away at the tree branch they’re sitting on.
It’s popular to bag Gus and co, it’s popular to highlight how far Fox League has fallen from being an engaging, high quality rugby league news outlet to a monkey dung fight featuring these very same crisis merchants. Reputations are being damaged right before our eyes.
But are they? Have we got this all wrong?
You may remember back in 2015 esteemed cricket writer Geoff Lemon wrote a piece about the Channel Nine cricket commentary team which went viral all over the world and is still widely linked to even now.
Lemon wrote what a lot of cricket fans felt – the broadcast was too chummy, inane, not focused on the sport and giving the viewer a poor quality experience. Sound familiar?
I agreed with every word Lemon wrote, yet as the piece went wild I couldn’t shake a thought from my years of playing cricket and being around cricket clubs – this type of commentary was actually what the majority of viewers preferred.
Phil ‘Buzz’ Rothfield on NRL 360 (Image Fox)
It may not have suited social media users or the cricket trainspotters, but that didn’t matter. Nine was aiming at the audience they knew was bigger, and giving them what they felt familiar with.
Indeed, when nine eventually lost the cricket rights, some of the very commentators Lemon took to pieces turned up on channel seven’s cricket coverage. Nothing changed other than the channel.
For all our anger about being served up clickbait articles and shouting matches over moronic takes, if the audience overwhelmingly wanted Fox League and Nine to cover rugby league differently it would happen. You only need to see the number of people supporting Gould’s rants to understand.
We play a part in this too – we validate rugby league’s horrible coverage by sharing and commenting on all these deliberately bad takes and emotive headlines. It makes us feel good, but it ticks the engagement boxes for the journo.
If I hate an article and comment on it saying so, as far as the analysis goes that means exactly the same as if I commented to say I love it. It’s all just about the clicks and the metrics.
So there are calls for better, for quality coverage, less referee blaming, less death riding the NRL, more actual focus on the game… But nothing is likely to change.
I sure don’t like it, but I’m resigned to the reality.
I have zero confidence that we’ll ever see anything better when it comes to rugby league. The game is so terrified of anything resembling change that I wouldn’t be surprised if the next TV rights deal is more the same.
I want rugby league to grow in Australia and beyond. To showcase how good it is to the world. To drag that casual viewer in with a sport that in incredible to watch and easy to pick up. I know I’m not alone in this thinking.
But more of the same keeps rugby league locked where it is, and unfortunately that suits a lot of people just fine.
Ogy
Guest
There is only one thing killing the game and it is the dominance of the same 2 teams for the last 20 years. The NRL needs to even the playing field when it comes to TPAs. Cap it at $1 million and allow teams to organise it. :football:
mark
Guest
Well look at the alternative. Its have it used against you. They go on about AFL for example or when Union said it wanted to kill league and people said it was only a matter of time. Well in AFL its been about 2 generations and zero shift on tv in the northern states. They tune in maybe for a grand final but its such slow going, they will have spent 500 million to one billion in order to 'seed' AFL in the northern states; and the NRL when its at full tilt will probably smash it anyway for quality and enjoyment, prestige. See thats the thing. Its a local comp the AFL the game is very local, but its never said its diminuitive, they always say its huge. And they lap it up. But if you actually look at AFL properly its more quaint than anything. So called problems are another one - much is made of so called nrl problems but the AFL has problems too. And plenty of them. They have complaining fans too. But do you hear about it? Well its drowned out by a one-wavelength media mostly. Hey, I'd rather live in reality too, but dressing up the NRL is not a bad way to go about things, simply because it can live up to those things usually and by the end of the whole program, the nrl will still be closer to the truth as it improves out of sight. I think the AFL won't improve much, they have a lot of adaption problems to come.
mark
Guest
He might be a famous coach and all that but he is also a fing dhead. Its got to be on purpose. Its got to be for ratings
Gus O
Roar Rookie
3 problems. The third is Widdop’s shoulder. We were a different team when he was fit and healthy... and now he is gone.
chavid
Roar Rookie
do we want propaganda?
Simoc
Guest
I don't think Gould is the problem. He goes through bad form commentary where he is currently (like he's depressed) and other times he is with it and contributing new ideas. The main problem is the entrenched patently dumb view that the refs are getting it wrong. They are making mistakes but they are way more competent than the Rugby Union refs. The video refs have no excuses except that they have the wrong people doing it. They have egocentric fools trying to impose themselves on the game, or justify their position. I'm happy with them finding out if the winger has a foot out or grounded the ball and finding offside at the kick but the referee can see the screen and should rule on the obstructions. In fact I'de forgo the idiots we have on video review and just let the referees watch the replays. They couldn't do worse.
Nick
Roar Guru
I have answered that question before. Or you could have taken the 3 seconds to look on my profile. I don't hide it.
Long Black
Roar Rookie
I played about 20 years myself. I've heard it all on the field, so I know the language can be colourful. I'm not suggesting we hear everything that is said, more just that I don't think we need every second of the game saturated with the amplification and hyperbole. After a whistle is blown, complete silence from commentators, refs are turned up, hear the call and the discussion, when commentators return, they discuss the play not the call.
Nat
Roar Guru
As an opinion, that's fair enough. Auskick s..ts all over what the NRL do, especially in regional areas. There is a program called 'Billy's Buddies' which is aimed at the u5. That said, my young fella is 1st grade so I cannot really qualify what they do in schools but I still know what Auskick has been doing for a decade. Although the Broncos have sent a few players to the club on training nights but that is their thing for promotion (cameraman and coordinator marketing included) more than the NRL. I would disagree with the game though, I think the quality is very good. To use your Fish Shop analogy. If the Fish Shop had 100k 'likes' but say Alan Jones got a bad piece and told the world on his radio show the place was garbage, does that disqualify the 100k people who enjoy their food because he has the loudest voice? A soft decision doesn't make it wrong. It's fine to have a different interpretation to the ref on a knock-on or forward pass but does that qualify for a weeks narrative? Does the touchie or ref deserve to have his life and family threatened because they got one wrong? 100% they need to be held to a high standard but we are talking about people not robots. We all had s..t decisions go against us during our playing days but we played the whistle. The NRL sky isn't falling in because those with the loudest voice don't agree with the specific rules/actions/consequences because it's different to how they want it.
Censored Often
Roar Rookie
As whacky as Gould is at least he calls a spade a spade. As opposed to print and tv pundits just drink the company coolaide most of the time to ensure they have ongoing work in the game. They just brush over anything controversial and swim with the current to keep management happy.
elvis
Roar Rookie
And all the while I thought something was wrong with you, and it turns out you are just a St George supporter. It all makes sense now.
scrum
Roar Rookie
Great article. If you look at the history of Gould and his solutions. More technology,less technology, get an ex player in the video box, must always have 13 on 13 which led to proliferation of technical fouls it is rather sad and contradictory. The weakness of the NRL is that it is media driven rather than always attempting to do the best for the game. On the East Coast it has saturation coverage yet crowd attendances are poor. My theory is that NRL is a good TV product but live the highly repetitious nature of the game is more evident. There are so many media jobs involved now that to find meaningful content is difficult thus the over hyping on Referee performance is low hanging fruit. The Gould rant “ ruining the game” is vomit inducing.
Jodi martin
Guest
:thumbup: Well said. Rex Mossup was so passionate about comentating the game it was a joy to listen to and watch. I was on the edge of my seat. I think whats happened is the footy show style chat has been introduced into games which is entirely inappropriate. Commentary is to explain whats happening so people who dont know can follow the game and BE EXCITED by the entertainment of that. Grassroots commentary needs to come back to invigorate the game and lenghty indepth opionion discussions need to return to the footy show format.
Ben Pobjie
Expert
That explains why the Storm's salary cap has never been investigated and they've never been punished for any infringements.
Ben Pobjie
Expert
The one thing you can say about rugby union in Australia is that only victories against the All Blacks are lauded in the press. If the Wallabies win against anyone else media focus will be on what Australia did wrong and how unimpressive the victory was.
James Campbell
Guest
Great piece. I grew up in the UK following rugby league and it's the same there. News Corp is the big issue. They hate the game and just use it as a cash cow.
RudyZarzoff
Guest
I’ll try to address a few things here . Junior numbers are struggling. Is it because the game is now no fun ? Is it because of bad publicity ? Is it because it’s been left to fend for itself ? Does the AFL promote Auskick , so much better ? Out of those four questions, I’d answer. No Partially Definitely Definitely So , the game is s great game and that why we all watch it , and that’s why we played it. It’s produced some fantastic outcomes over the years and some awesome individuals. But to me now, it’s like the Alaskan Moose , covered in blood sucking ticks , slowly sucking the life out of it. Beattie and Greenburg are paid to ensure the health of the game , not adjudicate over left wing social outcomes and try to save us from our own thoughts . Rugby league isn’t the game played in heaven , it’s the game played primarily by the working class and the battlers . People are turning away through frustration, while these two ponce about the place . To blame Gould , is like saying that the fish n chip shop went broke , not because they served up poop , but because people talked about it when they did.
Urkillinme
Roar Rookie
As was suggested in the article, this is not just an issue with just league. Kearns, horan at al in union are as poisonous as it gets. And cricket... hang on... is there a pattern? And yes, the best way to watch sport in australia, is with the volume down, save Peter sterling, fatty, and very few others. I actually can't think of anyone who down at seem like they've not got an agenda in union.
Crosscoder
Roar Guru
There is an answer ,ch9 lose the rights to channel 10, and Andrew Voss is the caller, throw in Graeme Hughes, and a few balanced former players who have clear thinking, with decent oral communication.And I would include Cooper Cronk in that group. There is nothing wrong to disagree with a referee's decision,but to go on and on, and pretend that the game is being destroyed because of devisions is ludicrous .And to do it on a regular basis is a turn off for a regular fan, let alone a newbie who wants to give the game a trial. To make ridiculous calls to suggest a head high it is not, when the player is clearly connected around the neck.Or to be flexible when making decisions ,just bend the rules .It's embarrassing. Channel 9 complaining as they have about their falling ratings, need to do an in house and a public survey as to the reasons why.The outcome I tend to suggest ,will not be to their liking.
Insider
Roar Rookie
My favourite is submitting in the tackle cause you have clearly shepherded the play, only to play the ball and in following movement your team scores a try! How can anyone justify this ? You can’t