This is an open letter of encouragement, mainly to the NRL’s broadcast partners.
You are partnering with the NRL to showcase and present football games, for the promotion of the game. Can you please lay off the refs just a tiny bit? Just for a few weeks, let’s start the season full of goodwill and see what happens.
Commentators labouring over and being unreasonably critical of referring errors sits somewhere between distraction and corrosion in relation to its impact on the game. I am not sure the referees running around today are worse than yesteryear, just the same as I’m not sure Andrew Johns was a worse player than Bob Fulton.
What is different in the modern game is that we have high-quality broadcasts (I’m just talking the footage here) of every game and a lot of slow-motion replays. This combination sets the modern-day referee up for failure.
This scrutiny happens across every sport today and I think the respect and authority for referees has eroded as a result. Just like the players, the referees must run around for 80 minutes and try and get themselves in the right position every play should an opportunity present.
Imagine how that goes for a moment, sprinting flat out when you are already tired, trying to keep up with younger, faster people and then these young faster people have a massive collision and a ball pops out.
Tell us what happened, ref?
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
You’ve made a call because you had to, and play stops. Now, the replays roll, different angles are trialled until the right one is found, slowed down so we can see it, no, slow it down some more please, frame by frame.
Okay, got it: ref, you’re wrong. I can live with that – it is modern technology being applied to the modern game. Bit tough on the ref because their error is laid bare but no big dramas… yet. What causes the drama is the messaging and perspective that seeps into our subconscious by the commentators. ‘No, no, no, no, no’.
Sound familiar?
The modern commentators need to be encouraged to take a more positive approach. They may have played in a different era but they are commentating in the modern era using modern technology. The approach they take needs to mature as well.
If the ref makes an error, discuss it, ponder what caused it, perhaps try out a platitude about errors always balancing out and move on.
The game is not about the ref, so don’t make them the focus of the commentary. Describe it respectfully and move on, there are hundreds of plays each game.
Please don’t labour the point when an error appears to be made by the ref. Their performance will be reviewed in time, just like the players.
The commentators rarely hang a player out to dry. When a forward drops a sketchy pass near the try line, the commentary goes something like: “Big bopper played his heart out today, made 50 tackles, did well to get into that position and the halfback has thrown it behind him.” Can you recall a commentator taking that approach to a refereeing error?
Some commentators may not agree but they have a responsibility to rugby league. They hold a privileged position and are the voice of the game. The viewing public look up to them and want to be like them. That is a heck of a responsibility.
There are literally millions of people watching. How the commentators treat the referees is how the kids watching will treat the referees on the weekend and how their parents will treat them from the sideline.
You want better referees? Then use your influence to create an environment in which the position of referee is admired and respected.
the outsider
Roar Rookie
Good luck, i look forward to reading it
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
1. Yes a true story. 2. My primary school teacher/coach was also a referee on the weekend and he was sane and rational. 3. I'm writing an article revolving around Col Pearce, Ken Kearney. Norm Tipping and Frank Facer.
the outsider
Roar Rookie
True story TB? You didn't do a pysch test on the way in???
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
Having given up playing after repeated head injuries I decided to become a referee. I applied an was told to come to Phillip Street for the next intake. There were 24 of us and we sat in a class room and listened to some bloke talk about the great game and it's referees. At the end of the talk the referee's representative tapped the shoulders of the three sitting near the door and said the rest of you can go home. I don't know how they made their decision.
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
1. Referees are human and have to keep their eyes on 26 independent variables so they can miss some things. That is why they can't change their decision. The recent captain's challenge was created to help and I think it is a good idea. 2. The touch judges have always been used to help the referees and they do a great job but they are also human so any errors should be excused. 3. The two referees was a good idea and it should be retried with the rule that the second ref can't change their decision of the first referee as happened in the 2019 grand final where the Raiders could have kicked the winning field goal if they knew the second referee had changed the first ref's decision. That was an embarrassing incident for the NRL.
Nat
Roar Guru
No wonder they throw things, I'd hate to be waiting for your shout! :stoked:
Mick Gold Coast QLD
Roar Guru
Harumph! Acronyms - phoey! I always refer in conversation, for example, to the Berries as Canterbury Bankstown Rugby League Football Club. Sometimes my mates chuck things at me. :silly:
Nat
Roar Guru
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves. Come on Mick, we're all about the acronyms these days. Because, you know, it saves 30 seconds than actually saying it right.
Mick Gold Coast QLD
Roar Guru
Your first paragraph is dead set accurate. "Player incompetence" is there for all to see all the time, as you note just above here. Years ago I saw a referee march someone ten yards, plus another ten when he sobbed about it. The referee's response was "I can do this all day" and that was the end of that. It's a powerful tool, not used near enough - I'd like a front row seat to watch Guru Wayne and Guru Gus go off about it! Now there's two blokes who express an interest in the future of the game only when it coincides with their interest. I didn't see a lot of Johns - working away during those years and turning my back on League when they booted my beloved Souths. Notwithstanding that I did not see him as any better than very good - "exceptional" was Fulton at ⅝ (from those mongrels Manly), John R--per, Billy Smith, Peter Sterling, the Prince of Centres and so on. I was always a bit puzzled why he was feted so until I accepted that, like Australian of the Year and Rothmans Filter Brand Ambassador, selection for these gongs drifts inexorably towards who has the manager with the best connections, and they eventually become meaningless.
Mick Gold Coast QLD
Roar Guru
Who is "JWH"?
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
And the Manly one with DCE, Harper and Olakau'atu having a big smiley cuddle.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
:laughing: Yeah cause we’ve NEVER seen someone who’s 120kg before :shocked:
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
No no no no no no. I don’t have anything positive to contribute but GEEEZ it sounds good when I say that. I am so smart, S M R T.
Tom G
Roar Rookie
Some fans have used refereeing errors as an excuse for their own sides failings since Dally Messenger bought his first pair of boots. The reasons are fairly obvious in that they would rather not blame the performance of the team they passionately follow but other factors. What is making this far more prevalent now however is the coverage of the game with the microscopic endless analysis via replays that highlight errors. This is then compounded by the incredibly negative way the Game is reported where commentators and journalists are fixated on problems.
the outsider
Roar Rookie
Well said Ferret!! :laughing:
no one in particular
Roar Guru
"Have you seen how big he is? He's a giant"
no one in particular
Roar Guru
Matt Thompson is woeful, in the Voss and Ginnane class. The other bloke is ok, a decent 2nd or 3rd string caller
Ferret
Roar Rookie
I'd like to give a rap to the positional sense an NRL ref needs every game. Unlike most players who have a fairly constricted remit come game day (wingers - stay on the edge and catch the high ball or, middle forwards - run hard up the guts, smash anything coming through the guts etc.) refs have to have the game sense of a good half. Given, they only have one perspective from which to make a judgment call, in just a few seconds, they get it right much more often than not. And we're talking dozens of times every game. They need to know where to stand so their view of the ruck isn't blocked, how not to get in the way of the defence or attack, how to remain calm when 120kg of rage is bellowing in their face. Get back the 10 to set the line every time, chase any break downfield, etc. Knowing their every decision will be dissected from 18 camera angles in super slow-mo. I couldn't even get close to their standard and neither could most of their detractors.
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
Were all pretty critical of Rabs these days . CH 9 seem to manage his workload by giving him the season opener , SOO and finals and that's it . The rest of the year were inundated with inferior commentators and nothing looks like changing or no-one new jumping out of the ground . Same with the referee's .
Nat
Roar Guru
There was at least one upside to all games being in Qld last year was listening to less of this clown show. When was the last time Johns added anything more than "what a tearaway" & "He's shaped that ball...". Yep, we're all watching as well Joey.