Been chilling out at home for a few days, work is quiet so I'm resting up my "good" knee which has decided to eat it's own cartilage...
Watching some classic games, from the halcyon days of the Winfield Cup, and you know what I've NOT noticed??
The referees.
Games are being won or lost on heroic plays, brutal, never say die defensive efforts and footballing magic. Games are changed by a great tackle or a magic ball or (in this case) because Backdoor Bennie missed a field goal and Steve Jackson decided that no_one was going to stop him, no matter frikking WHAT.
The referee lets the game flow and the football dictate who wins or loses. There's none of these grey area b*ll**** penalties that leg-up a team back into the game, or alternatively kill the momentum of the team dominating.
Effectively, the bloke with the whistle is anonymous: rarely intervening and definitely NOT influencing the outcome of the game.
Today's referees feel that they are the "star" of the show, a legacy built by Hollywood Harrigon and facilitated by the NRL, as it's a way to control not only the game, but the OUTCOME.
Edit: I've just noticed that it's Bill himself refereeing this game, and he just let these two behemoth teams go at it (Balmain v Canberra, 1989 GF)!
Without fact checking, I'd guess the average penalties given per game in the pre-Hollywood days may have been 7-8 per game: now, it's not uncommon to see penalty counts of 8-10 per TEAM, per GAME!! Effectively 18-20 penalties per game, which over 80 minutes averages out at around 4-5 minutes of play for every penalty. And you'll find that 90% of penalties given are these mythical "ruck infringements". A perfect way to ensure that you can dictate which team gets on top: simply pour on the grey area penalties until the team you want takes the ascendancy. Then, of course, a few square-up penalties to even out the count when the game is beyond doubt..
Even better, is that the referees can then point to a team's "lack of discipline" in the ruck, and all the talking heads nod in agreement and talk about how it was "poor discipline" that cost them the game, yet never, f**king EVER note that both teams were as bad (or good) as each other, yet one team got hammered for it whilst the other team seemingly got off Scott free..
And nothing will be done while a slimy sh*tball like Greenturd is in charge, as it's control of every facet of the game that he wants: unbiased referees would undermine his influence on the game itself and limit his ability to help or hinder teams to just the draw (with which, I might add, we've been royally f**ked yet AGAIN!).
Gets me so wound up, what these bastards have done to my game.
It's not a frikken PRODUCT.
We are not CLIENTS.
It's RUGBY LEAGUE.
And more and more, you're hurting the game I love.
