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First Grader
Manly coach Des Hasler is the latest mentor to call on the NRL to employ a second referee during matches to improve the standard of officiating.
Hasler joins fellow coaches Ricky Stuart, Michael Hagan and Matthew Elliott in calling for an extra whistleblower to help eliminate officiating errors.
But rather than have one referee control the ruck and another control the play-the-ball, Hasler's suggestion was to have an extra referee in the stands to adjudicate on contentious decisions, with powers more wide-reaching than the video referee.
"I'm in favour of the idea of another ref," Hasler said.
"Physically, with two referees on the oval, I'm not sure how they are going to do it - I can see them getting in the way of the ruck if you have one supervising the ruck and one supervising the 10 (metres).
"The ruck is so busy, with switch plays and players changing angles, he'll get in the way.
"What I would suggest is to put the second referee up in the stand and go down the road of technology.
"So you would have one referee down there and then (refer) any dubious decisions.
"I know people say there is still human error and it takes time, but players train so hard these days and there's so much at stake."
In his column in the Sunday Telegraph, Test coach Stuart said referees were too hesitant to make tough calls.
"The other excuse for not having two referees on the field was that it would be too inconsistent," Stuart said.
"My only answer to that is referees cannot become any more inconsistent than they are at present."
However, Penrith mentor John Lang was against a second whistleblower.
"We're struggling to get enough good referees now," Lang said.
"I think it would be more confusing, we already have touchies, video refs and refs.
"If we had two refs on the field they'd be tripping over each other."
Referee's boss Robert Finch said he was open to any proposal to improve the standard of the game.
"This has been put up many times before and knocked back because people are worried about different interpretations," he said.
"We've looked at interchange referees and they didn't want that, we considered four sideline officials.
"You'd have to look at what process you have, where they stand, what do they do - all those sorts of things.
"The fact is they are all human beings and mistakes can still happen.
"You'd also have to look at doubling the number of referees and there are few out there.
"We aren't against considering any ideas that could improve the game, but we'd probably need to do that with the appropriate bodies at the end of the year."
Hasler joins fellow coaches Ricky Stuart, Michael Hagan and Matthew Elliott in calling for an extra whistleblower to help eliminate officiating errors.
But rather than have one referee control the ruck and another control the play-the-ball, Hasler's suggestion was to have an extra referee in the stands to adjudicate on contentious decisions, with powers more wide-reaching than the video referee.
"I'm in favour of the idea of another ref," Hasler said.
"Physically, with two referees on the oval, I'm not sure how they are going to do it - I can see them getting in the way of the ruck if you have one supervising the ruck and one supervising the 10 (metres).
"The ruck is so busy, with switch plays and players changing angles, he'll get in the way.
"What I would suggest is to put the second referee up in the stand and go down the road of technology.
"So you would have one referee down there and then (refer) any dubious decisions.
"I know people say there is still human error and it takes time, but players train so hard these days and there's so much at stake."
In his column in the Sunday Telegraph, Test coach Stuart said referees were too hesitant to make tough calls.
"The other excuse for not having two referees on the field was that it would be too inconsistent," Stuart said.
"My only answer to that is referees cannot become any more inconsistent than they are at present."
However, Penrith mentor John Lang was against a second whistleblower.
"We're struggling to get enough good referees now," Lang said.
"I think it would be more confusing, we already have touchies, video refs and refs.
"If we had two refs on the field they'd be tripping over each other."
Referee's boss Robert Finch said he was open to any proposal to improve the standard of the game.
"This has been put up many times before and knocked back because people are worried about different interpretations," he said.
"We've looked at interchange referees and they didn't want that, we considered four sideline officials.
"You'd have to look at what process you have, where they stand, what do they do - all those sorts of things.
"The fact is they are all human beings and mistakes can still happen.
"You'd also have to look at doubling the number of referees and there are few out there.
"We aren't against considering any ideas that could improve the game, but we'd probably need to do that with the appropriate bodies at the end of the year."
