I think that the way the game is played is a direct result of the officiating: and my belief is that the officiating is driven by a one significant factor..
Ego.
And for that, we can thank that prancing little turd Bill “Hollywood” Harrigan. Every time he ref’d a game, his ego driven belief was that he was more important than the players, the game, the fans, and most importantly the history of this great game. Bill was actually quite a good referee, but his legacy is that of on field officials with zero feel for the game and an over dependence on technology rather than experience and intuition/skills.
Most importantly, the referees have become the most critical men on the field in terms of their ability to influence the ebb and flow as well as the momentum of a game. We are seeing an average of 15-20 penalties per game these days: put another way that’s a penalty every 4-5 minutes which creates a stop start, juddering mess of a game in my opinion. The inconsistent application of “grey area” penalties and more importantly the timing of these bullsh*t judgement calls can dramatically swing a game in one teams favour...
Remember when guys like Joey Johns, Tooves, Cliffy or Ricky Stuart et al could take a game by the scruff of the neck and win the game for their team?
Nowadays, Henry Perenara has more influence on the game than any of those players. Let that sink in for a minute.
Peranara > Cliffy?!?!?
Rugby League has no place for men like Cliff Lyons any more. Not in the NRL. The template these days is a hyper athlete that plays his structures and hopefully is disciplined enough to not give the officials any reason to use them as an excuse to manipulate the game.
Personally I find this to be a sad state of affairs. I’ve noticed that we talk more about the refereeing than the game of late, and players are always appellated with the negative “ill disciplined” tag if they are pinged for something that only the referees consider to be a lack there of. Penalties are no longer awarded to a team, they are “conceded”. Whilst they have always been a result of ill disciplined play, they are now placing the onus squarely on the teams (as indeed they should) but in a manner that suggests that said penalties are the fault of the players and the players alone.
My problem with this is that the interpretation and application of 90% of the penalties given changes from referee to referee, from ground to ground, from team to team, from player to player and, let’s be honest, on an almost minute to minute basis. And they point to the players as “ill disciplined”, whilst blowing a penalty for something that 30 seconds earlier was let go, or an even worse infringement.. and how in the hell are the players supposed to understand an interpretation that varies so fluently??
It just sh*ts me to tears. The game used to be a spectacular thing to watch, and still can be if State of Origin is any indication...
Anyhow, apologies for the rambling and slightly incoherent ranting. Have had 11tybillion beers and am typing one eyed on a cracked iPhone 🙂
