Non-Manly Games [Round 14, 2015]

[globaleagle]

There are a lot of problems with the video referee system. But the biggest is that the on-field refs are forced to give a "Try" or No-try" ruling. They should be able to send it upstairs and just say "I/we were unsighted" if they need to.

How many times have we seen what would normally be a straight forward decision muddled and stuffed because there wasn't enough 'evidence' to over rule the on-field refs call?

When SL first introduced the video ref to Australia back in 1997, the refs could actually do that. They could send it to the video refs to let them sort out a try. What the hell changed?

I know!

I think giving the video ref the option of sending it back down as a "refs call" didn't help.

I realise it was because if the video wasn't conclusive....they thought there would be outrage if they made a decisions....so they sent it back to the ref's. Then the media, et al, got up in arms by saying..."The refs on the field have already said they dunno...so what's the point?"

deep breath

So then they made it so the ref's had to make a decision before they sent it to the video refs.

But if they were over-ruled too much everyone at the nrl ivory tower thought....this would make the players and fans respect the refs even less....so let's bring in the rule that there has to be clear evidence before we overturn the ruling.

And now we have the shemozzle we have now, with all this ridiculous malarkey between the refs and video ref and the nrl up to their usual shenanigans by not fixing anything but running around sticking fingers in dykes (teehee) and raising their salaries.

 

[HoldenV8]

As much as people generally didn't like him one of the reasons I didn't actually mind Bill Harrigan so much was because for better or worse he more often than not backed his own judgement and didn't bother with the video ref unless he had to.

Referees today in the NRL need to take a leaf from Billy's book and start backing their own judgement.