One ref again to save millions?

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Let's just all hope that the one referee system works otherwise, it is apparently back to two referees in 2021.

From:

"V’landys has also given himself the safety net of declaring the game will go back to two referees in 2021 if it doesn’t work. And then he will try something else. The only certainty is there will be more changes under his leadership. "
 

ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has declared a referees strike would not stand in the way of a May 28 re-start to the season, saying the NRL has contingency plans in place if the dispute with whistleblowers tips over the edge.

The referees union is contesting the controversial decision by the governing body to revert to the one-referee system when the competition resumes on Thursday week, filling a complaint with the Fair Work Commission and preparing for another round of conciliation talks with the NRL on Tuesday.

Professional Rugby League Match Officials chairman Silvio Del Vecchio said his organisation did not want to take industrial action but would not rule it out as he met with referees via video link on Sunday to gauge their views.
V’landys is adamant the game will not be dictated to by match officials and while he does not believe they will strike he said there were back-up plans if the referees took the nuclear option and sat out round one.

“All the full-time refs, none of them have lost their jobs, so what are they going on strike for?" V'landys said on Sunday. "But we’re prepared for all contingencies ... always have been. I don’t want to telecast what we’d do but we’ve got plans in place.
“I don’t think they’d get any sympathy whatsoever if they were to sabotage the game with such an action. It would be risking the game’s future if they were to do something like that.

“At the end of the day any sporting organisation should have the right to [decide on] the rules and procedures it operates under. If the game is becoming less of an entertainment product, naturally we have to change the product to ensure that we get the revenue so we can pay the refs.”
V’landys would not elaborate on the contingency plans but former NRL referee and first-grade player Luke Phillips believes League Central would look to turn to match officials from the NSW Intrust Super Premiership and the Queensland Intrust Super Cup to take over games if it came to it. They do not fall under the umbrella of the referees union, which just represents the 22 match officials in the NRL’s full-time squad.

“From my experience being in there it’s the NRL’s last resort pulling [the referees] into line,” Phillips said. “These are guys that will ref Queensland Cup, NSW Cup, that sort of stuff. They’re pretty good refs. [The NRL's] last resort is to threaten that and history has shown it has worked for them.”
Phillips argues such a development would be to the “detriment of the game”.
“The quality of refereeing outside the NRL squad ... even though they’re good referees ... the pace of the game is just a total different kettle of fish,” he said. “I’ve refereed both [levels] – to go to that jump straight off the bat, it would be quite hard for those guys week in, week out to do.”
Asked about the prospect of the NRL using lower-level referees in the event of a strike, Del Vecchio replied on Sunday: “Driving a car looks really easy until your 17-year-old son or daughter gets in a car for the first time.”
While V’landys and the NRL have signalled they won’t bend, the referees union has claimed the change to one referee is a breach of their enterprise agreement.

“There is a process. Our position is we do not want to go down that path [of industrial action] but we don’t know what’s going to happen. First and foremost it’s conciliation. If we can’t get through conciliation we go to arbitration,” Del Vecchio said.
“Arbitration is where the Fair Work commissioner makes a call and if the party that loses effectively doesn’t like that call then there are other options. But we don’t want to start thinking that far down the track. We want to get this resolved.”
 
In this world of equal opportunity and all that jazz. What is the likelihood that there will be a female touchy? Let alone a ref
 
This just highlights how our game is held to ransom. The referees don’t provide financial input and services only. IMO the services provided have not been up to standard with too many critical errors. If they don’t like the what the NRL has decided let them go.
 
If referees weren't hated before this dunderhead-response that threatens the restart of rugby league then they certainly are now.
OK. I agree they should have been consulted prior to the announcement, but they should realise how fortunate they are to be still able to earn money from a job. Hundreds of thousands of fellow Australians have lost their livelihoods.
I'll back PV to win this dispute. He'll stand them all down and bring in some lesser lights who may just prove to revelation in the way the rules are administered. As I've state previously, I want refs to forget about calling players by their first name or nickname and just refer to them by the number on their jerseys. Learning all the players' names must be as time-consuming as learning the rules.
 
This just highlights how our game is held to ransom. The referees don’t provide financial input and services only. IMO the services provided have not been up to standard with too many critical errors. If they don’t like the what the NRL has decided let them go.
You could probably throw whistles to a few of the security guards and end up with a more free-flowing game with less controversy... clean em out, most wont be missed...
 
What if we find out refs aren't necessary ? ... do we need them on the field ? ... surely with the technology we have now ... a bloke in the bunker with a good sound system could control the game ... stop when you hear the horn ... listen to the ruling or read it on the big screen ... restart play .... same for touchies .. don't need them ... they should all go the way of quartered oranges ..
How hard could it be to build a sideline robot that polices the 10 by projecting a line on the field, that could also manage the touch lines with cameras or lasers. Put a GPS chip in the ball for forward passes and knock ons. One on field official to focus on the ruck and legality of tackles. We just need Tesla as a major sponsor, Elon would be all over it.
 
So 9 is headlining tonight the referees' union is going to Arbitration on Thursday and in EVERY newsbreak is showing poor Jake being sent to the sin bin in the finals last year. Do they really have to? What's that got to do with changing to one ref! @:mad::mad::swear:
 
So 9 is headlining tonight the referees' union is going to Arbitration on Thursday and in EVERY newsbreak is showing poor Jake being sent to the sin bin in the finals last year. Do they really have to? What's that got to do with changing to one ref! @:mad::mad::swear:

Maybe it is good they are showing Jake, shows how hard done by he is seeing as Ref's are not flavours of the month at the moment?!?!
 
NRL 2020: Bill Harrigan ready to return if referees strike over one ref rules
Dean Ritchie, The Daily Telegraph
May 21, 2020 9:00pm

Subscriber only
Rugby league’s greatest referee, Bill Harrigan, is ready for one of the game’s most unimaginable comebacks to ensure the NRL restarts its competition next Thursday night.
Possible strike action by current referees has prompted Harrigan – who adjudicated a record ten first grade grand finals - to seek an incredible return at age 59.
Harrigan said he could control the opening one or two games while giving the NRL necessary time to devise a more permanent solution.
And another former top-line referee, Steve Lyons, also claimed he could assist over the opening six rounds.

Harrigan, nicknamed Hollywood, gave the current referees a whack when telling The Daily Telegraph of his passion to assist rugby league should incumbent refs take industrial action.

“Each time they run onto the field they will get booed because they are refs. You’d never get respect back. It’s just wrong,” Harrigan said. “I am deadset disappointed that they are even discussing going on strike and holding up the competition.”

The ugly standoff between referees and NRL will extend into the weekend where the NSW Fair Work Commission will be forced to decide whether rugby league has two referees, or one.

ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has already said the NRL has contingency plans in place if the dispute is not resolved, and that could mean replacement referees.

“If Peter V’landys rang me up and asked me to referee, I would ask him ‘what field, what time?’ All referees have egos and that would prevent us saying no. We’d say: “Let me back in, give me a go’,” said Harrigan, who refereed 393 first grade games along with 21 State of Origin games and 25 Test matches.

“I could help get them through rounds one and two. I’d be there - put me in. Adrenaline would get me through if they wanted me back. I’d love to.

“I have been out of the game for 17 years but I am fitter than people 60 year olds. I’d give it a real good go. I have experience.

“I could get through the first and second rounds. After that they might have to get me on an oxygen reviver.”

Lyons, 49, who refereed 166 NRL games between 2001 and 2013, was another busting to return.

“One-hundred per cent,” Lyons said. “If it helps getting the footy back up and running then I am more than capable of holding my own.

“I am more than capable of doing half a dozen games, you know what I mean. It wouldn’t be a problem. I have no injuries, am fit, still train, still run, all good. I run along the beach at Manly.

“I want to help the game and one referee is probably the way to go. I probably feel a bit sorry that they are doing it mid-year but the refs aren’t running the game, the NRL does.

“The NRL makes the rules and you abide by them. The refs don’t run the game.”

Harrigan took aim at the current referees, who have been badly bruised in their PR war with the NRL.

“These blokes are kidding. Why are they talking about strike action when none of them will lose their jobs, and they are all still getting full pay,” Harrigan said.

“They are going back to one ref. If they review it at the end of the year then some might lose their jobs but they are only one one-year contracts any way, no-one has ever been guaranteed anything longer.

“Even when I was refereeing, I had a one-year contract. I wasn’t guaranteed year after year. In all my years refereeing, we never went down the path of saying ‘We’re not refereeing, we’re going on strike’.

“You would lose the support of everybody. Each time you run onto the field you would get booed because you were the ref. You’d never get respect back. It’s just wrong”

Harrigan suggested the NRL could also look at some younger retired referees including Lyons, Tony De Las Heras, Paul Simpkins and Sean Hampstead.

“They would be your first line of defence,” Harrigan said.
 
NRL 2020: Bill Harrigan ready to return if referees strike over one ref rules
Dean Ritchie, The Daily Telegraph
May 21, 2020 9:00pm

Subscriber only
Rugby league’s greatest referee, Bill Harrigan, is ready for one of the game’s most unimaginable comebacks to ensure the NRL restarts its competition next Thursday night.
Possible strike action by current referees has prompted Harrigan – who adjudicated a record ten first grade grand finals - to seek an incredible return at age 59.
Harrigan said he could control the opening one or two games while giving the NRL necessary time to devise a more permanent solution.
And another former top-line referee, Steve Lyons, also claimed he could assist over the opening six rounds.

Harrigan, nicknamed Hollywood, gave the current referees a whack when telling The Daily Telegraph of his passion to assist rugby league should incumbent refs take industrial action.

“Each time they run onto the field they will get booed because they are refs. You’d never get respect back. It’s just wrong,” Harrigan said. “I am deadset disappointed that they are even discussing going on strike and holding up the competition.”

The ugly standoff between referees and NRL will extend into the weekend where the NSW Fair Work Commission will be forced to decide whether rugby league has two referees, or one.

ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has already said the NRL has contingency plans in place if the dispute is not resolved, and that could mean replacement referees.

“If Peter V’landys rang me up and asked me to referee, I would ask him ‘what field, what time?’ All referees have egos and that would prevent us saying no. We’d say: “Let me back in, give me a go’,” said Harrigan, who refereed 393 first grade games along with 21 State of Origin games and 25 Test matches.

“I could help get them through rounds one and two. I’d be there - put me in. Adrenaline would get me through if they wanted me back. I’d love to.

“I have been out of the game for 17 years but I am fitter than people 60 year olds. I’d give it a real good go. I have experience.

“I could get through the first and second rounds. After that they might have to get me on an oxygen reviver.”

Lyons, 49, who refereed 166 NRL games between 2001 and 2013, was another busting to return.

“One-hundred per cent,” Lyons said. “If it helps getting the footy back up and running then I am more than capable of holding my own.

“I am more than capable of doing half a dozen games, you know what I mean. It wouldn’t be a problem. I have no injuries, am fit, still train, still run, all good. I run along the beach at Manly.

“I want to help the game and one referee is probably the way to go. I probably feel a bit sorry that they are doing it mid-year but the refs aren’t running the game, the NRL does.

“The NRL makes the rules and you abide by them. The refs don’t run the game.”

Harrigan took aim at the current referees, who have been badly bruised in their PR war with the NRL.

“These blokes are kidding. Why are they talking about strike action when none of them will lose their jobs, and they are all still getting full pay,” Harrigan said.

“They are going back to one ref. If they review it at the end of the year then some might lose their jobs but they are only one one-year contracts any way, no-one has ever been guaranteed anything longer.

“Even when I was refereeing, I had a one-year contract. I wasn’t guaranteed year after year. In all my years refereeing, we never went down the path of saying ‘We’re not refereeing, we’re going on strike’.

“You would lose the support of everybody. Each time you run onto the field you would get booed because you were the ref. You’d never get respect back. It’s just wrong”

Harrigan suggested the NRL could also look at some younger retired referees including Lyons, Tony De Las Heras, Paul Simpkins and Sean Hampstead.

“They would be your first line of defence,” Harrigan said.
If Harrigan was ref he wouldn't take any **** from Cameron Smith.
 
RL refs are just like every other employee - they are dispensable. There is always someone to take their place, no matter how good they think they are.
A perfect example of this has unfolded on TV's Masterchef where the judging incumbents priced themselves out of a job and the new previously 'unknown' judges are now even more popular with viewers.
 


Rugby league officials have slammed NRL bosses as "arrogant" but say they won't jeopardise the re-start of the 2020 season, even if they lose their battle over the decision to revert to one on-field referee.

The Professional Rugby League Match Officials (PRLMO) is fighting the NRL's decision to scrap the two-referee system.

Strike action by the referees had been floated if they lost their bid to maintain the two on-field officials.
 

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