Over the last couple of weeks I have noticed a trend to sin-bin players for professional fouls. Some are blatant, others are not. There was another one in the Canberra game yesterday. Why the sudden change in interpretation? Obviously this ties in with the 'some teams deliberately give away penalties' theory. And Manly is one club accused (unfairly). With the way these finals are shaping, in particular between the top 4, no team can afford to be a man short. It would be a travesty if refs go into a match with pre-conveived ideas of who will infringe, based purely on such subjective rubbish.
Because they didn't bin Cronk when he illegally took down Boyd at Newcastle. The NRL said the next day it was the right call not to bin Cronk, but in the 3 weeks since there have been about 5 sin binnings & imo none were as bad as Cronk's one.
Because NRL refs (and the games officials) are all about constantly changing their rules and interpretations of incidents to hopefully one day achieve the perfect rugby league game, to appease all. Even if the players they are ref'ing arent fully aware of their interpretations.
the refs pick and change as they like. yesterday we had to wait until lewis brown stretched his cramp out however earlier in the season when Matai got sent to change his jersey we were made to play on and the opposition scored a try as we were a man down
I would also add, the irony is that the reff'ing of rugby league nowadays has deteriorated to being pedantic, extremely subjective, obtuse and baffling at times. Much like rugby union used to be like. They set out to make the game better by constantly changing the rules and interpretations, but it has not worked. The refs interpretations are not fair, balanced or logical (for the most part).
