Way back when - I liked the idea of two referees. I thought the game had become quite fast and teams were exploiting the disadvantage of only having one ref.
After all I'd been watching NHL for awhile and they have two main officials and two other jerks on a rink 200 feet long. They also had a bunker. So if it worked for a small area like hockey, the nrl could benefit from a second ref, right? (many claim in the nhl the refs suck too - like me on occasion..lol)
Somewhere along the line we had one ref AND the touch judges seemed like they were told to keep out of it, so I was happy getting another ref.
Where it fell down for me, was the unprofessional implementation on how it would work. Touch judges became even less utilised and the standard just seemed shocking.
The whole....DNA of the refs is "what can I ping 'em for, what can I ping 'em for now" is just like a damn police state.
Unless you're the ref whisperer Smith. How frustrating is it to see year after year rules brought in and not followed?
eg: You can only talk to ref's at certain times. Smith talks to refs at other times and the refs compliantly stand there and listen.
Plus the bias is still there. The police state dna of refs and "finals plotting" is the only reason I can think of why Jake was sin binned in our final against souffs. Plus the ref not calling a forward pass when she was directly in line and it was heaved forward. I think one poster here said she tweeted her about it and was instantly banned. Diff gender, same d/h attitude.
When I watch the ESL, it's a different DNA. If a player isn't quite square playing the ball the ref thinks "well does it give an unfair advantage to them..nah, play on" and the game flows.
Trouble is, in the nrl people would complain that not playing the ball square always gives them an unfair advantage as they have broken 'a rule'. The esl just don't seem to think like that, AND more importantly the players in the esl seem to complain less. Ruling is made, game carries on. None of this everyone runs up to the ref waving their arms in the air (like they just do care..lol)
They just get on with it. Refs and players. In the nrl, thanks to the storm the slowing the ruck down, doing every little thing called "gamesmanship" makes me worried about all that being unleashed on one ref.
So I thought two refs would be good, but the game devoured itself on that.
crap - too long a post. I'm hungry.
