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Dan

Kim Jong Dan
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Season 2005, widely recognised as one of the best seasons on record, with teams fighting for place and pride at both ends of the table and in the middle. Manly are left fighting to keep their spot in the finals as the Roosters and Panthers are nipping at their heels. 3 teams are battling for the minor premiership and there are still 2 teams in the race for the wooden spoon.
Crowds or flocking through the gates in record numbers and the game is enjoying a boom era and starting to stabilise after the chaos of the Super League war.

With this in mind, it is about time that we brought into question the level of refereeing and officialdom in the game. Whilst Ref’s will always get criticised for their efforts this season has seen a greater increase in bone head decisions and out right ridiculous calls. With the game looking to capitalise on the success of this season it is way past due that a higher level of professionalism be brought it to those that control the games. As fans we deserve the best and we don’t deserve ridiculous calls that see us leaving grounds angry due to some mistake that likely cost our side the game.
It is time that the game adopted full time referees, who are at the highest level and who are more than capable of running a game at the elite level. It is time for these referees to be held responsible for their calls and actions, to meet targets and to get it right.

The introduction of the video referee in 1998 proved successful and has added a level of re-assurance to the game making sure critical calls are reviewed and given full scrutiny. However since their introduction the level has begun to slip, now to the point where every week we have one story in regards to a call that was just so horribly incorrect and costly.
This is where the introduction of full time refs with targets, KPI’s and consequences could improve our game, it would improve the quality of decisions and improve the quality of our game.

Whilst we are on the subject I would at the same time like to question the need for touch judges in today’s game, these guys are becoming more and more reluctant to make a call on anything besides where the ball went out after a penalty kick or whether the ball went through the posts.

In all honesty if these guys wont make a call on a try, wont make a call on offside, a tackle or anything then why are they there? I just don’t see the point. They run up and down the sideline and shrug their shoulders whenever the ref asks them a question, we then go upstairs to the video ref. If all they are there to do is to wave their flags when the ball goes out then I am sure an infra red camera would do the same job at half the price.

I guess at the end of the day the point I am trying to get across is that as a professional sport there should be a certain level of professionalism in the officials who run the game on the field each week. The same complaints and publicity is rare amongst the other sports in Australia and you rarely hear complaints from the AFL, Rugby Union and other sports at the level you do from Rugby League. This isn’t because the supporters are more likely to call to attention, it is because so often the refs get it so damn wrong. Wake up NRL and lets bring the refs to the game that this game deserves!
 
Good points.

I would like to see a similiar system to the US NFL where the team coach is allowed 3 or 4 calls per game where an incident can be reviewed by the video referee. Things such as a 20/40 kick, an offside play, a forward pass etc. I think they get 4 maximum calls in the US and that should mean it doesn't muck up the game too much, maybe 2 or 3 is better for here. But there is no doubt that game altering mistakes are being made weekly and there is absolutely no justice in the current process.
 
Whilst thats not a bad idea, it would slow the game significantly and could be used as a slowing tactic by the coach to stop the play for a short time
 
Good points.

I would like to see a similiar system to the US NFL where the team coach is allowed 3 or 4 calls per game where an incident can be reviewed by the video referee. Things such as a 20/40 kick, an offside play, a forward pass etc. I think they get 4 maximum calls in the US and that should mean it doesn't muck up the game too much, maybe 2 or 3 is better for here. But there is no doubt that game altering mistakes are being made weekly and there is absolutely no justice in the current process.

This could be a good idea, but like Dan said it could slow down the game. In the NFL if the complaint isnt upheld it counts as one of the team's three timeouts for that half, so it cant be used to slow down - you might as well just called a timeout.

But we dont want anything like timeouts in our game.
 
Like Dan said I think that there needs to be better reffereing and my idea is this:
- There will be about 8 games in the NRL a week.
- There are about 6 game in PL a week.

That is 14 games. I think that the NRL should hire 20 refferees full time, and give them one or two year contracts (like players). Then they would ref all PL and NRL games and any left over refs could be touchies or video refs.

The benefits of this are:
1- If a ref sucks they dont get their contract removed.
2- If a ref needs dropping there is someone who is good to replaces them.
3- The refs can train and learn the rules.
4- The refs can watch tapes etc, and highlight parts of the game they need to watch more.
5- PL would get good refs and can be used as a training ground.

This would cost a lot but the NRl could use the extra money from the TV rights.

This is important and should be worth the money and should help the standard of reffering and give the refferee boss (replace Finch please) and his staff (hire a coupld more people to teach and train) the freedome to move refferees up and down and also work on their performances.
 
The theory of the "coaches challenge" sounds great and works well in the NFL. It is just hard to see how it can work in our game though.

I think more power should be given to the video ref, we all see things on TV that are obvioulsy wrong yet unless it involves a try or foul on an injured player the video ref seems to have little other direct impact on the play.

The video ref should have as much power as on ground ref, if he sees a mistake he calls it and the game is stopped, a penalty or scrum ordered and on we go with the game.

The players play as a team but ti the spectator it appears that the officials are only interested in their own performance. I will never forgive that touchie who ran on after 5 tackles and the play had proceeded 50m downfield to report BK for the hit on Webb. To me it just seemed he wanted his moment of stardom.
 
Why did he run on so late? I just dont understand. The touchie who was closer didnt come on he just thought it was fine.
I think it must have been a video refs call
 
Why dont the Touchies police the 10 metres give them the power to call an offside penalty and free 1 of the area's the ref has to worry about
 
Why dont the Touchies police the 10 metres give them the power to call an offside penalty and free 1 of the area's the ref has to worry about

It would be too hard to hear the touchies in the middle of teh ground, where a lot of the ball playing takes place. So there would be no number 4 get back etc.
 
I take all of your comments on board about the time wasting by a coach call. In the NFL it usually done as a result of a replay showing that an error has been made. We all see blatant knock-ons, forward passes etc when a try is awarded and this is when it would most likely be used. I agree that the video ref should have greater powers to call back a point scoring play when there is a problem, whether it has been referred "upstairs" or not. It could also go back one extra play where the attacking team should have had a turn over to the defending team as a result of an error.

The first person to call for full time refs was Bill Harrigan. Bugger you all, I still think he was the best by a country mile and not one of them since has come even close to keeping up with the play the way he did or getting the calls right.
 
i agree he was by far the best referee for a long time, He never over reffed the games, he just let it flow and played it fairly even, even if he did hate manly!.

I still think Hartley was the best :D
 
[quote author=Utility Player]
Why dont the Touchies police the 10 metres give them the power to call an offside penalty and free 1 of the area's the ref has to worry about

It would be too hard to hear the touchies in the middle of teh ground, where a lot of the ball playing takes place. So there would be no number 4 get back etc.
[/quote]

I don't think it would take long for the players to get used to not getting told to get back and would be worth trying in preseason games. Would allow the ref to concentrate on the ruck
 
If the video ref can pull up the play for a high shot eg . when a player stays down.Damn it. Let him pull it up for most decisions that are missed. Forward passes leading to trys , balls being lost in tackles and ruled as a strip. We have moved well and truly into the video age. Lets use all advantages that are there and get it right. Agree 100% with the Harragon call as the best there has been.
 
I would like to see a hawkeye style thing for forward passes and off side.
 
Good point Daniel they should be able to work out a program that takes into consideration the forward momentum of a player in relation to where the ball ends up (i would prefer to get it right and lose a few minutes than get it wrong and speed the game up)
 
[quote author=Utility Player]
Why dont the Touchies police the 10 metres give them the power to call an offside penalty and free 1 of the area's the ref has to worry about

It would be too hard to hear the touchies in the middle of teh ground, where a lot of the ball playing takes place. So there would be no number 4 get back etc.
[/quote]

Yeah. It would be worth a trial at preseason games.

I don't think it would take long for the players to get used to not getting told to get back and would be worth trying in preseason games. Would allow the ref to concentrate on the ruck
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
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