Refereeing in the modern game

Did anyone watch that game last night, Melbourne v Titans?

Ben Cummins refereeing was horrible, yes I wanted the Titans to win for selfish Panther reasons, but some of the calls and non calls were outrageous.

Q. If the bunker can stop the game for a unseen high shot, why can’t they stop the game for a high shot penalty that CLEARLY didn’t touch the head or neck?

That call was a game changer…Titans kicked, got Papenhuazen inside his 20 and because the tackle was too rough on him with his mullet flying around, Cummins automatically penalises for a high shot…F@#$EN JOKE :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

Further more - with all these idiotic stats these days, why can’t these stats include “Ruck Time”??? The storm are specialists at manipulating the ruck. There was a tackle where Grant was first contact, held the ball and the ball carrying arm, 2 other blokes come in and work him over and the last person to let go was Grant, it was an 8 second hold…no 6 again either!!!

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Also He allowed Melbourne regularly leave a man lying in the ruck. This prevents the dummy half from playing that side of the ruck

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Agreed, Kev. Melbourne make a mockery of the ruck, with apparent impunity. You’d think that Cameron Smith was still refereeing.

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G’day greypanther, welcome. Yer there was another incident that i saw, again it was Grant i think, he was standing behind the 2nd marker and pushed him into the first marker, the Titans 1st marker turns to his 2nd marker with a “what the hell dude” and by the time they realised, the dummy half was off and gone.

If you watched any of Bellamy’s actual games he played, he was a grub as well, did anything he could to get an advantage…not in the spirit of the game, but these days it’s all about results. I don’t think IC has it in him to teach grubby tactics !

Well it may have taken a severe injury to a rooster player to bring to the fore of the masses the useless referees and bunker.
I hate the roosters with a passion but think Manu is a good player and a good guy. His season ending injury looks to be collateral damage of the pathetic officiating of our game.
We all know how useless Ashley Clown is and Henry Parmigiana has been a running joke forever. Now they have been exposed on a wider scale. Whilst I am no fan of Robinson what he had to stay (apart from the complaints about being the most penalised team - irrelevant in the circumstances) were spot on.

The hit was at best reckless, if not intentional, and was high & ‘with force’ to the head & he left the ground to make the contact. Even before the magic round would be an automatic send-off & the dickheads didn’t even want to penalise! Klein, Perenara & the touch judge on that side should have their contracts terminated immediately.
Can you imagine what would have happened if that had been a ‘tackle’ by our old mate Jack Hetherington - they would have brought the gallows out onto the field & hung him there & then.
All the crap that went on after that incident is on the match officials.

The NRL make all this noise about players welfare & we are seeing fines & suspensions for incidental slaps & bumps for fear of parents not wanting to let their kids play our game. What do they think will be the take on this ‘tackle’ & the vision of Manu’s face when shown over & over on TV and the internet.

Mitchell should get 6 weeks + loading minimum.

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I whole heartedly agree with everything you said mrwalker. Your reference to Jack speaks volumes of the NRL hypocrisy…different rules for different fools.

In addition, these new rules are allowing the grubs of the game to get away with their verbal bullshit. Codey Walker is an absolute piece of work who needs his gob shut. I was hoping one of the Roosters up and comers was going make a name for himself…but instead he gets all the plaudits for “Try Assists” passing the ball in a backline move is an expectation, not a try assist.

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I was surprised he wasn’t sent off. Manu is looking at sitting on the sidelines for the rest of the season with a badly fractured eye socket.

If there was ever a high shot this season that warranted a send off… that was it.

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Mitchell’s season is over. 6 weeks with an early plea, 9 if he fights it.

Can’t imagine that he could successfully contest or get a downgrade for charge of grade 2 reckless for that tackle - but…

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Where is Albert Pierrepoint when you need him? :grinning: :grinning: :grinning:

Ha. Had to look it up!

Hypocrisy is alive and well in NRL land. When Cleary tackled Jack Bird, dislodging the ball, the commentariat couldn’t stop talking about it, and they sure weren’t on Cleary’s side. But all the force in that collision came from Bird’s speed. Cleary was little more than bracing himself as Bird charged at him. In contrast, Mitchell provided all the impact on Manu, plus hit Manu in the head. Yet the Ch 9 mob seemed intent on talking down the Mitchell culpability. You know that the commentariat are going to tread softly is the player in question is typically referred to by this first name or nickname (Turbo, Latrell, Teddy, etc). Oh the frabjous joy of being such a star in a prestigious team.
I recall that when Mitchell first hit first grade, some illustrious bozo criticised him for being too soft. So he changed, and we regularly see the odious result.

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What is perhaps more surprising is we expect refs etc to improve.
The litany of mistakes, bad calls, missed calls continue as they have done since i have been watching the game despite all the technology including multiple camera angles, HD replays etc
The Mitchell incident was the latest travesty and his “grub” play has been manifesting all year and its not only his failure but the failure of Bennett to put corrective actions into place to fix his flaws.
To focus on Mitchell alone is to isolate him and hide the broader problem of refs and their calls.This includes lines people ,the bunker and the NRL heirachy who introduced a blitz in the “magic round” only for it to fizzle out over ensuing rounds and the media anger to be deployed when a “culprit” poked his head up.
We only have to go back to the Reynolds strip on Edwards in the Souths game for our last “bias” call against us
Its somewhat symptomatic of the larger game, its a “closed” school.

Can someone name a coach of an NRL team who has come from outside the "nrl "

Like all they do is recycle and move on the same coach from one location to another and this can be highlighted by the new QLD franchise targeting Bennet to be their coach.
Progressive hey???

Its a stain on the game we don’t have anyone of any talent who has come into the game from outside the NRL…i am sure there are many talented coaches or even people who would like to have a crack at coaching who could be given a go and what they bring to the game through innovation in training, skills, tactics etc

Let alone the ultimate resposnsibility in being an ambassador for their club and town.

Why don’t we overlay lines in replays to rule on forward passes…surely the technology is available

Apply the rules as they are written not interpreted, the rules are in the rules book for a reason…action simply what is written

And now we have the ultimate insult to our game, players becoming bad actors all soccer…feigning an injury only for the bunker to review and playing for a penalty

How about the NRL introduce a “sin bin” and a “fine” for anyone who feigns an injury and once the bunker reviews it and nothing happens…send them off

That will get their attention

So many things could be fixed and should be fixed but…not with the dopes running it at the moment

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Interesting

I would say the only way to fix the laying down is for the player who does it to go off the field, BUT you can’t leave his side short based on foul play, so the coaches will exploit the changes at certain times in the game for a free interchange. It is happening now, player goes for head bin check 20 before half time, the replacement goes on (free interchange) but when the head bin player is cleared and returns to the field, someone else goes off…It’s a joke - we even did it with Martin yesterday, Kikau came on but when Martin came back, Moses went off.

bend the rules, don’t break them !

If we want to compete with Storm and the like, we have to be able to
compete on a level playing field. That might require us to attempt something that we would not normally promote. If you want Bellamy’s belly to ache, fight fire with fire/ like with like, but do it well. “ But ‘sir’ they just did it to us”. The onus is then back on the whistle blowers?

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and another thing, I asked yesterday. Whatever happened to the flop ?

Man tackled on the ground, progress halted, third man in. Is all we get another set? If it’s constant shouldn’t the offender be dealt with 10 mins in the bin?

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The refs have taken the easy road on this one, six again or just ignore, depending on the teams. Harry Grant would not make a tackle if not for 3rd man in

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yes the $torm are the bench mark in ‘bending the rules’. Their regular ref (Sutton) is just part of their team. The other night he’s calling out “all off together” etc & you watch, one off slowly, then the next one & finally the 3rd one - rule-bend accomplished.
Also the step aside and ahead to take the markers out of play - even when they get pulled up, they still play it where the ended up, not going back to where the tackle was completed.
Not rising to their feet to play the ball is another of their tactics. If they rush it and misplay the ball, they invariably get a penalty.

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There is no way the refs would let the Panthers get away with the crap they let the storm get away with.

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