He's been the best ref in this country, northern hemisphere if you like, for donkey's years. seven challenge cup finals speaks for itself. I watched him from very early in his career when my old man mentored him & although he's been controversial at times he's always had the balls to make decisions. Some of the things that have been brought in over recent years have allowed match officials to coward out rather, such as "on report" & "go to the screen" instead of allowing them to give things as they see them occur. I am also convinced that the disciplinary panel have become more lenient to offenders in the SL era to protect the product on the field, certainly at SL level, this actually dilutes slightly the way a referee can meter out punishments if sub-conciously they know a player won't be banned with justification, more often than not nowadays the ruling is either "not guilty" or "no case to answer".
But in fairness to Gans, when he drops a clanger, they're usually of Colin Morris enormity. Who the hell is there coming through to replace the current crop of top tier referee's ????
Good luck Gans, you've been worth the entrance fee alone on some occassions.