Two Referees : Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:58 am  

Hi guys...still in Townsville, Queensland. NRL started last week and must say the standards are immense from the two games I saw on TV. (so good to be in a country where RL is the top covered sport). Tomorrow night I go see my first live match..North Queensland Cowboys v Wests. Really looking forward to seeing the likes of Matty Bowan and Jeff Thurston playing for "my" home team...but will have split loyalties as Ellis will be playing for the opposition (Wests Tigers). It will be interesting to see how he performs.

Anyway the point of this posting is to mention the NRL is starting this season with TWO referees on the pitch for all games....it seems to work brilliantly. Less penalties need to be given as players are all aware they are under much closer scrutiny and don't 'offend'...makes for a much more free flowing game.
It would work wonders too in Superleague methinks...but would we have enough refs to go around.??

Will be watching how the boys go on against the pseudo-scousers....and hoping Scotty back on left with Senior. Smithy and Watkins on right for me...switching between centre and wing. Hall or Gibson on bench

Re: Two Referees : Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:18 am  

nantwichexile wrote:

Ellis will be playing for the opposition (Wests Tigers).

Ah, so thats where he went!

: Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:07 pm  

judging from the opening games of the NRL i think the 2 refs system is great, i think it should and eventually will be adopted as the standard across the RL world

p.s going by what was said on the footy show on the Thursday night they think highly of ellis, they say he had a cracker in round 1.

: Fri Mar 20, 2009 1:48 pm  

Having two referees didn't stop them missing a blatant knock on at the play the ball that resulted in the winning try to the Broncos today. Even then had the decision gone to the video referee (which it had to but didn't) it would have been reversed in a Harrogan heartbeat.

Aussie referees are that bad they need two of them out there to be just as shit as one of their SL counterparts.

It has certainly helped to improve the NRL which had become pretty turgid at times but the errors are even more unacceptable now than they were before.

Of course they could have improved the game without this extra expense simply by instructing the officials to penalise the wrestle where it was warranted.