: Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:26 pm  

Ganson sin-binned Sam Tomkins for agreeing with his decision. I shudder to think what would have happened to him if he'd disagreed.

: Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:43 pm  

DoubleAone wrote:

A "good" ref needs dialogue with players and should talk all the time

BUT IMHO it should generally be a one way street.

There is no good reason for a player to talk to the ref and if he does talk then he is not concentrating on playing.

The exception is the captain can seek clarification but thats not to say he should do so on each and every occassion.

I think there's a difference between talking to a referee and showing dissent or disputing a decision. If a player wants to know why a particular decision was given I don't think it's out of the question for a referee to quickly explain it to him whether he's the captain or not.

You have to develop a working relationship with the players and a little dialogue goes a long way to achieving it and cutting down on the back chat.

[Matt_Horton]

: Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:54 pm  

tvoc wrote:

Ganson sin-binned Sam Tomkins for agreeing with his decision. I shudder to think what would have happened to him if he'd disagreed.

He sin binned Tomkins for his sarcastic clapping of a decision. Bit of a difference.

: Tue Jul 28, 2009 1:05 pm  

League games are relatively meaningless to a team convinced that they'll finish in the top 2 so there's little incentive for the players to be cautious about giving away cheap penalties. What's the betting that discipline improves hugely once the play offs start, or when/if the top 2 finish appears to be under threat?

: Tue Jul 28, 2009 1:07 pm  

Clearwing wrote:

League games are relatively meaningless to a team convinced that they'll finish in the top 2 so there's little incentive for the players to be cautious about giving away cheap penalties. What's the betting that discipline improves hugely once the play offs start, or when/if the top 2 finish appears to be under threat?

Indiscipline, like losing, is habit forming.

It's much easier to get it right from week one of the season and stay on that path than it is to suddenly try and put it right when the important games come around.

: Tue Jul 28, 2009 1:28 pm  

Clearwing wrote:

League games are relatively meaningless to a team convinced that they'll finish in the top 2 so there's little incentive for the players to be cautious about giving away cheap penalties. What's the betting that discipline improves hugely once the play offs start, or when/if the top 2 finish appears to be under threat?

this has been the straw I have been clutching at for a few weeks now, if one of the statos could bring together the penalty counts from the play off games for the last 2 years compared to the averages for the main season ones produced yesterday

: Tue Jul 28, 2009 1:50 pm  

It could be this bad.

It could be this bad.

: Tue Jul 28, 2009 2:04 pm  

Oldham Rhino wrote:

He sin binned Tomkins for his sarcastic clapping of a decision. Bit of a difference.

Not from the pictures I saw. The sarcastic clapping must have been off camera.

A thank you thumbs up gesture is what I saw from Tomkins.

Ganson is a law unto himself. He bins Tomkins (from Wigan is he?) for less than nothing and allows Jones-Buchanan to erupt in front of him late on at Wakefield and does nothing.

: Tue Jul 28, 2009 2:38 pm  

Andy Gilder wrote:

Indiscipline, like losing, is habit forming.

It's much easier to get it right from week one of the season and stay on that path than it is to suddenly try and put it right when the important games come around.

I used to think that and although it probably still applies for many mid-lower table teams I'm not so sure it's the case for the top ones. It seems to me that the better teams are focusing more & more on the playoffs, both mentally and physically. This goes right through the team's performance, from discipline though to commitment and fitness and has given the (in my opinion) erroneous impression that the league's becoming more even. Anyway, we'll know one way or another come the end of the season whether this theory holds water. I fully expect Leeds and Saints to be the main players, both having cut out disciplinary shortcomings and other frailties evident during the regular season.