Re: Don't like threads purely about referees but... : Fri Feb 06, 2015 10:58 am  

mean_machine wrote:

For me, both incidents were worthy of a yellow card. Ah van you can see wasn't deliberate or malicious i don't believe so yellow would of been fair. Same with smith, petulant but a sending off? really? not for me. I can see why ah van did get a red however in the laws of the game, but interpretation is by individual i guess.

It's a sad indication of the psyche of the rugby league supporter at the moment as a general consensus is to just bag the ref. All I saw on twitter last night was new era, same refs bla bla bla and then 7 pages of moaning about how bad refs are. We should be focusing on what an excellent game it was, a great skill level we had and great fightback, yet people are only interested in moaning about the ref. Why has rugby league become so cynical?

People are getting incredulous at the Refs already, 1 game in. Give it a rest man and enjoy the game. As seen by this thread the events are interpreted differently all the time, which was what happened last night. If the Ref misses a knock on, foot in touch etc and carries on they should be accountable but for the making split second opinion based decisions there has to be understanding and reasoning, which it seems for most RL fans blind outrage has overtaken.

It has snowballed to the point that people genuinely believe in a red hall conspiracy, or that the reason their team lost was because of the ref. Forget about the missed tackles, dropped balls and stupid players making bad decisions - it's the ref's fault. It's embarrassing.

..

Apart from the claim that it is for "most" RL fans, I'd say that was pretty much spot on. If you'd said "most fans on social media" then you'd be right. And yes, it's embarrassing.

Because I like to watch the rugby, not sit there with a notebook and keyboard, desperate for some perceived refereeing error to salivate about, I actually enjoyed the match very much, it was very physical, and Widnes did great to claw their way to a draw, plenty of emotion, and incident, plenty of commitment and passion. Unless you believe that all officials must be impossibly 100% perfect at all times in all they do, the officials did fine, as ever there were decisions you can say you disagree with or things you think they missed but they are human and so are you, the fact you're on a forum doesn't mean you're right and the ref was wrong. It is great to discuss and analyse but unhealthy and a bit weird to obsess. A lot on here are waaaaaaay on the wrong side of that line.

Re: Don't like threads purely about referees but... : Fri Feb 06, 2015 11:01 am  

Was looking forward to the opening night but now so sad that all we are talking about all the ref.That idiot should never have been elavated to the pro game. The fans in East hull don,t want him near Craven park.

Re: Don't like threads purely about referees but... : Fri Feb 06, 2015 11:20 am  

mean_machine wrote:

For me, both incidents were worthy of a yellow card. Ah van you can see wasn't deliberate or malicious i don't believe so yellow would of been fair. Same with smith, petulant but a sending off? really? not for me. I can see why ah van did get a red however in the laws of the game, but interpretation is by individual i guess.

It's a sad indication of the psyche of the rugby league supporter at the moment as a general consensus is to just bag the ref. All I saw on twitter last night was new era, same refs bla bla bla and then 7 pages of moaning about how bad refs are. We should be focusing on what an excellent game it was, a great skill level we had and great fightback, yet people are only interested in moaning about the ref. Why has rugby league become so cynical?

People are getting incredulous at the Refs already, 1 game in. Give it a rest man and enjoy the game. As seen by this thread the events are interpreted differently all the time, which was what happened last night. If the Ref misses a knock on, foot in touch etc and carries on they should be accountable but for the making split second opinion based decisions there has to be understanding and reasoning, which it seems for most RL fans blind outrage has overtaken.

It has snowballed to the point that people genuinely believe in a red hall conspiracy, or that the reason their team lost was because of the ref. Forget about the missed tackles, dropped balls and stupid players making bad decisions - it's the ref's fault. It's embarrassing.

PS - who keep's feeding Joel Tomkins skittles.

I think the reason people bag the ref so much is because it's all the 'commentators' do throughout the ENTIRE match. Why even have Cummings in the studio? He is there because the refereeing decisions are all they talk about and it drives me crazy.
Every once in a while Eddie will make a feeble attempt to actually call the game, before Stevo or one of the other numpties will chime in about some foul play that deserved to be a penalty.

It's the first game of the season and I'm already fed up of them. I can't wait for the NRL season to start so I can actually watch some rugby matches where the commentators just call the game in front of them.

Re: Don't like threads purely about referees but... : Fri Feb 06, 2015 11:45 am  

I actually don't think Child got those 2 incidents wrong. In previous years the Ah Van sending off would never have been a red but this is 2015 and with the new rules I don't think Child had any other option.
His overall performance though was shocking, and his officiating of the ruck was especially poor. It also seems that every game he's involved in boils over and he loses complete control of it, and it's clear to me the players don't respect him.

Anyway, enough about the ref and back to the RL, and well played Widnes on a great result. It was an entertaining start to the season, and the overall quality was better than the majority of opening games seen in the last few years.
Wigan were generally poor, and despite all the physical brovado from the likes of Clubb, Bateman, and the 'Polynesian with the ponytail' their pack wasn't up to much, which taking the game in isolation is worrying for them because on paper Widnes have one of the weaker packs in the competition and they managed to handle Wigan quite well overall.

Re: Don't like threads purely about referees but... : Fri Feb 06, 2015 11:47 am  

Before Cummings was in the studio, it was still always talk of the referees, nothing has changed and reason they are talked about is because they are so incompetant!
I decided not to renew my SKY sports package this year due to the fact that watching SL is shocking, one game in and all the talk is about the ref, it's a joke! I nearly talked myself round into purchasing it again yesterday, glad I didnt! Watched it a friends house and I wont be rushing round to watch many more game. Roll on the NRL!

Re: Don't like threads purely about referees but... : Fri Feb 06, 2015 11:49 am  

You know Child has had a nightmare game when even Robert Hicks is telling him what to do....

Re: Don't like threads purely about referees but... : Fri Feb 06, 2015 11:58 am  

Nothus wrote:

I think the reason people bag the ref so much is because it's all the 'commentators' do throughout the ENTIRE match. Why even have Cummings in the studio? He is there because the refereeing decisions are all they talk about and it drives me crazy.
Every once in a while Eddie will make a feeble attempt to actually call the game, before Stevo or one of the other numpties will chime in about some foul play that deserved to be a penalty.

It's the first game of the season and I'm already fed up of them. I can't wait for the NRL season to start so I can actually watch some rugby matches where the commentators just call the game in front of them.

I agree! You'd think that after watching the game for so long the other 3 blokes in the commentary box would have a strong enough grasp of the rules to be able to explain it to the viewer.

Re: Don't like threads purely about referees but... : Fri Feb 06, 2015 12:03 pm  

Charlie Sheen wrote:

I agree! You'd think that after watching the game for so long the other 3 blokes in the commentary box would have a strong enough grasp of the rules to be able to explain it to the viewer.

As I put earlier, what other sports broadcasts are manned by such an inept commentary team that they need to bring in an ex-ref to correct them every time they fly off the handle and incorrectly knock a decision? It's bizarre.

It should be such a simple concept. One professional commentating and telling the audience what's going on, and one expert giving their opinion on the GAME, & informing the audience on intracacies which they may miss.

They're like a bunch of fans watching it at the pub. Fkn awful.

There wouldn;t be half as much chatter about James Child if it wasn't for the Sky team wittering on about it all game and the cameras zooming in on Child's face.

Re: Don't like threads purely about referees but... : Fri Feb 06, 2015 12:26 pm  

The ref was very poor, both with the big decisions but also throughout the game.

But what annoyed me more was the fact it's the season opener, it's our big kick off of the season, Widnes had done their bit by getting a big crowd in and then what do we do?
Put it on a Thursday night and Sky have a section of their pre-match dedicated to refereeing and the "new" rules/interpretations. It was also done incredibly amateurishly.
Then we have the delight of Stuart Cummings all through the game again. Meaning every red decision that's not 100% is debated by 4 bloody people.
If Sky want to discuss the rules then get Stuart Cummings on Boots n All. There's no need and no place for it on the pre-match build-up to the season opener. Should be all about the clubs and the players not the refs.

Sky's saving grace, as ever, is Wells & Carney. Sadly not given enough time.

Re: Don't like threads purely about referees but... : Fri Feb 06, 2015 12:45 pm  

Things need putting into perspective a little here, First off the most difficult job on that pitch is that of the ref. He has to control and manage 26 hard, aggressive men who are trying to knock seven bells out of each other. While doing that he is expected to also follow every on the ball and off the ball incident and make the right calls at all times.

He does this to a backdrop of aggressive Supporters ( and in the amateur game parents ) who wont miss a single thing that happens to their players or kids, while seeming able to explain away every infringement their own team commits. Anyone who has reffed, be it at under 8's in the North west counties or at the top level will tell you it is nightmare job. I have reffed only between the ages of u7's and u9's and i die a little inside each time im forced to do it, forced by the fact that if i dont, 20 odd kids dont get to play rugby on that sunday.

At the end of that match, i will be criticized by parents, players and coaches from both teams for the things i miss. I have only ever once received a compliment at the end of a game regardless of how the game goes. comments like " how did you miss that shot off the ball!" are pretty common or, " They are always offside", " How did you miss that knock on, i saw it clear as day ". Newsflash guys, while you are concentrating solely on either your child ( at Amateur ) or your team ( Professional ) the ref is trying to concentrate on every player on the pitch. While policing the Defensive line, he is trying to control the play the ball, the markers. He is trying to keep his eye on the kid who has lost his temper and is looking for trouble, all the while he is surrounded by people screaming at him that he is doing a poor Job. In many cases he is getting Verbal abuse of the kind most people wouldnt dream to use outside of the Rugby enviroment.

And all the time he is, Alone trying to control those 26 Aggressive, Powerful rugby players intent on smashing each other. Had that game not been live no one would have batted an eyelid at Ahh vans sending off, He hit high and left a player unconscious. But sky have 27 cameras and 400,000 experts to judge that decision.

My main issue with the Officiating at the game last night was how little help referees seem to get from touch judges, you remember when a touch judge helps make a decision because they are so rare. Seriously the guys at Sky dont help, the 400,000 experts watching sky sports dont help neither do the hundreds of negative posts on the net that seem solely intent on talking only about the referee.

Think you could do a better job? from around march the 1st hundreds of games will be getting played all over the country as junior rugby league starts again. There will be refs available for very few of them, but for every one person who is willing to do that role so others can enjoy their sport, there will be litterally hundreds of people just waiting to abuse them as an outlet for their lack of understanding of both the rules and the pressures of refereeing a sport like this.

I will do it again, and i hate it, and i will get abuse, threatened and want to give it up. Ask why there are not many great refs in Rugby league and then have a go yourself. You will never ask that question again.