: Tue May 19, 2009 9:05 pm  

Windy one wrote:

Our gripe is not with the fans/clubs of Saints/wakey and les cats. Rfl would not have homer ref against anyone else or am I being paranoid

Yup. You're being paranoid! I'm sure Wigan said the same thing when Ganson reffed our match in Scotland or Leeds when he reffed one of our matches last season (oops - we won that one too!).

I don't think we have enough refs, do we, to make sure that a team is never matched up with a ref from the same town?

And besides, it gives us a chance to try out our bribery skills, which we need to do this Friday, that's for sure!

: Tue May 19, 2009 9:07 pm  

Prince of Denmark wrote:

Ganson comes across as enjoying the spotlight more than a referee ought to, but I do trust him to be impartial, probably more so than any other ref as he seems to be less swayed by a partisan home crowd than any other, Headingley last month once again being a prime example.

He's got balls has Ganson.

: Tue May 19, 2009 9:13 pm  

SaintsFan wrote:

He's got balls has Ganson.

He'll never be forgiven for the World Cup penalty try. Good lad, nearly excuses Wakefield last season.

: Wed May 20, 2009 8:12 am  

In Cullenspeak "control the controllables". As long as the players take care of what they are doing who has the whistle shouldn't matter.

: Wed May 20, 2009 3:49 pm  

Prince of Denmark wrote:

My only gripe with Ganson is that he's too cavalier and seems to enjoy giving controversial interpretations of incidents when he might have just done nothing - a recent prime example being to disallow Scott Donald's try against Quins at Headingley last month. He may well have got it right, but it would have been much easier to do nothing and let the try stand, which is what I suspect a majority of the other SL refs would have done.

There was nothing cavalier at all about it. The TV replays showed that Donald was offside. But you suggest he should have done the easier thing and given a deliberate wrong decision

I've plenty of issues about the way Ganson referees but I'd never accuse him of taking an easy option.

: Wed May 20, 2009 4:12 pm  

BroncOnIon wrote:

There was nothing cavalier at all about it. The TV replays showed that Donald was offside. But you suggest he should have done the easier thing and given a deliberate wrong decision

I've plenty of issues about the way Ganson referees but I'd never accuse him of taking an easy option.

No, I'm not suggesting he should have, just that other refs would have taken the soft option and let it go. I didn't word my original post very well. That was an example of Ganson at his best - having the balls to be decisive. On other occasions he appears to overly relish giving slightly obscure interpretaions of the laws.

Re: Oh dear...the ref for Friday is..... : Wed May 20, 2009 4:14 pm  

Homer wrote:

Don't get all this whinging about where ref's come from and why we should not be reffed by them, Catalans [a French side] get reffed by English refs nearly every week when the halibut isn't down for them, do they whinge?

Yes, we do, inscessantly. It's worse when you talk to the France-based speccies (but you have to take into account that 90% of the SL games they watch are Catalan matches, so they have never seen a SL match from a neutral PoV. Doesn't stop them winging though).

: Wed May 20, 2009 4:16 pm  

London 20 v 20 Hull FC
Year: 2003
Round: 17
Date: 5th July 2003
Attendance: 4,151
Referee: Steve Ganson (St Helens)

Never....and I mean never have I seen a more blatant bit of "selective reffing" in my life....and I probably never will. Robbed, pure and simple.

: Wed May 20, 2009 4:30 pm  

Dave Lister wrote:

:SLEEPY:

You have to be the dullest poster on here. Just reading that hurt my head.

As PP pointed out, its not difficult to keep refs away from their home town team if neccessary and then nobody has any reason to complain.

People don't have any reason to complain as it is, but they still do.

It might not be difficult to keep Refs away from their home town games but it's actually even easier just to let them ref any game at all, with no consideration whatsoever, other than whatever Mr Cummings and his crew choose to use ie merit, relative experience, strengths/weaknesses of individuals, current form. Where they live is irrelevant.

If people think there's a problem with it, it's their problem. Why should the RFL match officials dep't have to consider other peoples misguided beliefs when selecting Refs? It's best man for the job and nowt else. Where else do we stop - Yorkshire Refs not being allowed to ref games betwen a Yorks team and a non-Yorks team? Ridiculous you say? Why? The same accusations could be levelled here, no? The reality is Refs dont give a toss who is playing as indeed do most speccies, except those who follow the two teams in question and therein lies a hint as to where the problem lies.

: Wed May 20, 2009 4:39 pm  

Mr Sheen wrote:

Let's get a cockney ref first before we complain about conspiracy.

IF I SAY YOU WEREN'T STRAIGHT...YOU WEREN'T STRAIGHT RIGHT!!!!