GF gripers should consider rub of the green

CONTROVERSIAL he may be, but Canberra coach Ricky Stuart deserves the respect of the rugby league public – and their admiration – for the manner in which he has outwardly accepted the dud call against his team on grand final night.

But while the Raiders, and their supporters, can whinge all they like about that tough call, the Green Machine was not robbed. They simply copped a bad decision.

During the 393 NRL matches played in season 2019, each would almost certainly have had a referee call that could DURKO’S DISSECTIONS have been construed as incorrect, or at least contentious.

And who knows – some may have cost a team a finals berth, and ultimately the premiership.

Referees are human, and as such will never be perfect. Their iffy decisions are called the rub of the green.

The two howlers in the grand final were – obviously – the change of mind on the sixagain call against the Raiders, and the sin-binning of Cooper Cronk. One was unfortunate; the other a shocker.

Yes, lead referee Ben Cummins clearly made a boo-boo in signalling six again with the score 8-6 to the Roosters, and Raiders five-eighth Jack Wighton no doubt immediately reacted to that. But having viewed the replay a number of times, I’m still not convinced Wighton wasn’t aware of the instantaneous change of call before he was tackled. Whether the Raiders would have gained an advantage from the correct decision – final tackle ruled immediately – is anyone’s guess.

Just as it is anyone’s guess whether Josh Papalii was prevented from scoring by the millisecond early tackle from Cronk. But losing a player of Cronk’s status for 10 minutes in a grand final is, without doubt, a far greater penalty than dying with the ball on the final tackle. The sin-binning was the shocker.

And, while I’m having a dig at the army of gripers, has everyone ignored the fact that when the Sia Soliola chargedown struck the Roosters trainer early in the match, Luke Keary had his legs taken from under him? Raiders fans cried foul about the decision to give the scrum feed to the Roosters but a penalty would have been the correct call.

Perfection out in the middle we will never achieve, and we are fools if we expect that. But those who run the game can take steps to make sure these blunders happen less often.

The first step is to revert to one referee. The second step is to have no one in his or her ear, unless they seek assistance.

In both bungled calls at the weekend, the lead referee made a decision based on unsolicited advice from his assistant. And with the Cronk sinbinning the video referee, not the man in charge, made the big call.

In other sports – cricket and tennis, for instance – technology may be a winner, but in rugby league it has caused nothing but drama.

Too many cooks are certainly spoiling the footy broth.