Refs get it wrong as game suffers

THE practice of referees assuming the role of choreographers, or puppetmasters, is the worst it has ever been in the NRL.

The 50-50 calls tend to go in favour of the team down the ladder, as opposed to the process we saw 20-30 years ago where referees would check the penalty count at halftime and adjust accordingly in the second half.

Watch any game today between a top-of-the-ladder team and one down the bottom and it’s the team in need of premiership points that tends to get the favourable calls. And the penalties come in bursts of the whistle.

This is not to say referees are cheats. Having witnessed some of the biased and blatant decisionmaking of the centre men of the 1970s and ’80s, today’s whistleblowers are inherently fair. They are decent, fit, highly knowledgeable people, dedicated to the game.

Perhaps too dedicated. Their weakness is a subconscious need to be party to an even contest, to avert blowouts.

They seem to believe they have an obligation to the NRL to present a thrilling TV product, or a close result for spectators.

Champion Data’s penalty counts to the end of round 22 demonstrate this. The Storm, on top of the premiership ladder, led the table for number of penalties conceded, with 150.

Wests Tigers, second from the bottom on the ladder, had conceded the least number of penalties, with 110.

Defending premiers Cronulla are third in terms of penalties conceded, while the 14th-placed Titans and 16th-placed Knights, are mid-table in terms of penalties conceded.

Do we really believe the best teams win by flouting the rules?

The six-tackle rule, the convention where the scoring team receives the ball from the kick-off, together with the superb fitness that comes with fulltime training, means momentum has never been a more powerful force in games.

Award a bottom-of-the-ladder side a string of penalties and it can score three or four quick tries, as the Sea Eagles did last round, playing the No 2 team, the Roosters.

The process is exacerbated when the top teams begin to panic, frustrated by the inconsistency, and concede silly penalties, thereby awarding more possession to the low-on-theladder team.

Referees have become more empowered and players less so because of the refusal to punish the attacking player for failing to play the ball with his foot. Playthe-balls proceed with the attacking player rolling the Steeden between his legs.

Roosters forward Jared Waerea-Hargreaves may well complete the season without touching the ball once with his foot in the ruck.

Failure to play the ball properly places a major burden on the defence. The defending team is not permitted to move forward until the ball ‘‘clears the ruck’’, which effectively means when it passes the heel of the man playing it.

Most coaches tell their players to move up the instant the man playing the ball touches it with his foot. But if he slips it between his legs, where is the trigger for the defence to move forward?

If a referee stands the defensive team back 12 metres and allows the attacking team to play tunnel ball, any team down the bottom of the NRL ladder can score a succession of tries and panic a top team.

The momentum is simply impossible to stop. It’s like trying to sweep back an incoming tide with a straw broom.

The move to two referees has made matters worse. With one referee, there was some consistency with poorly enforced 10 metres. But with two referees, players have to adjust to two mindsets.

There is merit in the suggestion of Canberra coach Ricky Stuart, that referees become accountable at press conferences. That is, they front up after games, like coaches, and cop the hard questions.

It will never happen because the NRL prefers the refs are anonymous. Yet theirs are the first names coaches look for when the officials and opposition players are named for a forthcoming game. The Sun-Herald