NRL ease up on penalty crackdown

T

Tweed_Tiger

Well-known member
https://wwos.nine.com.au/2018/06/12/11/58/nrl-ease-up-on-referees-penalty-crackdown?ocid=Social-WWOS

The NRL has backed down in the face of criticism, announcing the refereeing crackdown will be eased.

NRL CEO Todd Greenberg said on Tuesday referees have now been instructed to find a better balance and not to nitpick.

Greenberg and NRL referees boss Bernard Sutton have come in for heavy criticism this season after referees were instructed to clean up the play-the-ball and more strictly police the 10 metres while teams are defending on their own goalline.

The crackdown resulted in a substantial increase in penalties and sin bins, drawing the ire of fans and influential media figures as games became stop-start.

"There has been a tendency for the referees to continue to nitpick," Greenberg said.

"So we've got to be really careful that we find the balance. We want to see the flow of the game continue.

"There has been a lot of penalties in the first half of the year. I am desperately keen to find that balance.

"I don't want referees looking for penalties.
 
We can only hope that the ref's stick to this memo from the boss.
An open free flowing game is far more exciting, than the stuff we've been subjected to watch for the first half of the season.
 
Nit picking it only took Greenberg 14 rounds to wake up that the refs were destroying the game.
 
Not happy with the way some players are speaking to referee's, MUST sin bin them immediately and get some respect back
 
I dont think this augurs well for us.
We already have a hard enough time scoring points….if oppositions are allowed to slow us down more that makes it tougher for us.

On the flip side, hopefully we arent hammered as much as we have been and we can use this to tighten our defence even more
 
One key part of the statement appears to be missing:

"I don't want referees looking for penalties. With the exception of the Wests Tigers, whom will continue to be penalised to death"

Don't know how they left that part out of the press release.
 
@ said:
I dont think this augurs well for us.
We already have a hard enough time scoring points….if oppositions are allowed to slow us down more that makes it tougher for us.

On the flip side, hopefully we arent hammered as much as we have been and we can use this to tighten our defence even more
Click to expand...

But also many teams have learned to give away penalties and back their goal-line defence, also for penalties to provide short rests.

Better for tigers to face tired defences?
 
I think defences will be less tired…hard to tell until we see just what they do.
They did say theyd ref Origin the same as NRL....we all know now that was a load of bull dust
 
The main problem with referring quality over the last few years is too much instruction from head office, especially the CEO.

The best refs imo were the period where Harrigan, McCallum, Stone, Annesley were the top refs. The difference was the were accountable for the whole game - no pocket ref or bunker and they adjudicated based on their own judgement and context of how the game was being executed.

They weren't infallible of course, and I know the game is a bit quicker now, but they were in proper control of the game and the players knew if they stepped out of line there would be a lot of penalties - if they behaved the game would flow.
 
Tough call to make. Dammed if you do dammed if you don't.

I sometimes think that Harrigan was bad for ref's. He was applauded by most for his ability to allow a game to flow. And I guess he has been judged by many as one of the best ref of the modern era. Many refs have tried to replicate since.

Problem is that when you allow refs the ability to apply discretion there will always be a side unhappy with the ruling and possibly resulting in points. It will never be consistent or constant and there for the refs will have a bearing on the outcome. You will also have teams looking to bend the rules and most will get away with it.

i can cop discretion, if for example the team with the ball, don't put their foot on the ball when playing, but I can't cop discretion for markers not standing square or the defence inside the ten and wrestling in the tackle.
 
13 tries & only 10 penalties tonite… 3 within a 2 minute block.... Was a very open game
Not sure what that does for us
 
@ said:
13 tries & only 10 penalties tonite… 3 within a 2 minute block.... Was a very open game
Not sure what that does for us
Click to expand...

It will be interesting on Sunday.

I am very interested to see Panthers line speed tomorrow.
 
They've always been offside… Good linespeed but constant offside makes it even harder to attack against as we saw
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Staff online

Members online

Total: 1,437 (members: 26, guests: 1,411)
Back
Top