Our Relationship with the Referees

[fibrodreaming]

A number of our supporters have claimed that the referees are biased against us and that we never get the rub of the green.

Looking at the stats one thing is clear. Since the resumption, if we get our share of the penalties and set restarts (S/R), we win.

Even for the matches we have lost, if we get our share in one half of football, we win that half. For example:

1 Against the Raiders we led at the break with penalties/SR roughly even. In the second half the Raiders received double the penalties (6 to our 3) and score the winning try when we had Packer in the bin. Two of their second half penalties came from Packer brain explosions.

2 Against the Panthers we led at the break with penalties/SR roughly even. In the second half the Panthers received an unbelievable 9 penalties to our 2. They still struggled to beat us, which is a tribute to our defence.

3 Against Souths, unlike the above two, it was our first half that killed us. Souths got 3 S/R to our zero and 5 penalties to our 1. When these evened up in the second half, we won that half. Too little to late.

Even in the two matches we have dominated against the Dogs and the Broncos, the set restarts and penalties were roughly shared. No advantage from the officials there.

So, we are a team that rarely gets better than parity in S/R and penalties and are often on the wrong end of a lop-sided count. When that happens, we invariably lose.

These stats are reflected in the possession stats. Since the resumption we have played 8 matches and we have only enjoyed better than 50% possession in two of them – against the Dogs (58%) and the Donkeys (56%). In the other 6 matches we have had less than 50% possession. Against the Titans we had only 45% possession mainly because we were caned in the S/R and penalties in that game. It’s tough to beat even a modest opponent with so little ball.

I can’t believe the refs are biased and are trying to bring us down.

It has to be something to do with the way we play. How is it, for example, that the Dogs and the Donkeys didn’t give away loads of penalties and S/Rs when we were flogging them ? It must be something to do with our discipline.

If we are to win consistently we have to work out why we concede so many penalties and set restarts and do something about it. We have shown that if we receive our fair share of these we usually win.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Every supporter base thinks the refs hate them. Emotion clouds hindsight.

 

[Geo]

Hold the football helps..

Against the Donks we were 17/19 at one point in the 1st half and our 2 errors came on the Donkeys line

In games we struggled our completions have been no where near that and errors occurred in our own half

When we control the ball crook refs decisions are able to be somewhat negated..

 

[fibrodreaming]

Hold the football helps…

Good point about completions, but there must be some other problem with our discipline.

In the last 20 minutes of the game, we were leading 42 - 0 and the Broncos started around 7 sets in their own half. The ref awarded them 4 set restarts. On two of the four occasions we were bashing them on their own line - they were going nowhere - and they got set restarts.

It irritates me. If the match were in the balance then these sorts of indiscretions can swing the match against us.

 

[Tiger_Steve]

Hold the football helps..

Against the Donks we were 17/19 at one point in the 1st half and our 2 errors came on the Donkeys line

In games we struggled our completions have been no where near that and errors occurred in our own half

When we control the ball crook refs decisions are able to be somewhat negated..

Been saying this forever.

Our greatest problem is our unforced error rate - and the stats don’t tell the full story. It’s not just the count, it’s when and where the error occurs

 

[old_man_tiger]

Thanks for the analysis, maybe it isn't bias. Does feel like it sometimes, but I never thought we'd flog the donkeys (Or anyone) with Gee as ref.

 

[jirskyr]

I think also, when you have a new coach who is trying to develop a new style, it can make the team more error or penalty-prone. Madge has only coached Tigers for about 35 games and they players are still learning his style.

Esp. when you are a middleweight team like us, I reckon the players are trying harder to control the tempo of the game, work hard in defence and sometimes we overdo it.

 

[Fade.To.Black]

When was the last time we got a massive leg-up from the refs? Cannot even remember TBH.
Panthers got a nice rails-run from Cummins today, some very questionable decisions. They make the difference between winning and losing most games that aren't blowouts.

 

[TYGA]

No one has said it but the set restarts are the best thing to happen to West’s Tigers. We used to get penalised late in sets creating red zone opportunities for opponents. At the same time we get more penalties when the game is gone or 2 metres in from touch.

We are not part of the strategic footprint in the inner west the long term plan was for our area to be swallowed up by Parramatta and the Bulldogs.
West’s have put an end to that debate it won’t happen.

The other team the NRL has zero interest in surviving is the Sharks. They want St George to swallow them up also.

We still get held down longer than opponents and get called for the slightest infringements but that’s mostly due to being a historically inferior team.

 

[TheDaBoss]

I don't think they are biased

Just have become very very inconsistent

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

I'd like to think that we become the type of team that doesn't require all the referees decisions to go our way to win the game. Hold on to the ball, constantly turn up in defence and keep the opposition pinned at their end of the field will go a long way to achieving that. In saying that, it's hard when in for example the Penrith game you have two of your players taken out by the opposition which means your side ends up gassed and making more mistakes and taking liberties in the ruck.

 

[jirskyr]

I’d like to think that we become the type of team that doesn’t require all the referees decisions to go our way to win the game.

I said the same last week after Souths - win despite the refs, be in every match to the 80th minute. If you compete for 80 minutes every week, it's likely that the odd bad ref decision or bounce of the ball doesn't stop you from playing finals football.

If your form peaks and dips every round and you scrape through your wins, then yeah those calls can hurt you.

It's the same mentality of some fans who say "gosh if only we'd won that [insert close result] game we could be playing finals football", ignoring the 5 or 6 floggings we got during the same season. Like 2019, bemoaning how we couldn't lift for the Sharkies game in Rd 25, which is one thing, but what about the twin beltings handed out to us by Parra? 2019 was torpedoed once we lost 51-6 in Rd 6 at the Bankwest opening.

 

[Cultured_Bogan]

I’d like to think that we become the type of team that doesn’t require all the referees decisions to go our way to win the game.

I said the same last week after Souths - win despite the refs, be in every match to the 80th minute. If you compete for 80 minutes every week, it's likely that the odd bad ref decision or bounce of the ball doesn't stop you from playing finals football.

If your form peaks and dips every round and you scrape through your wins, then yeah those calls can hurt you.

It's the same mentality of some fans who say "gosh if only we'd won that [insert close result] game we could be playing finals football", ignoring the 5 or 6 floggings we got during the same season. Like 2019, bemoaning how we couldn't lift for the Sharkies game in Rd 25, which is one thing, but what about the twin beltings handed out to us by Parra? 2019 was torpedoed once we lost 51-6 in Rd 6 at the Bankwest opening.

I cannot argue with any of that, and am in total agreement. Admittedly I bemoaned the referees in the Souths and Penrith games, but that revolved heavily around their policing of how players were fouled more than anything. Still befuddled at how BJ can coathanger someone off the ball, get sent off and get four weeks, and Latrell smacks someone in the back of the and gets half the time when doing the same thing in the street can get you gaoled for 15 years. I'm aware what happens on a footy field and in society is policed differently, but not sure how an illegal tackle (BJ,) versus striking (Latrell,) are policed so differently.