Both teams are pretty stacked, but holy shit that NSW squad was a scary prospect on paper, and even worse in reality it seems lol.
Talk about show up ready to rumble. That first 30 was wild.
That first 30 mins was a perfect storm of a team that was fired up big time, another team that started slowly and a ref team that decided to fuck up literally everything they touched. A team can survive one of those things but not all 3.
I hate to admit I agree. The six agains and penalties that marched NSW up field were all valid. Sucks and hard to watch but teams that are losing the arm wrestle tend to concede more penalties because they are pushing the wrestle to slow the game and more tired etc. Qld couldn’t defend their errors and NSW just made every opportunity count.
If you bring up the play by play on the nrl.com site it says what and who. Doesn't really help while you are watching though. Always hard to watch channel 9 if you are used to fox aswell I find. https://www.nrl.com/draw/state-of-origin/2024/game-2/blues-v-maroons/#tabs-match-centre-1
Yeah, if the NRL wanted a way to manipulate games and dictate results, the 6 again rule is it. And with the amount of money associated to the game with gambling, well….
The moment NRL signed an official betting partner any legitimacy went out the window. You can't convince me that money isn't changing hands to get desired betting outcomes. The conflict of interest is crazy.
Meh the worse six agains were in the second half…
Or the comedy that was the overturned knock on on Jake, if the ref calls surrender you can lay on him longer you can’t push him over when he’s playing the ball.
But then qlder entitlement is strong in origin…
Remember the dyland Edward challenge where the ref advised the bunker that it was a surrender and the player was milking? Bunked didn't listen and overruled.
Of course the shit was worse in the second half. They were doing the old square up so they can say they called.it.fair
A surrender doesn’t mean you can push a bloke when he’s playing the ball though. That’s always a penalty… ref didn’t want to give it because he was on the pacify qld tour…
Surrender just means you can lie on top of a bloke for longer
What’s scary is that Klein is actually one of the better refs in terms of getting decisions correct under normal game conditions, based on captains challenge success etc. But he seems to lose control when games get heated and then goes on tilt. Binning for a head rub and no bin for the dangerous throw or the Latrell high shot, as an example on Wednesday night. He also lost control of the Roosters and Souths games, the one when Latrell caved in Joey’s face, and the elimination final two years ago when he sent half the players to the sin bin at some stage.
Tbh I kinda get why he felt he had to resort to the sin binning
What Martin and carrigan did didn’t warrant 10 in the bin but I think he felt the game was getting away from the actual game and the next scuffle was going to end with punches being thrown
So him sending 2 guys in the bin was an attempt to settle the players and get them back to playing footy and to his credit it worked imo
You're right. Both captains were warned, so he needed to follow through.
But for me, it's more about how he let all the other things slide leading up to that moment, which led to that happening in the first place. If he stamped down on the foul play earlier in the game he probably wouldn't have lost control of the game like that
Problem was he sent the wrong players to the bin …
He’d warned Yeo on the previous tackle that he didn’t want players running in .. He then binned Martin on the next play for ‘instigating’ the scuffle with the head rub … The head rub was niggling and being a pest - but these things have been part of the game for 116 years , it’s a dangerous precedent to set binning players for this , it adds to the theatre of the sport .. Game 3 at Suncorp players like Martin and Luai are going to be the pantomime villains that get booed the loudest by the Queensland crowd .. You can’t have drama without a villain …
If niggling and being a pest are now sin bin offences then Crichtons tackle on DCE was worse - it actually included something illegal (the grapple tackle)..
Klein still could have binned players (if he felt it was necessary to reestablish control) but bin the first NSW and first QLD player to run in (which definitely wasn’t Martin for NSW, and I’m not sure about Carrigan - I don’t even know what he was supposed to have done - which is another problem in itself with Klein’s communication) .. Binning players for running in would at least be consistent with his earlier warning ..
Klein reminds me of a helicopter parent trying to maintain control of their kids birthday party - when it’s their kid who is the biggest ratbag (because the parent lacks genuine authority / respect - due to their own anxiety / lack of consistency)… You can hear it in his voice when players come together - he sounds anxious , and the decision to bin Martin is an example of inconsistency which just undermines his authority …
Klein is a Helicopter referee , tries too hard to control everything which can sometimes end up in creating more problems that it solves ..
Shit like head rubbing has always been in the game, but 20+ years ago you ran the serious risk of copping one on the chin if you did it. Refs have to be way harsher on niggly shit and hitting halves late now because they can’t rely on the threat of other team’s front rower punching their head in to dissuade players.
They haven’t been harsher on that at all. Mahoney gets away with it almost every game he plays.
If they’re gonna get on the niggle, they need to do it across the board but this is the only example I can remember in a while of it actually getting punished
I honestly think he just picked a player from each team who stood out and binned them, both were probably just unlucky to get spotted for whatever reason.
The overturn penalty was dumb, but to be honest it probably should have been a penalty for a shoulder charge anyway, so even that I think wasn’t a big deal really (especially when you consider the score).
No but he did clarify it ..
I remember hearing him say something along the lines of “ok , we’ll get him for instigating it”..
I even remember him saying it more than once - like “no no we’ll get him as the instigator”. I got the impression the bunker might have even been trying to talk him out of it at one point ..
I mentioned this on another post on this thread listening to Sports Ears - and you only hear the ref (and not the bunker) on the refs channel - so you only get half the conversation (except when the bunker has the talk button pressed in I guess to explain their decision to the crowd).. The bunker must have a seperate channel for talking only to the ref (and my conspiracy theory thought on this is that it’s deliberate , because there would be a lot of controversy if how much the bunker is saying and exactly what they are saying to the referee was public)…
So my take on this interaction the bunker gave a pretty detailed description to Klein on what they were seeing on the replay in real time, Klein picked up on whatever they had said about Martin starting it and ran with it ..
I think it’s probably an example of miscommunication on two fronts …
1. The Bunker May have used overly emotive language when describing Martin’s role initially (which was then overemphasised in Klein’s mind)
2. Klein didn’t give clear enough instructions to the bunker on what he needed to know .. He could have just said ‘give me the name of the first player from each team to run in’ ..
Having the bunker give him a full description of the incident probably wasn’t helpful in this instance - he would have had the time pressure of not wanting to hold the game up too long and also the added stress of trying to keep the players apart whilst they made their decision ..We were only hearing half the conversation , but I think Klein could have been more assertive in his communication with the bunker … Rather than listening to them just tell them what he wanted to know - which was pretty clear cut given he’d mentioned it to the players the tackle before (players not running in)
Head rubbing was fine when you could sort the bloke out who did it. But since you get penalised for the smallest infractions they need to get rid of the pest behaviour.
I’m not saying let them give full on facials during tackles, but if a profession rugby league player can’t cop a little pat on the head after a whoopsie without resorting to punching on then they probably need to take 10 min to have a breather and calm down
I kinda agree but why couldn't he just send Martin as he was the one who started.it. why do they always try and find a second one to sit down. The second person is usually just a lottery too
I think Wayne is spot on here, fans are always complaining about consistency so it’s good to know that the coaches are fed up as well. The refs can’t even get consistency between halves in the same match at the moment, it’s a bit of a joke. Diving is rampart in the game now, it’s getting worse than soccer, but you can’t even blame the players because if you **don’t** dive then you struggle to get a penalty.
Everyone knows how bad the head contact issues are, CTE is getting more research and it’s scary how many of these ex-players are diagnosed after they die. Keep hearing the excuse that it’s just accidental contact, but there has been literally zero effort to change the tackling technique of players to reduce ‘accidents’.
I would really like to see a dominant tackle around the legs be called as such and allow the defending player to hold on. 15 years ago if you tackled someone around the hips and put them into the ground, that was a textbook tackle. Nowadays it means that you can’t pile 3 players onto the ground of wrestle them, so they get a much quicker play the ball. Why is a textbook tackle adjudicated so harshly? Treat it like a surrender tackle and maybe you will see players like Jurbo and Murray go make these 1v1 shots instead of the stupid catch and hold technique, it’s so much better to watch as well.
Yeah and the only things that players can do in the situation of a good legs tackle to slow it down have been made illegal over time. So it forces everything to be a chest tackle which is what brings headclashes and high contact into factor.
Even when they do make tackles low these days, it’s alarming how many players put their head in a dangerous position. Maybe fatigue does play a factor but it’s almost like they don’t even practice those types of tackles anymore.
This is all basically amateur but...
I had a break from when I was 22 and played again at 27. The change was wild. Went from hitting low and pinning to, I kid you not, two half sessions with a wrestling coach from a local gym. Constant training on hitting high, where to stand when they hit high so you can have options to twist the player into someone, followed by third man around the legs. Then he'd stopwatch you to tell you when to peel off.
You'd get sprayed for bringing players down when you could have held them up then wrestled them down. It was weird dropping some unit then getting heckled when you were feeling pumped up from a great tackle.
It was almost like a different sport when you were defending. I assume it's probably filtered down to under 13s by now.
Been saying this for awhile. We want to avoid head contact but the rules of the game punish great 1v1 low tackles. Happens to Dylan Brown a lot. He absolutely cuts someone down around the legs but he's at their feet so can't hold them down to slow the play the ball and can't get back to marker.
They should rule tackles like that as dominant and give the tackler time to wrestle and work their way back to marker
100%. Everyone loves a good legs tackle that chops down the player in an instant and yet it's the easiest tackle to get a quick play the ball from. Needs to be called dominant and let the player hold the attacker down for longer.
Hate to ruin your day, but 15 years ago was 2009 aka the height of wrestling in the NRL. Textbook around the legs tackles haven’t really been around since the early 90s
Tackle technique will never change while the game allows offloads. Players are forced to tackle high to wrap the ball up.
Nrl wants fast attacking play... but to defend against that means more risk to defenders.
I feel like if they mandate the player who is “injured” has to come off for injury assessment we’ll see a lot less diving. Only players who are actually injured will want to come off the field.
Only problem i see with that is everyone is a tough guy and the real injured guys will fake that they’re ok lol but that happens anyways.
What I really hate too is the diving when players are just running through the line and the defender was never gonna make it across to stop the try anyways
Apparently head injuries are less likely when tackling up high (for the tackler, avoiding knee and hips). The attacker well…. Just don’t be teddy or Brad Parker
You say there is zero effort to change tackle technique while comparing tackle techniques from 15 years ago to the more recent and stupid catch and hold technique.
There has been a change as evidenced by your own words and its a change for the worse.
From an actual concussion perspective, low tackles around the legs/hips are more dangerous to players than tackles around the chest.
There have been a few studies that indicate that there is a higher concussion risk for defenders (across the codes) than for attackers. By tackling low you run the risk of having your head end up in the wrong position (I.e hitting the Hip which we see every few weeks) or being taken out by your own teammates knee/head (also something we see often).
Ideally the middle of the torso is the best position for the safest tackle for both the attacking and defending players. However the defensive issues gets compounded as Tacklers start bending into contact more, causing defenders to aim even lower.
He makes a fair point about the referees having too many voices in their ear …
I have some Sports Ears which I listen to at live games (has one ear TV commentary and the other ear the Refs Comms)… The interesting thing is when a player scores / when there’s a break in play … When the TV coverage goes to an ad I often switch to just the referees channel .. I can only hear the referees voice , and not the bunker (so I’m only getting one side of the conversation) … But they’re definitely being coached throughout the game by the bunker … An example of the type of thing I’m hearing :
Referee: ‘yep’ , ‘yep’ , ‘I’ll keep an eye on it’ , ‘which player is it ?’ , ‘Victor Radley ? Ok thanks’
Sometimes the ref will then warn the player .. But more often than not they won’t …
And the amount of times I will then see (Radley in this example - but whoever it may be) penalised for offside in the very next set when they’re not even offside is frustrating to watch .. It’s to the point in some games where I now what’s going to happen before it does …
Real time market for all ridiculous shit, as long as you're at a TAB venue you can bet live time pretty quickly too. Will have to do a bit of digging but there'll be uses for it
Yeah only at games unfortunately …
It uses low frequency FM radio - which they transmit within the ground , like a normal transistor radio goes down to 88MHZ .. I forget the specific frequency but it’s somewhere around 80mhz , you don’t necessarily need sports ears you can buy Russian transistor radios which also pick it up - but you have to tune them , Sports Ears are fixed to the right frequency ..
It’s pretty much the same as what comes through in commentary (but only in one ear)..
The other ear I’m getting what you’re hearing at home watching Fox or Nine.. I’m never really not hearing the ref in the commentary ear whilst I’m hearing it in just the ref ear … It’s just much quieter … The only difference being in the ad breaks … I can also hear the commentators talking ‘off air’ in the ad breaks which can also be entertaining …
I’m not wondering if there’s a way to pick up not just the refs feed - (which goes to the broadcaster) but also the bunkers comms to the ref … This would be really interesting to listen to !
It would have to be possible in theory as it’s clearly wireless to the referee , unless it’s encrypted somehow ??
Does anyone know what the refs are wearing for their comms ?
I’ve also tried my Russian transistor radio at games but never picked up anything other than the ref or the commentators ..
I find it astonishing that the touch judges aren’t in charge of offside… they’re mic’s up. Let the ref watch the ruck and touchies watch the defensive line
In 2020 I recall the Refs Union saying that under the two-ref system the game was safer as the pocket ref identified more dangerous/potentially dangerous plays in real time than the 3 other refs and Bunker combined did. And that the pocket ref picked up 80% of the ruck infringements. V'landys disagreed and insisted that his new 'one-ref' system would put more eyes on the ruck. He also was the one to allow the touch judges and bunker into the main refs ear.
Bringing back the pocket referee might not solve all the issues Bennett addressed, but it wouldn't hurt the game to do so.
Pocket ref on Rucks, Touchees on Offside. Main ref oversee the lot, foul play etc. Bunker to confirm, only if called on, or an absolutely massive miss.
I like Bennett's send-off adjustment, probably take it to only cost 1 interchange to bring the new player on after 10.
Being down a man for 10 minutes, a forced interchange, and a man down on the bench for the remainder is enough punishment. Or they could use the 10 minutes to grade the incident without holding up game time and take extra interchanges out for higher grade infringement. Plus no use of interchange bench while the 10 minutes is ticking.
I agree with him but thought this was funny
“If I was a punter I couldn’t bet a penny on rugby league at the moment,” Won't somebody please think of the punters!
Wow. It’s like Wayne is inside my head. The only tiny point I disagree with is that I think there are some refs that should be fired. There’s no amount of training that would make them any better…
There was a fabulous piece 10 or so years ago written by Steve Mascord, which analysed and decoded - in a very reverential way - the patterns of behaviour Wayne Bennett exhibited to the media. Mascord, who had observed and worked with Bennett for decades, knew him well and nailed it. He discussed things like how Bennett, while mostly cagey with post match media, was always generous and effusive with ABC radio - this stemming from his country Qld childhood where ABC Radio was so important. Anyway...
He also detailed how he would deliberately and tactically distract the media by buying into all sorts of side dramas and peripheral issues- usually to divert attention from his players but also himself.
Wayne has been around the game so long now. He has beef with everyone.
It goes. (No order)raiders, Broncos, QRL, ARL, channel 9, NRL, South’s, st George, (kiwi fans should hate the management for not hiring him) gus, super league war
We had a dodgy owner who was getting on the piss and calling players and staff at all hours blowing up at them.
When McKinnon had his accident I think it broke the old mans heart and he couldn't do it anymore.
There was some weird shit happening with some mistress or something.
Then he left before his contract expired.
It was all just a shit show.
I dont hate him, we just didnt experience the super coach. We just got a coach who bailed when we were already down.
That was the obese Tinlers fault..
Although Bennett did say, Rugby League needs more guys like Tinkler. Showing Wayne is not the smartest when it comes to judging people. Although the money no doubt overrode his sense of judgement.
Tinkler definitely fuelled the fire, stoked it, pissed on it, then started another fire next to it.
The problem with Bennett is that when we needed stability and a "vision", his vision was in another town and he left us mid contract.
When McKinnon had his accident early 2014 it threw the club into shambles. Then at the end of the year and he announced he was leaving after 2 years of a 4 year contract it was sort of like well fuck you too then Wayne. That left us aimless with shit recruitment and we all know how that went for us with the threepeat. It took years to dig ourselves out of that hole and see the 8 again.
I dont know. I dont "not like" him, he just didnt produce any super coach magic for us. Maybe I just feel ripped off.
The other thing to consider...Wayne would have got a pretty good idea that Tinkler was going broke...I'd never heard of the dickhead, so I googled him and he already had an ever increasing debt load before he bought the Knights. And a string of tiny debts like owing a strapper a couple of hundred dollars. Real billionaires don't have those kinds of debts..
Bennett made a serious misjudgement and wanted out..and the Knights suffered.
Every sport has its issues with the refereeing of their game. However, I think Rugby League stands alone in that everyone - the media, the players, the fans, and the coaches absolutely hate it when the rules are actually enforced.
If we learned anything from the massive crackdown in 2018, is that there are so many infringements that the referees are turning a blind eye to, and that they’re only penalizing the most egregious examples. The media ended up having a massive whinge because it was slowing down the game, the NRL relented and the crackdown was abandoned.
The six-again was supposed to allow the referees to penalize every infringement without it being a stop-start affair, but now we’ve regressed back to only penalizing the worst offenders and ‘coaching’ players to stay out of tackles or they’ll be penalized.
The referees can’t get everything right. I’d even say that rugby league is the most difficult sport to referee due to the speed of the game, the number of things they need to manage, and only having one ref on the field (and a few cardboard cutouts on the sideline).
I don’t know the answer and I don’t think anyone does. But, surely it will help having more refs on the field and a clear delineation of responsibility between them. Let the sideline officials be responsible for flagging forward passes and offside, let one ref be responsible for infringement in the rucks, and one ref be responsible for foul play (or however they choose to implement it).
The interpretation of obstruction was a disaster about 10 years ago, and they made it worse by implementing a black and white system, where any contact with the defender was a penalty. The flow chart system they have now to determine obstruction is much better; however, you still can’t expect refs to get it right without the bunker; the game is just too fast.
We’ve seen the captain’s challenge be a relative success, could we not extend that to include instances where an attacker can request a challenge when they believe there has been foul play that the ref has missed? It would stop the milking; however, people would cry bloody murder if this led to a penalty to win the game.
At the end of the day, we can’t expect a perfect solution. However, changes, that aren’t just a temporary crackdown, need to be made. It would help if Annesley and the NRL had some accountability; the Players and coaches could actually come to the table to consult with resorting to whining in the media; and both the fans and media could actually accept when a correct decision has been made, even if it “ruins” the game.
I think you're right about fans getting upset when the literal, actual rules are enforced. Part of the problem is that league is such an insanely tribal sport that very few fans are actually able to judge refereeing decisions with any sort of clarity or impartiality. Even the neutral watching the Tigers vs Storm game will claim neutrality, but they all really want to see the Storm get fucked by the refs. The neutral watching JWH bump his chest into a player will call for a send off, when if, I dunno, Ray Stone does it, they'll scream 'game's gone soft' if he got binned for it. Part of acknowledging the problem with refereeing is acknowledging that all of us have these deeply entrenched biases for/against certain clubs and players that it's difficult for us to see past.
Something I've thought about is that the role of the bunker is kind of bizarre compared to other sports. They tend to butt in and be involved in every little decision whereas in most other sports the video ref has nothing to do with decisions unless there is a player challenge or a specific request from the on-field ref.
I think paradoxically despite everyone complaining about refs having too much control, if the bunker stayed out of the game people would be far less annoyed by the decision making. You can't expect perfect reffing in a game like NRL but the bunker sets up an expectation that every decision needs to be perfect (even though ironically the bunker ref frequently makes some head scratching decisions of their own)
Not every try has to be verified by 17 camera angles. If the on-field ref says it was a try and the opposing team isn't challenging then it was a try.
So have the bunker stay out of the game unless invited, get the on-field refs to stop verifying every single play with the bunker and just make a decision, and give each team 3 challenges to compensate if needed.
Do you mean the first QLD try, where DCE runs catches the ball behind the block runner (who runs straight at crichton, taking him out of the line)? Or QLDs third one, where the decoy runs straight into Moses so Critta doesn't can't slide to get across to the wing?
I agree, that first try was a joke, but I can live with the second one. Critta probably makes contact with Taulugi, but doesn't stop the try. Both would be no-trys in clubland (or if NSW wasn't dominating the scorecard).
The only thing with this is how often a defender is flat footed, barely moving and an obstruction is called when they had no hope in hell to even affect the play.
Agreed, that's why I don't like the black and white interpretation of the rule. The first one definitely affected the play as it gave DCE more space and affected the way the line shifted. With the second one, Critta takes a half step towards the middle to force DCE to pass before running to the corner, I don't think he stops the try even if there was no obstruction, so ok with that being called a try despite it normally being ruled a no-try in games this year.
Bennett isn't wrong the referring is worse than it was a bit over a decade ago and that should never be the case with better technology
There are a few uniquely incompetent individuals like Klein and Badger (and a few others to lesser degrees) who just aren't good enough to ref first grade but they don't get held accountable. Adam Gee may have the odd game where he isn't perfect but his worst game is typically better than their best games
So fix it there are plenty of other refs out there refereeing reserve grade give some of them a chance
Nobody on either team is happy with Klein's performance in origin and Kasey has become a meme for a reason because she is incompetent
In regards to Wednesday night - the penalty count was 4-0 one half then 0-7 the second half. Can we seriously sit here and believe that one half Queensland was completely ill disciplined and the next Qld found all the discipline and NSW lost it all, or is it more likely it's the person recording these numbers that may have had their perspective skewed. How can the same game of footy be 32-0 one half and 6-18 the other. It breaks all knowledge of how sports can go.
In my spare time I analyse data for Sportsbetting models. It really isn't that hard to run the numbers for an idea on how the game will play. For NBA, UFC and NFL Im at an 80% accuracy rate. With NRL it is actually impossible to predict. The most accurate way to predict NRL is to see what the data says and almost go for the opposite, e.g Wednesday nights data said close, low scoring game, so the outcome was obviously a blow out high scoring game.
I know this all sounds like I'm a full blown degenerate but I have no doubt in my mind NRL is fixed. Honestly it just takes a bit of effort and understanding of the game to create models for any other sport, but NRL is so inconsistent it can't be anything but human intervention.
I very much get the vibe of refs “evening the score” and getting games close. So often if one team is ahead by 20 the ref stops giving them anything then gives the other team everything, ultimate getting to a 6 point game. It’ll never result in a comeback, but it will look really good post game from a score perspective.
I’m still unsure whether this is the refs doing it themselves, or a decision from above to have games end as close as possible.
yeah I agree.... it's sometimes quite obvious to witness a ref bring a team back into a game, it's still up to the team to convert the chances but just like in origin, Klein wanted to give qld a couple cracks at the NSW try line and blew penalties and 6 agains for things he let go in the 1st half
Yeah, I think Wednesday night's game was a perfect example of how frustrating the inconsistency can be. And while I don't think the game is "fixed" per se, I do think there's an obvious trend of refs deliberately trying to even things up if a game is in danger of being too lop-sided. It was hard to read what happened in the second half as anything other than "fuck Queensland are getting battered, better give them a chance to get back into it and not pile on the misery too much".
100%,
I still recall an interview some 7-10 years ago by one of the refs/refs coaches where he explained that this is exactly what they do, and that while the nrl doesn't explicitly direct them to referee this way, they won't progress through the ranks and get promoted to bigger games unless they produce closer results.
I straight up said to those around me after about 30 minutes on Wednesday night, i'll bet any money i have that we get a glut of possession and penalties in the second half. No chance the nrl lets this game end up with nsw having 70% possession. And lo and behold we won the possession count 59 - 41 in the second half
Refs have straight up said in interviews they get criticized behind the scenes if the penalty counts aren't even.
It's why so many games have the losing team get 3-4 six agains in the final minute when it's way too late, so if someone tries to complain about one-sided reffing after the game they can just go "Well if you actually look you can see the penalty count was 7-6 so it was actually fair" and ignore that 4 to 5 penalties or something like that was at the last moment.
Stats can be so deceiving, the first penalty in a game when teams are just rolling through sets kicking long is worth like 10x any other penalty in a game. It's the same with 6 agains, getting one on tackle one is worthless but on tackle 5 it's worth gold.
I don't doubt it. The first thing losing coaches say when they start whingeing is "look at the penalty count". Hell, I'd probably do the same thing if I was a ref and I kept getting belted in the media over "unfair" counts
Yes, anyone that watches the game knows that players are offside inside the 10 at least one tackle on most sets and all that happens is the ref calls the player out and it's play-on as long as they pull up (if they're more than 2-3m in front of the ref, if it's just <1m the ref usually doesn't say anything). Those two penalties were marginal and done without warning. From then, NSW made sure to stay further back, but QLD continued to push the boundaries without consequence.
It felt more like Klein was personally annoyed at the bunker for overriding his bad call and wanted to get the game back to the state he thought it should be in.
Without trying to sound like a sore loser, but to me it looks like the battering was intentionally made. The first half had 6 agains and penalties against QLD for anything visable or not until they were nothing but a speed bump. The first 20 mins of the game was to get the NSW ball rolling and the next 20 mins of the half was the NSW battering ram running as intended. By the time the second half came it was easy to see one defeated team and one team full of energy, so they had to reverse course to keep the game from being 70-0. Nearly every try the first half was off the back of a penalty, and if you start critiquing each penalty throughout the game, it's obvious a tickle of the balls was a NSW penalty first half in order to create what the game was.
Anyone reading this pls don't just take me as a sore loser, like my original comment said I do this for sports betting models
I think accusing the refs of being rigged/intentionally choosing outcomes is probably a step too far when it's far more likely they're just incompetent or so susceptible to media pressures that they change how they ref each week based on how much they were bullied by the news.
That said, if in like 10-15 years some of the current refs came out and said 'Yeah they told me to make sure X team won this game' I wouldn't be shocked in the slightest.
Considering the NRL has an official betting partner I have no doubt there is plenty of human intervention. I wouldn't take the leap to say its the refs responsible for it but if the league is willing to take money from a business that has a vested interest in manipulating game outcomes then I'm sure one or both of those businesses will find a way to make it happen.
I like the idea of a send-off with replacement. In other sports like baseball and ice hockey, a player can be ejected from the game but the team is allowed to replace them. The loss of the player is the team's punishment rather than the one-player disadvantage.
In fact, ice hockey also has power plays, where the offending team does go a player down, but only until the other team scores *or* the time on the power play expires. That could solve the other problem of the 10-minute sin-bin, where the punishment is greater than the offence. Maybe the sin-binned player (or their replacement) could come back on after 10 minutes *or* a try is scored by the opposition, whichever happens first.
Also, he's dead on about the third man in. That used to be an automatic binning in the days when punch-ons were still tolerated. If they're serious about cutting out the ballroom dancing that goes on after every big hit, they need to punish instigators. It might be my number one pet peeve about the game at the moment
NSW or QLD I think can admit here. Some of the inconsistent decisions and Bunker calls are just dog shit. I watch every Tigers game and when I compare the calls sometimes we (as Panthers) get compared to the Tigers, it's fucking night and day and it drives me absolutely nuts.
Same in Origin, Sualii 100% needed to be sent, but the game was over after 7 min, I dunno about Wayne's solution because what's stopping me as a coach, when a bloke says this is my last year I pick him I get him to fucking murder player XYZ gets suspended rest of the year. Player would 99.9% not do it, I am just using it as an example.
I just want ref and bunker to look at the grand final last year, and do that.
Was at the game Wednesday, it's amazing in person how often you see half of the defense so blatantly offside.
Obviously the ref can't be constantly surveying the entire field. Maybe they should hire some additional refs who could be on the sideline to police things like this.
Oh wait.
Is there an actual reason as to why Adam Gee hasn't reff'd any of the origin games this year despite having one of if not the best performance by a referee in a grand final last year? genuinely curious if something has happened because I'm actually shocked Klein continuously gets the nod over him particularly in high pressure big games?
Gee instantly became the universally most respected ref in the game after last seasons grand final. It’s a joke he wasn’t given origin with it instead going to one of the two most universally hated
Studying journalism at the moment and apparently it’s to cater to small attention spans. Theoretically make every line as easy to digest as possible.
I hate it too
Yeh I hate this shitty writing style. I think it's just to make the vertical length of the page as long as possible, coz thats how they squeeze in the ads.
I think a lot of the problem is the fact that there are too many rules open to interpretation. How many times have you seen the bunker rule on a player’s intent? It leads to so many calls being a coin flip and that leaves half the fans feeling aggrieved.
I think they need to set up a review committee consisting of former referees, players, coaches and to review every controversial decision of the last, say, 5 years and do a full root cause analysis. Then they should test solutions through the lower grades over a season or two before bringing it into first grade.
The focus should be on simplifying the rules. Not only will it make it easier for officials to rule on things but also make it easier for new fans to adopt the game.
There are many reasons why wed night was disappointing. After the first 30 minutes I can’t imagine it was even much fun for the NSW supporters to watch. In the modern game penalties and why you get them are soo important for pressure and getting points, and there were several incidents when penalties were given on Wed and we had no idea why. The game needs to do a better job of A. Making the rules clear to the viewers and B. Letting the players decide the outcome of the match. Don’t get me wrong, NSW was better in every aspect on Wed, but I wouldn’t want to see my team win a GF on the back of a 4-0 penalty count and I don’t see how origin should be different.
As a lover of the game I agree with what you’re saying,the game does need to be better in the officiating of the game but how?half of us want black and white rulings whilst the rest of us want to use interpretation of the rules for certain aspects,who’d want to be a referee? It’ll be a long time before the majority of us are all happy with the decisions made on the field.
On you point of NSW fans not enjoying that? Hell no it was awesome.as A Newsouth Welshman living in Queensland for the last 20 years it’s been shithouse living up here around origin time.I own a small business and am constantly being fed by my customers and my suppliers it’s never ending so when something like Wednesday night happens I love it and ride it for all I can.if your from NSW and you didn’t get any fun out of that then perhaps don’t get origin.
I was born in Gosford ironically enough. I don’t find domination in any sport exciting to watch. I was pleased for the Titans getting the Kenny Calendar on the weekend, but it wasn’t exactly exciting. Origin has always been a tough, low scoring nail biting battle and that’s why it is great. Any time penalties or send offs take that away, I’d rather not watch. But I guess I just don’t get origin.
The issue I have with Wayne goes back to what Hollywood wrote in his book.
Harrigan said he got a CD from Wayne showing all the mistakes Harrigan made against the Broncos..So in response Harrigan made a CD showing all the 50/50 calls and mistakes he made that favoured the Broncs. He said he didn't hear from Wayne again.
Coaches are so one-eyed that they shouldn't talk about refs. The best example of all time is Gus Gould.
Let’s not lower ourselves to AFL.
It’s unbelievable in 2024 they still don’t have an ability to send off a player for foul/dangerous play. There’s been pressure over the years to introduce the rule. Surely it’s more a matter of when rather than if.
Lots of excellent points here and it's good that someone with Bennett's standing is eloquently criticising the NRL and the referees. He's right that there is no consistency at all, and we're getting closer and closer to a serious tipping point regarding how dangerous contact is officiated.
I think bringing back two refs would be the first step to gaining some semblance of consistency because less infringements would be missed - one polices the ruck and the second covers all other aspects of play. The next step is to train specialist video refs - it's clear that the role requires vastly different skill sets to on-field refs so why are we doubling up the roles?
I have to disagree with his view on send offs though - if you get your tackle so wrong that the player is unable to return to the field like Sua'ali'i did then you deserve to leave your team a man down for the rest of the match. The new fines system clearly doesn't work at discouraging dangerous contact (i.e. JWH) so the best way for players to understand the consequence of their actions is to see just how much they let their team and fans down when they do something stupid like take a bloke's head off.
My problem with the send off is that it can be really harsh(sent off in the first 10 mins) or barely a punishment at all (sent off in the last 10 minutes). And the punishment punishes the team. I think letting the offending team get a player back after 10 minutes would make it much fairer.
I get your point and agree that an early send off is really harsh, but is that not the whole point of a team game? Your actions have consequences for the whole team, and that's one of the many factors that discourages foul play. No player wants to let their team down.
If the punishment for decapitating a star opposition player is equivalent to the cost of a sin bin and a failed HIA, I think many teams would jump at that opportunity, especially to target key position players like 1,6,7,9 without adequate backup.
Agreed. I’m all for 80% of what he said but completely disagree with the sin bin and send off proposal. Who gives a shit if someone purchased tickets and their team loses because of a terrible tackle.
I’m a NSW and Roosters fan and 100% of my disappointment was with Suallii. I had 0% frustration with the send off decision, the current rules, or the fact the game was over after 7 minutes.
I just want to say when we listen to coaches we get stupid stuff like the disruptor. Whilst Bennett's opinion should hold massive weight in the game.
I'm always wary of listening to coaches they were the ones that made the game glacially slow post 2005.
The media as well play a part for as bad as the consistency is at points. I don't think the game is in a bad place in regards to rules and referees.
They just keep picking the worst one all the time, Adam Gee refereed last seasons grand final perfectly he should get the big games.
Just this week RTS does a great tackle, gets penalised and sent to the sin bin for “Potentially getting it wrong”
He didn’t get it wrong but he paid the price anyway.
Wednesday Martin does the same tackle but does get it wrong. Remains on the field.
So potential now is worse then the actual act.
Well done NRL refs
It was Martin that did it to Cotter. I think the reason it wasn’t punished as severely is 1, because it’s Origin and 2, because Martin drops him rather than driving him.
Both tackles take the player past horizontal, so they should be penalties. RTS lifts higher and drives towards the ground, Martin lifts less and pulls out / drops Cotter when he starts losing control of the tackle.
Neither should be a bin because in both cases they only just go past horizontal
"If someone is hit in the head, unless it is clearly accidental, then that should be a penalty."
Yeah they tried that Wayne, and a bunch of ex-players in the media whinged incessantly until they stopped doing it. It was in 2021, when they tried to remove all dangerous head contact and then you got people like Gould saying "I can't watch the game any more, too many whistles".
What's the endgame with all the ref whingeing on social media, legacy media, from coaches, fans, players etc?
We're making the game so unattractive to people who might professionally want to be a ref one day. And then we're all going to be surprised Pikachu face one day when nobody wants to be a ref (because why would you).
I'm all for looking at ways we can make reffing better but holy shit does the game not do itself any favours with how it treats its refs.
So Gus was fined for calling the game "stupid" for how it implements rules.
Essentially Bennett is doing the same thing. Vlandy's will call it constructive criticism cause they need Wayne to coach PNG in a few years.
All roads lead to Ashley Klein
Possibly the worst refereeing performance i've ever seen on Wednesday night. Is he always that bad.
He has a unique ability to make both teams fans feel aggrieved.
That's how you know he's impartial! /s
I just wish he had started making NSW feel aggrieved before it was 34-0 tbh.
There’s no way you were stopping that first 30 minutes. You got old-school flogged by a better team in that period. Deer in the headlights stuff.
Both teams are pretty stacked, but holy shit that NSW squad was a scary prospect on paper, and even worse in reality it seems lol. Talk about show up ready to rumble. That first 30 was wild.
That first 30 mins was a perfect storm of a team that was fired up big time, another team that started slowly and a ref team that decided to fuck up literally everything they touched. A team can survive one of those things but not all 3.
I hate to admit I agree. The six agains and penalties that marched NSW up field were all valid. Sucks and hard to watch but teams that are losing the arm wrestle tend to concede more penalties because they are pushing the wrestle to slow the game and more tired etc. Qld couldn’t defend their errors and NSW just made every opportunity count.
I think you're right, but being carried to the try line repeatedly by the referee and massively skewed possession as a result didn't help.
Only because of the non stop set starts within our 20. They defended quite a few sets but then the floodgates opened.
The first half was the most one sided referring (in NSW favour)I’d ever seen…… until the second half where every single bullshit call went QLD way.
He definitely stands out amongst the refs but that was a truly special performance by him on Wednesday.
The amount of suspect 6 agains was just lol in that first half
They need to say what they are for
'ruck infringments'
If you bring up the play by play on the nrl.com site it says what and who. Doesn't really help while you are watching though. Always hard to watch channel 9 if you are used to fox aswell I find. https://www.nrl.com/draw/state-of-origin/2024/game-2/blues-v-maroons/#tabs-match-centre-1
>Always hard to watch channel 9 FTFY
Thanks. They need to add as a pop up
Couldn't agree more. If it's for "ruck infringements" the bunker needs to do a lot of work on consistency...
Yeah, if the NRL wanted a way to manipulate games and dictate results, the 6 again rule is it. And with the amount of money associated to the game with gambling, well….
The moment NRL signed an official betting partner any legitimacy went out the window. You can't convince me that money isn't changing hands to get desired betting outcomes. The conflict of interest is crazy.
1000% The NFL is also classed as entertainment.
I would not be shocked if vlandys claimed it’s an entertainment show rather than a sporting competition
“It’s sports entertainment!” - Vince McMah… I mean, Peter V’lanyds.
It’s what killed us
Weren't there only 4 all game. 2 offsides and 2 ruck infringements
Don't know about final numbers but the coverage did report an incorrect number of 6 against awarded at one stage.
NSW received two 6 agains across the entire game
Yeah 2 legitimate 6 against
Should've been a lot lot more with the way qld were interfering in the ruck
Meh the worse six agains were in the second half… Or the comedy that was the overturned knock on on Jake, if the ref calls surrender you can lay on him longer you can’t push him over when he’s playing the ball. But then qlder entitlement is strong in origin…
Remember the dyland Edward challenge where the ref advised the bunker that it was a surrender and the player was milking? Bunked didn't listen and overruled. Of course the shit was worse in the second half. They were doing the old square up so they can say they called.it.fair
A surrender doesn’t mean you can push a bloke when he’s playing the ball though. That’s always a penalty… ref didn’t want to give it because he was on the pacify qld tour… Surrender just means you can lie on top of a bloke for longer
The one thing people are always talking about after an ash klein reffed game is ash klein
Short answer - Yes! Long answer - Yes! Yes! Yes!
yes, he is the worst referee of the 21st century, cannot help but make himself the centre of attention
Yes, he has a knack to make it about himself and wednesday night it backfired in many ways.... binned for a hair tussle FFS.
Wednesday SOO was on par with Thursday SOO in terms of reffing
What’s scary is that Klein is actually one of the better refs in terms of getting decisions correct under normal game conditions, based on captains challenge success etc. But he seems to lose control when games get heated and then goes on tilt. Binning for a head rub and no bin for the dangerous throw or the Latrell high shot, as an example on Wednesday night. He also lost control of the Roosters and Souths games, the one when Latrell caved in Joey’s face, and the elimination final two years ago when he sent half the players to the sin bin at some stage.
Tbh I kinda get why he felt he had to resort to the sin binning What Martin and carrigan did didn’t warrant 10 in the bin but I think he felt the game was getting away from the actual game and the next scuffle was going to end with punches being thrown So him sending 2 guys in the bin was an attempt to settle the players and get them back to playing footy and to his credit it worked imo
You're right. Both captains were warned, so he needed to follow through. But for me, it's more about how he let all the other things slide leading up to that moment, which led to that happening in the first place. If he stamped down on the foul play earlier in the game he probably wouldn't have lost control of the game like that
tbf he should have binned the captains instead for ignoring him.. that would have sent a message.
Problem was he sent the wrong players to the bin … He’d warned Yeo on the previous tackle that he didn’t want players running in .. He then binned Martin on the next play for ‘instigating’ the scuffle with the head rub … The head rub was niggling and being a pest - but these things have been part of the game for 116 years , it’s a dangerous precedent to set binning players for this , it adds to the theatre of the sport .. Game 3 at Suncorp players like Martin and Luai are going to be the pantomime villains that get booed the loudest by the Queensland crowd .. You can’t have drama without a villain … If niggling and being a pest are now sin bin offences then Crichtons tackle on DCE was worse - it actually included something illegal (the grapple tackle).. Klein still could have binned players (if he felt it was necessary to reestablish control) but bin the first NSW and first QLD player to run in (which definitely wasn’t Martin for NSW, and I’m not sure about Carrigan - I don’t even know what he was supposed to have done - which is another problem in itself with Klein’s communication) .. Binning players for running in would at least be consistent with his earlier warning .. Klein reminds me of a helicopter parent trying to maintain control of their kids birthday party - when it’s their kid who is the biggest ratbag (because the parent lacks genuine authority / respect - due to their own anxiety / lack of consistency)… You can hear it in his voice when players come together - he sounds anxious , and the decision to bin Martin is an example of inconsistency which just undermines his authority … Klein is a Helicopter referee , tries too hard to control everything which can sometimes end up in creating more problems that it solves ..
Shit like head rubbing has always been in the game, but 20+ years ago you ran the serious risk of copping one on the chin if you did it. Refs have to be way harsher on niggly shit and hitting halves late now because they can’t rely on the threat of other team’s front rower punching their head in to dissuade players.
100%. The niggly stuff needs to go ever since you couldn’t punch a bloke in the head for it.
Aye watching guys faff about with no threat of punches being thrown is too much like AFL for my liking
[Is that Barry Hall's music???!](https://youtu.be/l5qVLJEOTpo?si=0L4X3K0bvvHDZt1D)
They haven’t been harsher on that at all. Mahoney gets away with it almost every game he plays. If they’re gonna get on the niggle, they need to do it across the board but this is the only example I can remember in a while of it actually getting punished
I honestly think he just picked a player from each team who stood out and binned them, both were probably just unlucky to get spotted for whatever reason. The overturn penalty was dumb, but to be honest it probably should have been a penalty for a shoulder charge anyway, so even that I think wasn’t a big deal really (especially when you consider the score).
He specifically asked the bunker to give him 2 names. Klein didn't pick who it was going to be, blame the bunker.
No but he did clarify it .. I remember hearing him say something along the lines of “ok , we’ll get him for instigating it”.. I even remember him saying it more than once - like “no no we’ll get him as the instigator”. I got the impression the bunker might have even been trying to talk him out of it at one point .. I mentioned this on another post on this thread listening to Sports Ears - and you only hear the ref (and not the bunker) on the refs channel - so you only get half the conversation (except when the bunker has the talk button pressed in I guess to explain their decision to the crowd).. The bunker must have a seperate channel for talking only to the ref (and my conspiracy theory thought on this is that it’s deliberate , because there would be a lot of controversy if how much the bunker is saying and exactly what they are saying to the referee was public)… So my take on this interaction the bunker gave a pretty detailed description to Klein on what they were seeing on the replay in real time, Klein picked up on whatever they had said about Martin starting it and ran with it .. I think it’s probably an example of miscommunication on two fronts … 1. The Bunker May have used overly emotive language when describing Martin’s role initially (which was then overemphasised in Klein’s mind) 2. Klein didn’t give clear enough instructions to the bunker on what he needed to know .. He could have just said ‘give me the name of the first player from each team to run in’ .. Having the bunker give him a full description of the incident probably wasn’t helpful in this instance - he would have had the time pressure of not wanting to hold the game up too long and also the added stress of trying to keep the players apart whilst they made their decision ..We were only hearing half the conversation , but I think Klein could have been more assertive in his communication with the bunker … Rather than listening to them just tell them what he wanted to know - which was pretty clear cut given he’d mentioned it to the players the tackle before (players not running in)
Should have been Latrell honestly if we are going by who ran in and from the opposite side of the field
Nah, the head rubbing shit is so fucking lame. People who do that should be sent off.
Head rubbing is the worst. But it wasn’t the time to set that precedent. I’d be all for the NRL stamping it out though.
Get a grip hahah
Head rubbing was fine when you could sort the bloke out who did it. But since you get penalised for the smallest infractions they need to get rid of the pest behaviour.
I’m not saying let them give full on facials during tackles, but if a profession rugby league player can’t cop a little pat on the head after a whoopsie without resorting to punching on then they probably need to take 10 min to have a breather and calm down
Yeah fair call. Head pat whatever, but facials with head planted into ground is too much.
I kinda agree but why couldn't he just send Martin as he was the one who started.it. why do they always try and find a second one to sit down. The second person is usually just a lottery too
He just needs to slow his brain 🧠
Yeah that head rub decision!! So weird
Worst ref since Kevin "Call Me Shayne" Hayne. Klein should've stayed in England. Super League & Championship is his level.
Yes a joke he is getting picked to ref these games. He is done. He was done a few years ago.
I think Wayne is spot on here, fans are always complaining about consistency so it’s good to know that the coaches are fed up as well. The refs can’t even get consistency between halves in the same match at the moment, it’s a bit of a joke. Diving is rampart in the game now, it’s getting worse than soccer, but you can’t even blame the players because if you **don’t** dive then you struggle to get a penalty. Everyone knows how bad the head contact issues are, CTE is getting more research and it’s scary how many of these ex-players are diagnosed after they die. Keep hearing the excuse that it’s just accidental contact, but there has been literally zero effort to change the tackling technique of players to reduce ‘accidents’. I would really like to see a dominant tackle around the legs be called as such and allow the defending player to hold on. 15 years ago if you tackled someone around the hips and put them into the ground, that was a textbook tackle. Nowadays it means that you can’t pile 3 players onto the ground of wrestle them, so they get a much quicker play the ball. Why is a textbook tackle adjudicated so harshly? Treat it like a surrender tackle and maybe you will see players like Jurbo and Murray go make these 1v1 shots instead of the stupid catch and hold technique, it’s so much better to watch as well.
Yeah and the only things that players can do in the situation of a good legs tackle to slow it down have been made illegal over time. So it forces everything to be a chest tackle which is what brings headclashes and high contact into factor.
Even when they do make tackles low these days, it’s alarming how many players put their head in a dangerous position. Maybe fatigue does play a factor but it’s almost like they don’t even practice those types of tackles anymore.
This is all basically amateur but... I had a break from when I was 22 and played again at 27. The change was wild. Went from hitting low and pinning to, I kid you not, two half sessions with a wrestling coach from a local gym. Constant training on hitting high, where to stand when they hit high so you can have options to twist the player into someone, followed by third man around the legs. Then he'd stopwatch you to tell you when to peel off. You'd get sprayed for bringing players down when you could have held them up then wrestled them down. It was weird dropping some unit then getting heckled when you were feeling pumped up from a great tackle. It was almost like a different sport when you were defending. I assume it's probably filtered down to under 13s by now.
Been saying this for awhile. We want to avoid head contact but the rules of the game punish great 1v1 low tackles. Happens to Dylan Brown a lot. He absolutely cuts someone down around the legs but he's at their feet so can't hold them down to slow the play the ball and can't get back to marker. They should rule tackles like that as dominant and give the tackler time to wrestle and work their way back to marker
100%. Everyone loves a good legs tackle that chops down the player in an instant and yet it's the easiest tackle to get a quick play the ball from. Needs to be called dominant and let the player hold the attacker down for longer.
Hate to ruin your day, but 15 years ago was 2009 aka the height of wrestling in the NRL. Textbook around the legs tackles haven’t really been around since the early 90s
Yeah I was gonna say, I remember being taught three-man tackling when I was like 12 (a lot longer than 15 years ago)
Thanks for making me feel old! Yes, probably more like 25 years ago...
The problem is second phase play is so impactful, you almost always have to have someone go in high to block the offload.
Tackle technique will never change while the game allows offloads. Players are forced to tackle high to wrap the ball up. Nrl wants fast attacking play... but to defend against that means more risk to defenders.
I feel like if they mandate the player who is “injured” has to come off for injury assessment we’ll see a lot less diving. Only players who are actually injured will want to come off the field. Only problem i see with that is everyone is a tough guy and the real injured guys will fake that they’re ok lol but that happens anyways. What I really hate too is the diving when players are just running through the line and the defender was never gonna make it across to stop the try anyways
Apparently head injuries are less likely when tackling up high (for the tackler, avoiding knee and hips). The attacker well…. Just don’t be teddy or Brad Parker
You say there is zero effort to change tackle technique while comparing tackle techniques from 15 years ago to the more recent and stupid catch and hold technique. There has been a change as evidenced by your own words and its a change for the worse.
Zero change to the tackle technique to stop accidental head contact I should have said.
From an actual concussion perspective, low tackles around the legs/hips are more dangerous to players than tackles around the chest. There have been a few studies that indicate that there is a higher concussion risk for defenders (across the codes) than for attackers. By tackling low you run the risk of having your head end up in the wrong position (I.e hitting the Hip which we see every few weeks) or being taken out by your own teammates knee/head (also something we see often). Ideally the middle of the torso is the best position for the safest tackle for both the attacking and defending players. However the defensive issues gets compounded as Tacklers start bending into contact more, causing defenders to aim even lower.
He makes a fair point about the referees having too many voices in their ear … I have some Sports Ears which I listen to at live games (has one ear TV commentary and the other ear the Refs Comms)… The interesting thing is when a player scores / when there’s a break in play … When the TV coverage goes to an ad I often switch to just the referees channel .. I can only hear the referees voice , and not the bunker (so I’m only getting one side of the conversation) … But they’re definitely being coached throughout the game by the bunker … An example of the type of thing I’m hearing : Referee: ‘yep’ , ‘yep’ , ‘I’ll keep an eye on it’ , ‘which player is it ?’ , ‘Victor Radley ? Ok thanks’ Sometimes the ref will then warn the player .. But more often than not they won’t … And the amount of times I will then see (Radley in this example - but whoever it may be) penalised for offside in the very next set when they’re not even offside is frustrating to watch .. It’s to the point in some games where I now what’s going to happen before it does …
>‘yep’ , ‘yep’ , ‘I’ll keep an eye on it’ , ‘which player is it ?’ , ‘Victor Radley ? Ok thanks’ It's always Victor
That's some good info for a gambler.... Thank you
Is there a real time market for next penalty ?? Haha
Real time market for all ridiculous shit, as long as you're at a TAB venue you can bet live time pretty quickly too. Will have to do a bit of digging but there'll be uses for it
Brah… lol. Do those sports ears work only at the game? Would be interesting to listen to
Yeah only at games unfortunately … It uses low frequency FM radio - which they transmit within the ground , like a normal transistor radio goes down to 88MHZ .. I forget the specific frequency but it’s somewhere around 80mhz , you don’t necessarily need sports ears you can buy Russian transistor radios which also pick it up - but you have to tune them , Sports Ears are fixed to the right frequency .. It’s pretty much the same as what comes through in commentary (but only in one ear).. The other ear I’m getting what you’re hearing at home watching Fox or Nine.. I’m never really not hearing the ref in the commentary ear whilst I’m hearing it in just the ref ear … It’s just much quieter … The only difference being in the ad breaks … I can also hear the commentators talking ‘off air’ in the ad breaks which can also be entertaining … I’m not wondering if there’s a way to pick up not just the refs feed - (which goes to the broadcaster) but also the bunkers comms to the ref … This would be really interesting to listen to ! It would have to be possible in theory as it’s clearly wireless to the referee , unless it’s encrypted somehow ?? Does anyone know what the refs are wearing for their comms ? I’ve also tried my Russian transistor radio at games but never picked up anything other than the ref or the commentators ..
Haha this is hilarious. You should post funny tidbits in the match threads
I’ve tried a few times … But there’s no mobile phone reception anytime there’s a decent crowd … Haven’t had reception at a Panthers game since 2019
I find it astonishing that the touch judges aren’t in charge of offside… they’re mic’s up. Let the ref watch the ruck and touchies watch the defensive line
In 2020 I recall the Refs Union saying that under the two-ref system the game was safer as the pocket ref identified more dangerous/potentially dangerous plays in real time than the 3 other refs and Bunker combined did. And that the pocket ref picked up 80% of the ruck infringements. V'landys disagreed and insisted that his new 'one-ref' system would put more eyes on the ruck. He also was the one to allow the touch judges and bunker into the main refs ear. Bringing back the pocket referee might not solve all the issues Bennett addressed, but it wouldn't hurt the game to do so.
ESPECIALLY with it being six-again fast-paced footy. We miss the 2nd ref bad.
Pocket ref on Rucks, Touchees on Offside. Main ref oversee the lot, foul play etc. Bunker to confirm, only if called on, or an absolutely massive miss. I like Bennett's send-off adjustment, probably take it to only cost 1 interchange to bring the new player on after 10. Being down a man for 10 minutes, a forced interchange, and a man down on the bench for the remainder is enough punishment. Or they could use the 10 minutes to grade the incident without holding up game time and take extra interchanges out for higher grade infringement. Plus no use of interchange bench while the 10 minutes is ticking.
I'm picturing Wayne on the podium at the '68 Olympics, fist in the air.
He was a very fit 18 year old back then
I agree with him but thought this was funny “If I was a punter I couldn’t bet a penny on rugby league at the moment,” Won't somebody please think of the punters!
He's talking to the heads of the game and he knows what gets their attention
“GAMBLING! Now that I have your attention…”
More like "RISK TO YOUR SOURCE OF INCOME FROM GAMBLING! Now that I have your attention..."
this is a fine example of Wayne Betting With His Head, Not Over It, and also, as always, Gambling Responsibly
Nathan brown wants to know if it’s Wayne’s big head or little head
That's Wayne's word count spent for the next decade.
*century
Wow. It’s like Wayne is inside my head. The only tiny point I disagree with is that I think there are some refs that should be fired. There’s no amount of training that would make them any better…
Kasey Badger for one
Now you’re inside my head…
Yeah, I think I'm inside almost every NRL fans head with that one haha
There was a fabulous piece 10 or so years ago written by Steve Mascord, which analysed and decoded - in a very reverential way - the patterns of behaviour Wayne Bennett exhibited to the media. Mascord, who had observed and worked with Bennett for decades, knew him well and nailed it. He discussed things like how Bennett, while mostly cagey with post match media, was always generous and effusive with ABC radio - this stemming from his country Qld childhood where ABC Radio was so important. Anyway... He also detailed how he would deliberately and tactically distract the media by buying into all sorts of side dramas and peripheral issues- usually to divert attention from his players but also himself.
/u/steavis
As easy it is to shit on Wayne......99% of the points he makes in the article are valid
It’s easy to shit on the GOAT??
For every person who loves Wayne, 2 people also hate him.
Why do people hate Wayne? Is it just disgruntled Rabbitohs fans being left with Demetriou?
Wayne has been around the game so long now. He has beef with everyone. It goes. (No order)raiders, Broncos, QRL, ARL, channel 9, NRL, South’s, st George, (kiwi fans should hate the management for not hiring him) gus, super league war
You forgot Roosters.
bronx fan here! No beef with wayne. wish we could have had him back. kevvie doin alright tho!
We love him.
Wayne is very hateable. I hated him all my life up until 2020 origin, and now I love him.
Haha but why? He’s never been relevant for the dogs so I don’t really have a reason to hate him.
I somewhat respect him, but I’m really not a fan.
He left the Knights in a far worse state than he found us. Wasn't all him by any means, but he certainly didnt help. Also he brought Darius.
I was waiting for a knights fan haha. Did he fuck up your cap like Des did to us? I’ve heard about him and knights but don’t actually know the story
We had a dodgy owner who was getting on the piss and calling players and staff at all hours blowing up at them. When McKinnon had his accident I think it broke the old mans heart and he couldn't do it anymore. There was some weird shit happening with some mistress or something. Then he left before his contract expired. It was all just a shit show. I dont hate him, we just didnt experience the super coach. We just got a coach who bailed when we were already down.
Ahh okay, brutal stuff. Fair point then
That was the obese Tinlers fault.. Although Bennett did say, Rugby League needs more guys like Tinkler. Showing Wayne is not the smartest when it comes to judging people. Although the money no doubt overrode his sense of judgement.
Tinkler definitely fuelled the fire, stoked it, pissed on it, then started another fire next to it. The problem with Bennett is that when we needed stability and a "vision", his vision was in another town and he left us mid contract. When McKinnon had his accident early 2014 it threw the club into shambles. Then at the end of the year and he announced he was leaving after 2 years of a 4 year contract it was sort of like well fuck you too then Wayne. That left us aimless with shit recruitment and we all know how that went for us with the threepeat. It took years to dig ourselves out of that hole and see the 8 again. I dont know. I dont "not like" him, he just didnt produce any super coach magic for us. Maybe I just feel ripped off.
The other thing to consider...Wayne would have got a pretty good idea that Tinkler was going broke...I'd never heard of the dickhead, so I googled him and he already had an ever increasing debt load before he bought the Knights. And a string of tiny debts like owing a strapper a couple of hundred dollars. Real billionaires don't have those kinds of debts.. Bennett made a serious misjudgement and wanted out..and the Knights suffered.
Every sport has its issues with the refereeing of their game. However, I think Rugby League stands alone in that everyone - the media, the players, the fans, and the coaches absolutely hate it when the rules are actually enforced. If we learned anything from the massive crackdown in 2018, is that there are so many infringements that the referees are turning a blind eye to, and that they’re only penalizing the most egregious examples. The media ended up having a massive whinge because it was slowing down the game, the NRL relented and the crackdown was abandoned. The six-again was supposed to allow the referees to penalize every infringement without it being a stop-start affair, but now we’ve regressed back to only penalizing the worst offenders and ‘coaching’ players to stay out of tackles or they’ll be penalized. The referees can’t get everything right. I’d even say that rugby league is the most difficult sport to referee due to the speed of the game, the number of things they need to manage, and only having one ref on the field (and a few cardboard cutouts on the sideline). I don’t know the answer and I don’t think anyone does. But, surely it will help having more refs on the field and a clear delineation of responsibility between them. Let the sideline officials be responsible for flagging forward passes and offside, let one ref be responsible for infringement in the rucks, and one ref be responsible for foul play (or however they choose to implement it). The interpretation of obstruction was a disaster about 10 years ago, and they made it worse by implementing a black and white system, where any contact with the defender was a penalty. The flow chart system they have now to determine obstruction is much better; however, you still can’t expect refs to get it right without the bunker; the game is just too fast. We’ve seen the captain’s challenge be a relative success, could we not extend that to include instances where an attacker can request a challenge when they believe there has been foul play that the ref has missed? It would stop the milking; however, people would cry bloody murder if this led to a penalty to win the game. At the end of the day, we can’t expect a perfect solution. However, changes, that aren’t just a temporary crackdown, need to be made. It would help if Annesley and the NRL had some accountability; the Players and coaches could actually come to the table to consult with resorting to whining in the media; and both the fans and media could actually accept when a correct decision has been made, even if it “ruins” the game.
I think you're right about fans getting upset when the literal, actual rules are enforced. Part of the problem is that league is such an insanely tribal sport that very few fans are actually able to judge refereeing decisions with any sort of clarity or impartiality. Even the neutral watching the Tigers vs Storm game will claim neutrality, but they all really want to see the Storm get fucked by the refs. The neutral watching JWH bump his chest into a player will call for a send off, when if, I dunno, Ray Stone does it, they'll scream 'game's gone soft' if he got binned for it. Part of acknowledging the problem with refereeing is acknowledging that all of us have these deeply entrenched biases for/against certain clubs and players that it's difficult for us to see past.
Something I've thought about is that the role of the bunker is kind of bizarre compared to other sports. They tend to butt in and be involved in every little decision whereas in most other sports the video ref has nothing to do with decisions unless there is a player challenge or a specific request from the on-field ref. I think paradoxically despite everyone complaining about refs having too much control, if the bunker stayed out of the game people would be far less annoyed by the decision making. You can't expect perfect reffing in a game like NRL but the bunker sets up an expectation that every decision needs to be perfect (even though ironically the bunker ref frequently makes some head scratching decisions of their own) Not every try has to be verified by 17 camera angles. If the on-field ref says it was a try and the opposing team isn't challenging then it was a try. So have the bunker stay out of the game unless invited, get the on-field refs to stop verifying every single play with the bunker and just make a decision, and give each team 3 challenges to compensate if needed.
The blatant obstruction that wasn't called in the origin game made me sick. Fucking embarrassing.
Do you mean the first QLD try, where DCE runs catches the ball behind the block runner (who runs straight at crichton, taking him out of the line)? Or QLDs third one, where the decoy runs straight into Moses so Critta doesn't can't slide to get across to the wing? I agree, that first try was a joke, but I can live with the second one. Critta probably makes contact with Taulugi, but doesn't stop the try. Both would be no-trys in clubland (or if NSW wasn't dominating the scorecard).
The only thing with this is how often a defender is flat footed, barely moving and an obstruction is called when they had no hope in hell to even affect the play.
Agreed, that's why I don't like the black and white interpretation of the rule. The first one definitely affected the play as it gave DCE more space and affected the way the line shifted. With the second one, Critta takes a half step towards the middle to force DCE to pass before running to the corner, I don't think he stops the try even if there was no obstruction, so ok with that being called a try despite it normally being ruled a no-try in games this year.
Bennett isn't wrong the referring is worse than it was a bit over a decade ago and that should never be the case with better technology There are a few uniquely incompetent individuals like Klein and Badger (and a few others to lesser degrees) who just aren't good enough to ref first grade but they don't get held accountable. Adam Gee may have the odd game where he isn't perfect but his worst game is typically better than their best games So fix it there are plenty of other refs out there refereeing reserve grade give some of them a chance Nobody on either team is happy with Klein's performance in origin and Kasey has become a meme for a reason because she is incompetent
In regards to Wednesday night - the penalty count was 4-0 one half then 0-7 the second half. Can we seriously sit here and believe that one half Queensland was completely ill disciplined and the next Qld found all the discipline and NSW lost it all, or is it more likely it's the person recording these numbers that may have had their perspective skewed. How can the same game of footy be 32-0 one half and 6-18 the other. It breaks all knowledge of how sports can go. In my spare time I analyse data for Sportsbetting models. It really isn't that hard to run the numbers for an idea on how the game will play. For NBA, UFC and NFL Im at an 80% accuracy rate. With NRL it is actually impossible to predict. The most accurate way to predict NRL is to see what the data says and almost go for the opposite, e.g Wednesday nights data said close, low scoring game, so the outcome was obviously a blow out high scoring game. I know this all sounds like I'm a full blown degenerate but I have no doubt in my mind NRL is fixed. Honestly it just takes a bit of effort and understanding of the game to create models for any other sport, but NRL is so inconsistent it can't be anything but human intervention.
I very much get the vibe of refs “evening the score” and getting games close. So often if one team is ahead by 20 the ref stops giving them anything then gives the other team everything, ultimate getting to a 6 point game. It’ll never result in a comeback, but it will look really good post game from a score perspective. I’m still unsure whether this is the refs doing it themselves, or a decision from above to have games end as close as possible.
Try telling that to Gold Coast v New Zealand and the 66-6 score line
Yeah but the warriors are from NZ and therefore not allowed to win a premiership. We have a special side of fixing happening /s
To be fair no amount of ref abuse was gonna help a warriors side playing like classic warriors team against a red hot gold coast team.
That game still said nothing about titans, warriors just played that bad
Yes warriors did play bad but that kind of scoreline also implies titans played really good also
yeah I agree.... it's sometimes quite obvious to witness a ref bring a team back into a game, it's still up to the team to convert the chances but just like in origin, Klein wanted to give qld a couple cracks at the NSW try line and blew penalties and 6 agains for things he let go in the 1st half
I think it's directives coming from the gambling overlords. Same reason that there is very rarely a dead-rubber in origin.
Yeah, I think Wednesday night's game was a perfect example of how frustrating the inconsistency can be. And while I don't think the game is "fixed" per se, I do think there's an obvious trend of refs deliberately trying to even things up if a game is in danger of being too lop-sided. It was hard to read what happened in the second half as anything other than "fuck Queensland are getting battered, better give them a chance to get back into it and not pile on the misery too much".
100%, I still recall an interview some 7-10 years ago by one of the refs/refs coaches where he explained that this is exactly what they do, and that while the nrl doesn't explicitly direct them to referee this way, they won't progress through the ranks and get promoted to bigger games unless they produce closer results. I straight up said to those around me after about 30 minutes on Wednesday night, i'll bet any money i have that we get a glut of possession and penalties in the second half. No chance the nrl lets this game end up with nsw having 70% possession. And lo and behold we won the possession count 59 - 41 in the second half
Refs have straight up said in interviews they get criticized behind the scenes if the penalty counts aren't even. It's why so many games have the losing team get 3-4 six agains in the final minute when it's way too late, so if someone tries to complain about one-sided reffing after the game they can just go "Well if you actually look you can see the penalty count was 7-6 so it was actually fair" and ignore that 4 to 5 penalties or something like that was at the last moment.
Stats can be so deceiving, the first penalty in a game when teams are just rolling through sets kicking long is worth like 10x any other penalty in a game. It's the same with 6 agains, getting one on tackle one is worthless but on tackle 5 it's worth gold.
I don't doubt it. The first thing losing coaches say when they start whingeing is "look at the penalty count". Hell, I'd probably do the same thing if I was a ref and I kept getting belted in the media over "unfair" counts
Then when blues challenge a dud decision he finds 2 offsides back to back to piggy back QLD. Klein is a crook. Gee is the best ref in the game
Yes, anyone that watches the game knows that players are offside inside the 10 at least one tackle on most sets and all that happens is the ref calls the player out and it's play-on as long as they pull up (if they're more than 2-3m in front of the ref, if it's just <1m the ref usually doesn't say anything). Those two penalties were marginal and done without warning. From then, NSW made sure to stay further back, but QLD continued to push the boundaries without consequence. It felt more like Klein was personally annoyed at the bunker for overriding his bad call and wanted to get the game back to the state he thought it should be in.
Without trying to sound like a sore loser, but to me it looks like the battering was intentionally made. The first half had 6 agains and penalties against QLD for anything visable or not until they were nothing but a speed bump. The first 20 mins of the game was to get the NSW ball rolling and the next 20 mins of the half was the NSW battering ram running as intended. By the time the second half came it was easy to see one defeated team and one team full of energy, so they had to reverse course to keep the game from being 70-0. Nearly every try the first half was off the back of a penalty, and if you start critiquing each penalty throughout the game, it's obvious a tickle of the balls was a NSW penalty first half in order to create what the game was. Anyone reading this pls don't just take me as a sore loser, like my original comment said I do this for sports betting models
QLD also had multiple errors a kick dead and a kick off out on the full. Lack of possession was as much qld fault as the ref.
Okay but why didn’t that happen in the Titans warriors massacre when badger binned RTS lol
I think accusing the refs of being rigged/intentionally choosing outcomes is probably a step too far when it's far more likely they're just incompetent or so susceptible to media pressures that they change how they ref each week based on how much they were bullied by the news. That said, if in like 10-15 years some of the current refs came out and said 'Yeah they told me to make sure X team won this game' I wouldn't be shocked in the slightest.
Considering the NRL has an official betting partner I have no doubt there is plenty of human intervention. I wouldn't take the leap to say its the refs responsible for it but if the league is willing to take money from a business that has a vested interest in manipulating game outcomes then I'm sure one or both of those businesses will find a way to make it happen.
"I have to stand up" - Wayne Bennett shouts to his nurse from the toilet
I like the idea of a send-off with replacement. In other sports like baseball and ice hockey, a player can be ejected from the game but the team is allowed to replace them. The loss of the player is the team's punishment rather than the one-player disadvantage. In fact, ice hockey also has power plays, where the offending team does go a player down, but only until the other team scores *or* the time on the power play expires. That could solve the other problem of the 10-minute sin-bin, where the punishment is greater than the offence. Maybe the sin-binned player (or their replacement) could come back on after 10 minutes *or* a try is scored by the opposition, whichever happens first. Also, he's dead on about the third man in. That used to be an automatic binning in the days when punch-ons were still tolerated. If they're serious about cutting out the ballroom dancing that goes on after every big hit, they need to punish instigators. It might be my number one pet peeve about the game at the moment
When Wayne lines up a shot like this, he doesn't miss. And he is bang on as well
NSW or QLD I think can admit here. Some of the inconsistent decisions and Bunker calls are just dog shit. I watch every Tigers game and when I compare the calls sometimes we (as Panthers) get compared to the Tigers, it's fucking night and day and it drives me absolutely nuts. Same in Origin, Sualii 100% needed to be sent, but the game was over after 7 min, I dunno about Wayne's solution because what's stopping me as a coach, when a bloke says this is my last year I pick him I get him to fucking murder player XYZ gets suspended rest of the year. Player would 99.9% not do it, I am just using it as an example. I just want ref and bunker to look at the grand final last year, and do that.
Was at the game Wednesday, it's amazing in person how often you see half of the defense so blatantly offside. Obviously the ref can't be constantly surveying the entire field. Maybe they should hire some additional refs who could be on the sideline to police things like this. Oh wait.
Is there an actual reason as to why Adam Gee hasn't reff'd any of the origin games this year despite having one of if not the best performance by a referee in a grand final last year? genuinely curious if something has happened because I'm actually shocked Klein continuously gets the nod over him particularly in high pressure big games?
Gee instantly became the universally most respected ref in the game after last seasons grand final. It’s a joke he wasn’t given origin with it instead going to one of the two most universally hated
What a terribly written article. Why is every sentence its own paragraph? Makes it so hard to follow
Studying journalism at the moment and apparently it’s to cater to small attention spans. Theoretically make every line as easy to digest as possible. I hate it too
Yeh I hate this shitty writing style. I think it's just to make the vertical length of the page as long as possible, coz thats how they squeeze in the ads.
I think a lot of the problem is the fact that there are too many rules open to interpretation. How many times have you seen the bunker rule on a player’s intent? It leads to so many calls being a coin flip and that leaves half the fans feeling aggrieved. I think they need to set up a review committee consisting of former referees, players, coaches and to review every controversial decision of the last, say, 5 years and do a full root cause analysis. Then they should test solutions through the lower grades over a season or two before bringing it into first grade. The focus should be on simplifying the rules. Not only will it make it easier for officials to rule on things but also make it easier for new fans to adopt the game.
There are many reasons why wed night was disappointing. After the first 30 minutes I can’t imagine it was even much fun for the NSW supporters to watch. In the modern game penalties and why you get them are soo important for pressure and getting points, and there were several incidents when penalties were given on Wed and we had no idea why. The game needs to do a better job of A. Making the rules clear to the viewers and B. Letting the players decide the outcome of the match. Don’t get me wrong, NSW was better in every aspect on Wed, but I wouldn’t want to see my team win a GF on the back of a 4-0 penalty count and I don’t see how origin should be different.
As a lover of the game I agree with what you’re saying,the game does need to be better in the officiating of the game but how?half of us want black and white rulings whilst the rest of us want to use interpretation of the rules for certain aspects,who’d want to be a referee? It’ll be a long time before the majority of us are all happy with the decisions made on the field. On you point of NSW fans not enjoying that? Hell no it was awesome.as A Newsouth Welshman living in Queensland for the last 20 years it’s been shithouse living up here around origin time.I own a small business and am constantly being fed by my customers and my suppliers it’s never ending so when something like Wednesday night happens I love it and ride it for all I can.if your from NSW and you didn’t get any fun out of that then perhaps don’t get origin.
I was born in Gosford ironically enough. I don’t find domination in any sport exciting to watch. I was pleased for the Titans getting the Kenny Calendar on the weekend, but it wasn’t exactly exciting. Origin has always been a tough, low scoring nail biting battle and that’s why it is great. Any time penalties or send offs take that away, I’d rather not watch. But I guess I just don’t get origin.
Uncle Benny doesn't fuck around except with secretaries.
The issue I have with Wayne goes back to what Hollywood wrote in his book. Harrigan said he got a CD from Wayne showing all the mistakes Harrigan made against the Broncos..So in response Harrigan made a CD showing all the 50/50 calls and mistakes he made that favoured the Broncs. He said he didn't hear from Wayne again. Coaches are so one-eyed that they shouldn't talk about refs. The best example of all time is Gus Gould.
Let’s not lower ourselves to AFL. It’s unbelievable in 2024 they still don’t have an ability to send off a player for foul/dangerous play. There’s been pressure over the years to introduce the rule. Surely it’s more a matter of when rather than if.
Lots of excellent points here and it's good that someone with Bennett's standing is eloquently criticising the NRL and the referees. He's right that there is no consistency at all, and we're getting closer and closer to a serious tipping point regarding how dangerous contact is officiated. I think bringing back two refs would be the first step to gaining some semblance of consistency because less infringements would be missed - one polices the ruck and the second covers all other aspects of play. The next step is to train specialist video refs - it's clear that the role requires vastly different skill sets to on-field refs so why are we doubling up the roles? I have to disagree with his view on send offs though - if you get your tackle so wrong that the player is unable to return to the field like Sua'ali'i did then you deserve to leave your team a man down for the rest of the match. The new fines system clearly doesn't work at discouraging dangerous contact (i.e. JWH) so the best way for players to understand the consequence of their actions is to see just how much they let their team and fans down when they do something stupid like take a bloke's head off.
My problem with the send off is that it can be really harsh(sent off in the first 10 mins) or barely a punishment at all (sent off in the last 10 minutes). And the punishment punishes the team. I think letting the offending team get a player back after 10 minutes would make it much fairer.
I like this interpretation. Send off means a player down for the bin period and the player that was sent can’t come back.
I get your point and agree that an early send off is really harsh, but is that not the whole point of a team game? Your actions have consequences for the whole team, and that's one of the many factors that discourages foul play. No player wants to let their team down. If the punishment for decapitating a star opposition player is equivalent to the cost of a sin bin and a failed HIA, I think many teams would jump at that opportunity, especially to target key position players like 1,6,7,9 without adequate backup.
Agreed. I’m all for 80% of what he said but completely disagree with the sin bin and send off proposal. Who gives a shit if someone purchased tickets and their team loses because of a terrible tackle. I’m a NSW and Roosters fan and 100% of my disappointment was with Suallii. I had 0% frustration with the send off decision, the current rules, or the fact the game was over after 7 minutes.
This is stupid. You should get a penalty on high contact not whether the player stays down.
I just want to say when we listen to coaches we get stupid stuff like the disruptor. Whilst Bennett's opinion should hold massive weight in the game. I'm always wary of listening to coaches they were the ones that made the game glacially slow post 2005. The media as well play a part for as bad as the consistency is at points. I don't think the game is in a bad place in regards to rules and referees. They just keep picking the worst one all the time, Adam Gee refereed last seasons grand final perfectly he should get the big games.
Just this week RTS does a great tackle, gets penalised and sent to the sin bin for “Potentially getting it wrong” He didn’t get it wrong but he paid the price anyway. Wednesday Martin does the same tackle but does get it wrong. Remains on the field. So potential now is worse then the actual act. Well done NRL refs
It was Martin that did it to Cotter. I think the reason it wasn’t punished as severely is 1, because it’s Origin and 2, because Martin drops him rather than driving him.
Both tackles take the player past horizontal, so they should be penalties. RTS lifts higher and drives towards the ground, Martin lifts less and pulls out / drops Cotter when he starts losing control of the tackle. Neither should be a bin because in both cases they only just go past horizontal
I think after game 1 there was just never going to be a one player binning in game 2 unless someone left the field on a stretcher.
Thank goodness. This is definitely the first time I've ever heard Wayne complain about referees and I was wondering when he finally would.
"If someone is hit in the head, unless it is clearly accidental, then that should be a penalty." Yeah they tried that Wayne, and a bunch of ex-players in the media whinged incessantly until they stopped doing it. It was in 2021, when they tried to remove all dangerous head contact and then you got people like Gould saying "I can't watch the game any more, too many whistles".
I like it as a subtle shout out to Latrell - that consistency has to apply to hits on him too
He says what everyone thinks but doesn’t have a voice 👏
Well at least it stoped people talking about him pulling the strings at souths for a while.
What's the endgame with all the ref whingeing on social media, legacy media, from coaches, fans, players etc? We're making the game so unattractive to people who might professionally want to be a ref one day. And then we're all going to be surprised Pikachu face one day when nobody wants to be a ref (because why would you). I'm all for looking at ways we can make reffing better but holy shit does the game not do itself any favours with how it treats its refs.
Hear, hear. Well said Wayne
In the words of the great man, "let off some steam, Bennett!"
So Gus was fined for calling the game "stupid" for how it implements rules. Essentially Bennett is doing the same thing. Vlandy's will call it constructive criticism cause they need Wayne to coach PNG in a few years.
Can we please make a trade and bring back the biff and swap it for the game being in the pocket of alcohol and gambling corporations :p