NRL 2015: Wake up refs, you’re wrecking the game, says Barry Dick

LIVE chat and vote now: The NRL has enough problems on and the off the field without having to deal with ridiculous mistakes by the referees.

Penrith's Dallin Watene-Zelezniak's no-try against the Roosters

THE NRL has enough problems on and the off the field without having to deal with ridiculous mistakes by the referees.

Apparently the NRL has spent more than $15 million on referees over the past 12 months and of the evidence from the weekend’s round of matches, that’s money down the drain.

We’re not exactly asking much of the refs: Just do your jobs, fellas.

BLUNDER: Outrage over ‘stinker’ of a ruling

There were plenty of errors we could talk about from Round 3 but let’s just concentrate on two.

Young Panthers winger Dallin Watene-Zeleniak is one of the NRL up-and-coming stars. He’s quiet, well-spoken and a talented athlete. He could be a poster boy for the game for years to come.

Panther's Dallin Watene Zelezniak. Picture: Gregg Porteous

Unfortunately, right now he is a poster boy for refereeing blunders.

On Monday night, Watene-Zeleniak scored a great rugby league try. The athleticism he showed was amazing and the video of what he achieved could have been used on highlights reels forever.

But then someone with a whistle and a couple of other geezers in the video referees’ box decided to disallow the try on the basis of a minuscule doubt that he had control of the ball.

The previous night, at Robina, the referee and video refs somehow did allow a “try” to Knights centre Dane Gagai after a blatant knock-on by prop Korbin Sims in the lead-up.

Sims clearly got a touch on the pass across him and Titans players half-stopped while they waited for the whistle to blow.

Incredibly, the referees and video referees somehow thought Sims knocked the ball backwards which was a physical impossibility.

It was a knock-on and the Titans should have had a scrum feed in the Knights half instead of Gagai scoring between the posts.

Gagai’s try was worth six points; the Titans lost by two, you do the maths.

So instead of talking about the great football produced by the Broncos against the Cowboys or Dylan Walker’s courage in playing on for the Rabbitohs with a broken hand or even Brookvale Oval’s disgraceful surface, we’re talking about referees. Again.

CHECK THE STATS, GREENIE

COWBOYS coach Paul Green doesn’t have to look far to find reasons for the early season crisis his team finds itself in after three losses from three starts; all he has to do is turn to the stats sheet.

Statistics can be made to say anything, of course, but the figures produced by key Cowboys forwards against the Broncos last Friday night should have had Green scratching his head.

Test prop Matt Scott made just five runs for 90 metres in his 55 minutes on the field, Test prop James Tamou made 13 runs for 139m in 49 minutes, former Test prop Ben Hannant made five runs for 42m in 25 minutes and Jason Taumalolo produced 14 runs for 132m in 60 minutes.

Jason Taumalolo attempts to break through the Broncos defence at Suncorp Stadium.

In contrast unheralded Jarrod Wallace played for just 25 minutes off the bench for the Broncos and made 14 runs for 125m and the maligned Adam Blair made more runs and ground in similar minutes to Scott.

Wallace’s pay rate would be a third of any of the Cowboys forwards.

Is it any wonder NQ’s halves Johnathan Thurston, Michael Morgan, and before him Robert Lui, are struggling to have an impact in 2015. They’re not getting the go-forward their forwards’ sizes and reputations promised pre-season.

And hooker Rory Kostjaysen is a real problem for Green and the Cowboys. One dummy-half run for a whopping two metres isn’t giving NQ any alternatives to shovelling the ball to Thurston or Morgan and having a big forward running an in angle to be picked off by the rival forwards.

Figures aren’t everything and attitude is just as important as statistics but right now the Cowboys have neither going for them.

Unless they find something in the next few weeks, it’s going to be a long season for the northern faithful. Again.