Monday Buzz: NRL ignores plea to end refereeing crisis
TWO weeks ago at the NRL chief executives’ conference, the most respected voice in the room started a conversation about the standard of refereeing this season. Sadly, Todd Greenberg didn’t listen.
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TWO weeks ago at the NRL chief executives’ conference, the most respected voice in the room started a conversation about the standard of refereeing this season.
Gold Coast Titans boss Graham Annesley has more rugby league DNA than all of us. When he talks, you stop and listen. Sadly, Todd Greenberg didn’t.
Annesley is a former state minister for sport, former NRL deputy CEO and a man who refereed 244 first-grade games plus State of Origins and finals.
It was his idea to set up a bunker 10 years before the game did. He introduced video try referrals for the first time in Super League.
Annesley is renowned for being calm and measured, unlike a lot of us lunatics.
He doesn’t have a controversial bone in his body and hates referee bashing.
We received a phone call over the weekend from a club chief executive inside the Moore Park conference room on May 22 when Annesley pleaded with Greenberg to fix the refereeing crisis.
MORE MONDAY BUZZ: Weekend highlights, lowlights
It wasn’t a blow-up but more a critical assessment of how the crackdown is ruining the spectacle.
He’d had feedback from fans who were finding it a giant turn-off. That the game was becoming as boring as rugby union.
The Titans had won the previous weekend, so it was nothing to do with his own side.
According to an insider, Annesley used words to the effect of: “The problem is the way they are being coached. They are just refereeing to instructions.
“I’m really concerned about the way they are being coached and it needs to be addressed.
“There are different rule interpretations in different areas of the field, which is unheard of.”
There was overwhelming support for Annesley inside the meeting and during the lunch break.
Greenberg has had three weeks to act on it but has done nothing.
Last week Greenberg told the rugby league world that State of Origin would be refereed the same way as club football. It was a rubbish statement.
There were only five penalties in Origin and none in the final 53 minutes.
Everyone loved it. A beautiful free-flowing exhibition of rugby league.
It took less than 88 minutes to play the whole game. The ball was in play for 60 minutes.
That’s EIGHT minutes more football than the average club game this season.
Then on Friday night they again blew the pea out of the whistle. The Penrith versus Canberra game went for 10 minutes longer than Origin, yet the ball-in-play time was 52 minutes.
Wally Lewis summed it up best on Channel 9: “Referees are searching for a level of perfection that doesn’t exist”.
Paul Vautin added: “They have lost their feel for the game”.
Fatigue has disappeared from the game. Even a veteran like Robbie Farah, who has hardly played an NRL game all year, is coasting through his matches.
The problem is we are dealing with an NRL administration that refuses to accept genuine criticism.
An organisation that will never admit it is wrong.
And an administration that blindly ignores men like Annesley, who has more football knowledge in his big toe than the entire refereeing department.
I have never seen as much social media outrage as I did on Friday night.
This tweet from Phil Gould was a beauty: “Really enjoyed Friday Night Refereeing tonight. Every now and then the football threatened to get in the way, but to their credit, the refs were having none of that. They kept the whistle blowing. Referee coaches should feel proud of their team. Well done to all concerned.”
Really enjoyed Friday Night Refereeing tonight. Every now and then the football threatened to get in the way, but to their credit, the refs were having none of that. They kept the whistle blowing. Referee coaches should feel proud of their team. Well done to all concerned.
— Phil Gould (@PhilGould15) June 8, 2018
Of more concern was this one from Tommy from Campbelltown: “@Todd_Greenberg I’m down visiting my 85-year-old father-in-law. He tells me ‘I’ve followed the game for 75 years but I can’t watch anymore. It’s sad seeing something you love die slowly’.”
I’m sick to death of writing about referees.
It’s only for the encouragement of fans. They want the blowtorch kept on this failing administration until it is fixed and we get our game back.
We can’t sit back and allow good rugby league men like Annesley to be ignored.
TAKING YOUR TIME
WEDNESDAY NIGHT
Penalties: NSW 4 Queensland 1. Total 5
Match time: 88 minutes
Ball in play: 60 minutes
FRIDAY NIGHT
Penalties: Canberra 9 Penrith 6. Total 15
Match time: 98 minutes
Ball in play: 52 minutes