There can be no more excuses for the NRL’s pathetic refereeing and football departments
AFTER a season of deflecting the truth and avoiding responsibility, there is no more hiding for referees boss Bernard Sutton or the NRL’s pathetic football department, writes PHIL ROTHFIELD.
Opinion
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ON Friday night after the Cronulla Sharks beat Canberra your columnist sent a text message to Raiders coach Ricky Stuart.
It simply said: “That was the most hollow victory in Sharks history.”
Two competition points at this time of the year are gold but this weekend, as a Cronulla Sharks fan, it didn’t feel right. The Raiders were dudded.
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First by the touch judge who put his flag in the air to stop play in the second-half only for referee Gerard Sutton to ignore him and allow play to continue for Sione Katoa to score for Cronulla.
And later when Joey Leilua threw one of the most magnificent cut-out passes of the season to set up a Raiders try only to have it called back as a forward pass.
The refereeing standards in the NRL have now reached their lowest point.
There are inconsistencies every week, every game.
Now the Canberra Raiders are done and dusted for the year. They’ll admit they’ve played poorly and inconsistently but that doesn’t mean they had to cop what happened on Friday night.
I’ve been saying for months the NRL needs to put a bomb under its football department.
Brian Canavan, Jason King and Bernard Sutton have sat back and done nothing about this mess.
We had a crackdown that destroyed the first 14 rounds as a spectacle. Then Todd Greenberg calls a press conference and tells the referees to back off and stop the nitpicking.
Four weeks later we get another crackdown.
Policy on the run and a new rule every week. The problem is there is absolutely no accountability.
Referees boss Sutton is one of the most egotistical officials I’ve met in four decades covering the game. He lives in denial and does not have the skills to do the job.
There’s this shocking arrogance about him and the entire football department.
What would the media know? What would the fans know?
I’ve been banging on all year about the terrible standard of refereeing.
And each time the text message arrives from the same senior NRL executive: “You’re just obsessed with referees.”
We had hope at the start of the season when Michael Maguire was appointed to the referees coaching ranks. At least he’d know how to deal with the clubs, coaches and the players.
Sadly he’s made no impact. Like when Bob Fulton was hired as a consultant two years ago but left a couple of months later because he couldn’t get through to them. What would he know?
Tony Archer was supposed to step aside but is still calling the shots behind the scenes.
Russell Smith, for goodness sake. Why is this man even involved? Can you believe he’s a coach and he’s on the weekly selections panel.
Appointments are made on favouritism rather than form. It’s just disgraceful.
Every week it’s the same. Gerard Sutton, Ashley Klein and Henry Perenara get the top appointments.
Klein cost the Wests Tigers victory against the Broncos in round three and probably a finals berth.
He was then promoted to handle the biggest club game of the year on Anzac Day and then three Origin matches. No probs. It was only the Wests Tigers. Just like Canberra. Who cares?
Never mind the fact the Tigers should be equal eighth with the Broncos. Instead they’re four points outside the eight.
Last week it was the Titans and the farcical Sean O’Sullivan try. It’s just a merry-go-round of mistakes.
Meanwhile the best referee we’ve had since Bill Harrigan, Matt Cecchin, has been treated like an outcast. His confidence is shattered.
Here is a guy who has done some of the best grand finals we’ve ever seen and Origins yet was made an assistant to Perenara for a weekend. The ultimate insult.
Every week I get emails from disgruntled fans like this one on Friday night.
“I’ve been a rugby league fan all my life. I drive two hours to get to games. Referees are now deciding games, not players. I’ve had enough. They’ve ruined the game.”
An old mate, Peter the Greek, 72, has been watching the game for nearly 60 years.
He rang me on Saturday and said: “I can’t watch anymore.”
This time of the year the excitement should be building. September, spring and finals football.
A jammed top eight from which any side can lift the trophy.
Instead everyone’s cranky and dirty on the game.
If Todd Greenberg is not prepared to fix it, the independent commission needs to step in.
We need changes made now. Today, because next week is too late.
No more #NRLtalkthegameup. No more telling us to ‘grow up.’ Just fix it.