Heads must roll after season of clangers and confusion

SACK them. Sack Clark. Sack Simpkins. And if Harrigan and Raper can't turn the diabolical standard of refereeing on its head, sack them too.

SACK them. Sack Steve Clark. Sack Paul Simpkins. And if Bill Harrigan and Stuart Raper can't turn the diabolical standard of refereeing on its head, they should be sacked too.

The solution to the appalling standard of match officials this season starts and ends with accountability.

Forget the shoulder charge. The most pressing issue right now for the leaders of this game is the nervous tension players, coaches and the fans go through each match, wondering if another howler will cost their side victory.

The preliminary finals between Manly and Melbourne on Friday night and the Sydney blockbuster between South Sydney and the Bulldogs the following evening loom as the games of the year.

Yet there remains a growing fear - not least among those at League Central- that they could be besmirched by another inexplicable call like the one from video refs Clark and Simpkins that delivered Manly a crucial try against the Cowboys despite Kieran Foran knocking the ball forward.

This year's State of Origin series will be remembered for two bewildering calls that delivered Greg Inglis and Justin Hodges telling tries.

Now the finals have disturbingly taken a similar turn.

Harrigan's interview on The Sunday Footy Show yesterday was enlightening because it showed precisely what is wrong with the decision-making process.

"When they made it, they didn't believe it was a mistake," the referees boss said of Clark and Simpkins' decision to award a try to Michael Oldfield in the 63rd minute, despite replays showing Foran had knocked the ball on while contesting it with Cowboys captain Johnathan Thurston.

"When you're out there and you're making the decisions in the heat of the moment, you're under the pump to come up with a decision."

Sorry, but that doesn't wash. If every job in rugby league were easy, everyone would be doing it.

"Steve Clark and Paul Simpkins went through a process last night," Harrigan said. "The process was correct in the way they did it. In the end, they stuck to the policy of, 'We can't be certain he touched that ball so therefore we can't take that try off him'. You have to be certain."

That's absurd. How can everyone at Allianz Stadium, those watching on TV, those sitting in the coaches box or the press box or in the main bar of the Captain Cook hotel across the road see that Foran touched the ball, but Clark and Simpkins watching on a high definition TV not?

That's not applying the "process" of benefit of the doubt. That is watching another game, presumably on another planet.

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To his credit, Harrigan admitted that the problematic benefit of a doubt edict that favours the attacking side needs examination.

Chuck it into the review we keep hearing about.

So far this week, acting chief executive Shane Mattiske has trotted out a familiar line about the referees being looked at, just like every other aspect of the code.

It needs to go deeper than that. It needs to come up with some real answers, because the systematic problems that have been highlighted this season go well beyond the Foran decision.

Surely, though, the solution is as simple as making them accountable.

If individuals aren't up to the job, they should be sacked and not merely returned after one week.

Clark is an experienced referee, but he has been involved in some memorable clangers over the years. He was responsible for the Justin Hodges try in Origin III that potentially cost NSW a series.

In 2009, he cost the Bulldogs the minor premiership when he disallowed a try to Jamal Idris, because he unbelievably said Dragons five-eighth Jamie Soward had been impeded by Greg Eastwood.

Are Clark and Sean Hampstead - who was responsible for the Inglis decision in Origin I - the only video referees at the ARLC's disposal?

Apparently, there is a pool of 14 video refs Harrigan and Raper can chose from. So why keep selecting a video ref who so regularly gets it wrong?

Meanwhile, referee Ben Cummins was yesterday awarded the Col Pearce Medallist as the best whistleblower in the game.

Manly officials might've laughed at that one, given Cummins and Shayne Hayne on Friday night missed the sneaky hand from Ashley Graham that forced possession out of the hands of Jorge Taufua, leading to the Cowboys' second try. Another clanger, in a season of many.