Penaltyathon

[Dexter]

I don't like the dive but IMO too much has been made of this because along with other tactics this slowing down of the play needs to be stamped out.

Sure it was super soft and deliberate but Slater is entitled to take the quick tap, Lewis is not the captain so is not supposed to be questioning the ref and should not be reaching out to grab Slater when he realises he has left a hole in the line.
If you put yourself in that position you get what you get.

 

[broncos4life]

There is one area the refs need to crack down on, it's dives.

The fact that Lewis was punished for this and Slater wasn't is ridiculous.

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The more disturbing thing about this is the general consensus that I have seen from the media about this is that it is funny, and the old 'good on him'. **** that, it's cheating and a fucking awful look for the game but because precious lil billy willy did it, it's 'gamesmanship'.

 

[CaptainHook]

Yeah...but

nobody wants to see the ref blow the pea out of the whistle every game as either.

There is a balance.

On one hand, referees need to enforce the rules. On the other they can't blow the pea every second because that ruins the 'flow' of the game.

As someone else said, the NRL need to instruct the clubs that 30+ penalties will not be tolerated. On the Sharks Storm game Slater, Chambers, Segeyaro all should've been sent.

What we're seeing now is the end result of a code that can't decide whether it wants to be a professional sport or an entertainment product.

I was wrong - I thought for sure the NRL was happy to go over the cliff and end up with a product that is two steps away from professional wrestling. Remember, by hook or by crook, a 'close' and 'entertaining' game is the order of the day.

That just happens to coincidence with a record breaking television rights deal but that's totally unrelated. Move along, nothing to see there...

Seeing them wrench back the other way has been refreshing.

Dinosaurs like Gould and Johns are asking what if the fans leave with this penalty blitz? Well, they're leaving anyway. They're going to watch WWE. It's more realistic.

Average crowds are the lowest they've been in over a decade. Dwindling ratings to the point where Fox Sports were caught out doctoring the crowds with CGI to make it look like more people were attending.

A telltale sign of a healthy sporting code!!!

This is the first genuine attempt I've seen from the NRL to convince the sporting public that the code is a legitimate sport and somehow try to convince thousands of lapsed fans that ran away screaming that it's safe to come back.

 

[Number6]

Watching post game of Titans Bunnies made me sick seeing the king with those sycophants Johns and Fatty.

They made the entire case why we need more penalties enforced and didn’t realise it. They admitted teams are trying to get away with sh*t by holding down or being offside so their solution is let them... They talked about how great he origin was with no penalties (forgot 5-1 count conveniently and NSW lying on the ruck all night) and their argument is let the players sort out who wins... why bother with refs by their logic just let players play and see what happens. Cheating won’t be encouraged at all we’ll just go honour system hey? They advocate letting the players decide who wins but how is that possible when they argue for ‘game management’ where refs decide arbitrarily on which penalties are worth blowing and which interfere with flow of the game!

How about instead we have a set of rules, make them relatively simple, enforce them consistently. If highly paid professional teams and coaches can’t play by these rules they get to see how they go with 12 or 11 on the field. I agree don’t need 17 penalties a game. After first one or two of that type then rest of the game they are on notice next one goes to the bin or if more than x penalties per game then bin (preferably 5 mins bin). After that bin every second penalty. They will learn or lose - don’t have a problem there.

As long as these douches are pushing back (is it their agenda or someone elses, hilarious they accuse the refs of being controlled by higher powers) of course teams will be encouraged to keep pushing, waiting for crackdown to end.

For me issue isn’t the enforcement of rules it’s the inconsistent messages and failure to escalate more quickly and consistently to the bin or other options than often meaningless penalties on the 20.

Imagine how free flowing game can be without wrestling slowing ruck, guys 2m offside every play and teams taking the p*ss with deliberate penalties inside their own 20. If players are afraid of giving a penalty will stop breaking rules or won’t be on field to break rules either way penalty count problem solved.

Not only that but can’t keep chasing the quick buck with fairytales and no penalty games. Integrity means longevity for the game. If you want WWE watch that. I know a number of genuine fans who refuse to watch because of perceptions of bias or poor officiating in general. The commentators are a close second on sh*t list mind you.

 

[Morkel]

Once again we’re seeing something that should be straight-forward and beneficial long-term being screwed up by the NRL.

In theory, we should be seeing teams with poor discipline (or more accurately, trying to cheat) being penalised out of games if they don’t clean up their act. Instead, gutless refs are trying to keep the count even, or give the team behind on the scoreboard a leg up, by finding or manufacturing ghost penalties. They’re shit scared of being blamed for a loss if there was a penalty count of, say, 15 to 2, even if those numbers were justified by each team’s actions.

 

[scobie]

Once again we’re seeing something that should be straight-forward and beneficial long-term being screwed up by the NRL.

In theory, we should be seeing teams with poor discipline (or more accurately, trying to cheat) being penalised out of games if they don’t clean up their act. Instead, gutless refs are trying to keep the count even, or give the team behind on the scoreboard a leg up, by finding or manufacturing ghost penalties. They’re shit scared of being blamed for a loss if there was a penalty count of, say, 15 to 2, even if those numbers were justified by each team’s actions.

To be fair the refs seemed to go out of their ways last night to screw the titans. With no attempt of a square up. I think it ended up 12-4 in favour of the rabbits. The most frustrating thing is watching two games in a row and seeing a completely different application of the rules. I understand the view of "if you dont break the rules, you don't get penalised", but in fairness to the players, what one ref will blow, another will let go. It's hugely frustrating.

 

[tommy]

The funniest ones are when the ref a metre or 2 from the ball will yell play on or knock back and then a second or 2 later the other ref who is 15 metres away will decide he got it wrong.

 

[Nashy]

The funniest ones are when the ref a metre or 2 from the ball will yell play on or knock back and then a second or 2 later the other ref who is 15 metres away will decide he got it wrong.

It's a tossup between that, or sending it upstairs when the ref is right next to the try, looking directly at the ball, and still refuses to make a call, instead sending it up to check it the grass is at the right height.

 

[Huge]

Once again we’re seeing something that should be straight-forward and beneficial long-term being screwed up by the NRL.

In theory, we should be seeing teams with poor discipline (or more accurately, trying to cheat) being penalised out of games if they don’t clean up their act. Instead, gutless refs are trying to keep the count even, or give the team behind on the scoreboard a leg up, by finding or manufacturing ghost penalties. They’re shit scared of being blamed for a loss if there was a penalty count of, say, 15 to 2, even if those numbers were justified by each team’s actions.

Are you saying NSW were near perfect the other night while the Qlders were deliberately flaunting the rules ?

 

[Super Freak]

There is one thing that is giving me the shits at the moment and it makes no sense.

The Raiders were awarded a try last night after Peachey lost the ball and despite a touch from Austin, they said he wasn't playing at it and it was a loose carry from Peachey which was play on. They awarded it.

Then in the Titans vs Souths game. Titans were attacking the Souths line and they had an overlap but Copley passed the ball too late and he passed it into a Souths player, Titans got the ball back and they called six more despite the Souths player not playing at the ball.

 

[Morkel]

There is one thing that is giving me the shits at the moment and it makes no sense.

The Raiders were awarded a try last night after Peachey lost the ball and despite a touch from Austin, they said he wasn't playing at it and it was a loose carry from Peachey which was play on. They awarded it.

Then in the Titans vs Souths game. Titans were attacking the Souths line and they had an overlap but Copley passed the ball too late and he passed it into a Souths player, Titans got the ball back and they called six more despite the Souths player not playing at the ball.

Was the Souths player attempting to make a tackle? If a pass strikes the arm of a player looking to affect a tackle, they deem it to be played at. But it's only when the ball is being passed - either it's just left an attacking players's hands and it hits the arm of someone coming in to tackle them, or it's about to be received by another attacking player through a pass and someone coming in to tackle them hits the ball with their arm.

 

[Huge]

Once again we’re seeing something that should be straight-forward and beneficial long-term being screwed up by the NRL.

In theory, we should be seeing teams with poor discipline (or more accurately, trying to cheat) being penalised out of games if they don’t clean up their act. Instead, gutless refs are trying to keep the count even, or give the team behind on the scoreboard a leg up, by finding or manufacturing ghost penalties. They’re shit scared of being blamed for a loss if there was a penalty count of, say, 15 to 2, even if those numbers were justified by each team’s actions.

Err, I asked you a question there Mork's ! The ref in the origin didn't try to even up the penalty count or give the team behind on the scoreboard a leg up so, according to the above the ref correctly found the nsw team was perfect while qld were poorly disciplined. Are you now saying the refs showed intestinal fortitude and correctly penalised a poorly disciplined, cheating the rules Qld ?

 

[Thelmus]

I don't know about the rest of you but it blows me away that refs are expected to have anything to do with the "flow" of the game.
You are expected to ignore some infringements and call others? Based on what? Their timing between infringements? Who would seriously argue that?
I would love to see the refs say "to hell" with the flow and just call it as they see it. You don't have a "little bit" of a knock on and you don't have a "little bit" of a forward pass. They either are or they aren't. Why not the same with offsides and slowing the play-the-balls?
Get one interpretation and go with it.
What is destroying the game isn't referees calling penalties as they see it, but everyone's different interpretation of the same rules!
That and the constant stoppages for video refereeing. It destroys everything that is meant to lead to a faster game.
Give the coach a certain number of challenges a season (less than the number of games), and finished with an incorrect call. They have one chance a match (renewed on an overturned decision) and let them decide for themselves how much the refs are wrong.
Refs caught on an overturned decision can't ref that team's next game. It might have it's flaws but it is the best I can think of.

 

[Battler]

Err, I asked you a question there Mork's ! The ref in the origin didn't try to even up the penalty count or give the team behind on the scoreboard a leg up so, according to the above the ref correctly found the nsw team was perfect while qld were poorly disciplined. Are you now saying the refs showed intestinal fortitude and correctly penalised a poorly disciplined, cheating the rules Qld ?

Origin is one of those 'special' games with a different rule set. QLD lost a count something like 9-1 a couple of years ago. That's how it should be in the real comp (NRL).

EDIT: They let too much go in Origin IMO.

 

[tommy]

QLD lost a count something like 9-1 a couple of years ago.

That was so that cockhead Gallen could have his "fairytale" farewell when they had already lost the series.

 

[Sproj]

I don't know about the rest of you but it blows me away that refs are expected to have anything to do with the "flow" of the game.
You are expected to ignore some infringements and call others? Based on what? Their timing between infringements? Who would seriously argue that?
I would love to see the refs say "to hell" with the flow and just call it as they see it. You don't have a "little bit" of a knock on and you don't have a "little bit" of a forward pass. They either are or they aren't. Why not the same with offsides and slowing the play-the-balls?
Get one interpretation and go with it.
What is destroying the game isn't referees calling penalties as they see it, but everyone's different interpretation of the same rules!
That and the constant stoppages for video refereeing. It destroys everything that is meant to lead to a faster game.
Give the coach a certain number of challenges a season (less than the number of games), and finished with an incorrect call. They have one chance a match (renewed on an overturned decision) and let them decide for themselves how much the refs are wrong.
Refs caught on an overturned decision can't ref that team's next game. It might have it's flaws but it is the best I can think of.

The problem with that is, you will have a LOT of times where the decision is clearly wrong, ala Slater’s drop kick try but the video ref will uphold it and the club loses a review.

 

[Thelmus]

The problem with that is, you will have a LOT of times where the decision is clearly wrong, ala Slater’s drop kick try but the video ref will uphold it and the club loses a review.

I can't solve being at odds with all the officialdom. You could always throw a post match appeal system if need be but you'd also have to be pretty unlucky to lose all your appeals to incorrect calls of the video review. Atleast there would be less time taken on seemingly obvious decisions, referees taught to be decisive once more, whilst maintaining a video review of the contentious calls.
If bad video refs cause a problem, have a review each half (but still less than the games, so as to not let them get abused)

 

[Super Freak]

There is going to be an ease on the penalty crackdown. Sounds like the NRL have caved too media pressure.

Also, a change has been made to the sin bin rule. Players that commit serious acts of foul play will now be sin binned regardless of whether the victim plays on or not. Beforehand, they could only sin bin if the victim wasn't able to play on.