NRL: One referee is back, but why?
The NRL will go back to one referee for the rest of the 2020 season, but the reasons for such a move don’t wash with players, coaches or experts.
Ok, this is it.
No more doomsday referee chat after this. The threat of turning into the miserable NRL fan that thinks “the game is dying” feels too real if this goes on any longer. Although, they have just inspired a rule change…
No. Stop it.
But before going back to re-watching Round 1 and 2 and looking ahead to Round 3, there are a few things to work through.
One Referee
Players, coaches and the panel assembled for the sole purpose of providing expert advice on the possible rule changes, advised against what has since been announced.
“Nobody wants to go back to one referee,” one of the panel members told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Plenty of players have publicly spoken against the change to one referee too.
“I just can’t understand, and especially (given) the anti-wrestle and play-the-ball, why we would want to remove a referee.” — Christian Welch
“Obviously you can get away with a bit more in the ruck.” — Jesse Bromwich
“You can milk it as much as you can (in) international footy. When there’s two refs, they speed things up because they have two eyes at the ruck rather than one.” — Ken Maumalo
“Going off history when there was one referee it will probably slow it down because there will be less eyes on the ruck” — David Klemmer
Ricky Stuart, Trent Robinson, Michael Maguire, Dean Pay, Adam O’Brien, Des Hasler and Paul McGregor said much of the same as well.
So, we can pull quotes from every section of the game that speak against going back to one referee, but one quote rules them all.
“I have certainly expressed my situation with two referees. And yes, I’m a bit of a traditionalist and maybe the better option is one referee.” — Peter V’Landys
He said that in October when fronting the media for the first time as ARLC chairman. Now, it’s clear V’Landys is an excellent business man; he’s set the bar for returning to sport post-COVID in Australia and New Zealand. People said he couldn’t do it, but he did it anyway.
But, like many shrewd businessmen and women around the world right now, he’s made the most of the opportunity to force changes he otherwise wouldn’t be able to make without a global pandemic. He didn’t have the votes in October to scrap the two referee system. We’ve only seen 16 games since then. Nothing has changed on the field to warrant removing a referee part of the way through a season, and with only two weeks for players, coaches and referees to adjust. Instead, it’s being done under the guise of ‘for the fans’, cost-cutting and eradicating the wrestle.
The figure in which the NRL will save by removing the two referee system is anywhere from $1.5M to $3M. It’s a drop in the bucket when there are undoubtedly other areas of the game where money can be saved that wouldn’t directly impact the product. The product we’re hoping will be shown around the world while other codes and leagues play catch up.
As for the wrestle, it’s been there forever.
A quick search finds referees being instructed to call “held” and “play the ball” to help stop the wrestle in 1941.
Mr. Hal Morgan, a leading wrestling identity at the time, was providing wrestling tips to young footy players in 1964.
The wrestle has been part of the game since the beginning. Many of the better players in the game during rugby league’s formative years also competed and excelled in wrestling tournaments. It was considered a good skill to have.
It’s the dark arts that have made their way into the game that is the issue. Particularly a focus on the head — control the head and you control the body.
The body’s balance system works through a constant process of position detection, feedback and adjustment. The vestibular system, located just below the brain, is designed to send information about the position of the head to the brain’s movement control centre, the cerebellum. It receives messages about the body’s position and sends messages to the muscles to make any postural adjustments required to maintain balance.
That’s the sort of wrestling techniques we’re dealing with today.
That’s what needs eradicating.
Taking the closest pair of eyeballs away from that area of the game threatens to only increase the dangerous side of the wrestle.
Six Again
The six again rule has legs. It’s something that would be worth trialing in lower grades before introducing it to first grade.
Instead, we’re chucking it straight in and throwing referees under the bus at the same time.
We always hear about wanting to take pressure off referees, but this rule only adds to it.
The new rule will see referees wave a fresh set for ruck infringements that don’t result in a dropped ball. However, they also have the option to blow a full penalty.
So, it’s now up to referees to decide when a team will receive six tackles or a full penalty for the same infringement based on where, when and how often it occurs.
“We only want consistency!”
You’re not going to get it.
Funnily enough, the panel tasked with providing advice on this rule think it’s a possibility…with two referees.
Wake Me Up On May 28
Rugby League was great before the second referee was introduced in 2009 and will continue to be great in 2020. It’s not the rule changes that are the issue as much as the optics and how they’ve come about.
Referees are one of the most important parts of the game — there is no game without them. But when it’s all said and done, referees are the first to get cut when shit hits the fan.
To get there, our apparently independent commission has signed off on everything one man wants so far, no matter who speaks against it.
The game has just navigated it’s way through a global pandemic with all 16 clubs still in tact and it’s kicking off earlier than most sports around the world. We’re still going to enjoy 2020, even when the pissing competitions over one referee or two start back up again the second one makes a mistake.
Rugby league is resilient, but it’s that resilience that can make it feel so stagnant. We’ve just gone back ten years because some fans want to relive the good old days.
I just want May 28.
That’s enough of that gear.
We’re only two weeks from Round 3. I’ll have a few previews, watch lists and other on-field related pieces — with help from a smart footy friend — coming up on here before then.
Lets Gone Warriors.
