Quote: SmokeyTA "McDermott is a successful SL coach, with years of experience in the game. If he is seeing systemic failure in officiating its not only right that he sheds light on it, it is his duty to do so.
BM identified an issue and asked it to be looked in to, he clearly and deliberately distinguished the officiating and decisions in that particular game from the systemic issue he spoke about. McDermott didn’t question the officials integrity, he questioned why a pattern, outside the norm, had developed. Its exactly what he should do.
Brown on the other hand whilst he certainly didn’t question the refs integrity, he quite clearly questioned their competence.
As a question of consistency, how often do we hear coaches, commentators, players saying how the southstand gets on a referees back, and pressures him, The inference there is no different from what McDermott did'"
Pretty much agree with all but the second para, which is utter rubbish unless we saw different interviews. McDermott didn't question why a pattern outside the norm had developed, his implicit criticism was that the ref had been pressurised into giving a disproportionate number of penalties to les Cats. If other coaches have said similar re the South Stand then they too should be charged.