Quote: tvoc "I'll pass on the link between Ganson and the St Helens club. We had to suffer Holdsworth re-designated as Kippax so that he could officiate at Leeds games and hand on heart I can't recall him doing us many favours quite the opposite in fact. I felt that was the bigger danger when the 'home town' bar on officials was lifted.
The bar was removed at the start of 2008 - for St Helens it's been a comparatively sp trophy cabinet by their previous high standards since. Probably just one of those quirks. Ganson used to get a lot of big games generally but couldn't officiate in any of St Helens who made plenty of semi and finals and I always [iperceived [/ithe lifting of the bar (as with the swerve employed for Holdsworth) were with him personally in mind.
I agree though that the controller shouldn't occupy the role of video referee (although his predecessor often did likewise - usually in the South of France, nice) as any mistakes that there will inevitably be - and perhaps we saw one on Monday - will undermine his authority to carry out the role of improving standards, IMO.'"
I think my biggest issue with home-town refereeing is not that I think Mr Ganson will actually behave in an untoward fashion, and I don't personally worry when he refs Leeds v Saints, but rather the issue of reputation to the game. It creates an opportunity for all kinds of hyperbole questioning the partiality of the referee. Why introduce that when there are lots of other refs available?