Absolutely. And how anyone can compare him to the likes of Roby, Child, and Hicks, if beyond me.

Thaler not getting the job and Silverwood getting it, stinks to me. They haven't even been close in performance levels. Thaler is way above.

Ben Thaler has been the pick of the bunch this season but surely he screwed up his chances of landing the final when (during the Leeds-Wigan semi) he failed to go to the video referee for the second Hardaker try after McGuire had clearly knocked on. There were other mistakes the like of which are around in most games regardless of officials - but not going to the video referee (even though it was Ganson) was a huge error.

Silverwood took the other semi so one or the other was always likely to get the final.

Curse you and your common sense. It's all bribery, corruption and probably some sort of occult practise. Don't you see?

I've yet to see a reffing performance that I thought betrayed bias in 20+ years watching RL. I've seen mistakes (some bigger than others), and I've yet to see a ref who doesn't make them.

In short, not bothered who the ref is. Not interested in "he hates us" type bleating. I doubt he does. Why would he? Did Gary Hethrington run over his grandmother? Probably not. He's probably got other stuff to occupy his time instead of making voodoo doll effigies of Kevin Sinfield.

thought it might be as they usually pick one of the two referees that did the semi finals and had a bad feeling it would be Silverwood over Thaler. Pretty bad appointment from a Leeds view as the relationship between the Leeds team and Silverwood has seemed very frosty dating back to that WCC when Senior slated him and we often lose discipline more when he's in the middle, away to Wakefield a few weeks ago a recent example. Its as if just the sight of his face gets the Leeds players wound up.

Silverwood is the worst pick for Leeds, not least due to the ongoing grudge ever since (or indeed before) the 2010 WCC.

Thaler would, of course, have been the best pick both on the basis of his being by far the best ref in 2012 and the, not unrelated, fact that his player management skills are miles ahead of Silverwood's and players do not end up engaged in a war of words with him throughout the game. His penalty counts tend to be low too - partly due to that better player management.

Absent Thaler, Ganson would have been a fine pick - we've had run ins with him in the past, of course, but so has every team. When he isn't having one of his occasional crazy days he is still an excellent referee.

Not necessarily.

In 2008 Ganson did the final (and it was Saints) after Klein and Silverwood got the semis.

Same in 2007 when Klein got the first final at new Wembley after Silverwood and Ganson got the semis.

On form it had to be Thaler.

On his semi-final form, Thaler had no chance.

When your boss has to apologise for your performance, you're not going to get a reward.

Have you seen Silverwoods performances over last few weeks, let alone since the season started?

The semi had nothing to do with the decision.

Get a good start, get on the scoreboard early and we'll be reet. Take Lumpawood out of the equation.

Thaler is by far the 'form' ref of the comp this year and he should have got the gig. I think this error in the Semi-Final is overdone. I still think he made a call and stuck with it, despite it being probably the wrong call on hindsight and reflection, he waved play on and for me that was the reason he didn't go upstairs, he made his decision before the try was scored and that was that.

I think the worse ref errors of the season were both by Monsieur Alibert who failed, on 2 occasions, to be able to keep count of the number of tackles in a set... now this is a huge error anyway, but when Warrington scored off the six tackle in the dying seconds to beat Wakefield then this makes it a bigger ref error than Ganson-gate in my opinion. If Wakefield fail to make the eight by a point then a clear ref error has cost them not only the 2 points but a play-off place! Even Child hasn't balls'ed up this badly... yet!

The Ken Grénijek would think this thread is fantastic.

What he said.

Personally never liked silverwood, he comes across as an arrogant love muscle.

That said it doesn't bother me that he is ref for the game. Agree with some of the above, I doubt he sits at home all day making voodoo dolls of Leeds players. What will be will be. Don't think he is the best ref available, but equally don't think he will be anti Leeds from past

It'd be easier if I was the ref. I know most of the rules (might have to stop the clock to look a few of the more obscure ones up from time to time, but why rush?) and I'd send Lee Briers off immediately after kick off, for being Lee Briers. I'd sin bin Ryan Atkins for an offensive hairstyle as well. Then if he hadn't shaved it off when he came back on, I'd sin bin him again. Oh, and I'd rule every tacklle that stopped Ryan Bailey illegal, taking the view that if he wasn't tackled he'd have scored each time. Ryan Bailey: 15 carries, 15 penalty tries.

It'd be the greatest refereeing performance in history.

*pictures it*

Can refs have "form"? Do fans seriously follow the "form of refs"?

Deary me today.