No.

Precedents were set in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 for the same referee to get the FE and the GF.

Either Silverwood or Ganson will get the GF so both will need to be on their best behaviour. No more asking if the kicker was onside or imaginary offences by the team in possession.

Maybe I have missed something, but where's Ben Thaler? Haven't seen him reffing anything for a while x

He did the St Helens surprise home loss to Les Catalans in Round 27.

I doubt we'll see him again at this level for a while after that.

According to the bleating on The Entertainers this is good news for Leeds as Silverwood is a well known Leeds fan and home banker.

Oh the irony...

Richard Silverwood with Leeds W W W W W W W W W W L W W W W W W W W L W L L L L L L W L W L W W W W W W

Played 39, Won 28, Drawn 0, Lost 11, 72%

Richard Silverwood with Leeds W L L L W L W W W

Played 20, Won 15, Drawn 0, Lost 5, 75%

I don't really think Mr Ganson will show any bias, but I do think the RFL make life hard for themselves when they do this sort of thing. If you don't put a home-town ref in the game, nobody can accuse a home-town ref of influencing the outcome (whether such accusations are justified or not) and you avoid controversy.

I tend to agree with that. It would have harmed no-one to swap the refs around.

I've long since held the view that the RFL do this kind of thing deliberately to court controversy. It clearly doesn't work though.

IIRC this will be only the second game this season we've had Silverwood (Tvoc along any second to confirm or deny )

Precisely.
What difference would it have made if Ganson had reffed our game with Silverwood given the saints game?
Oh hang on they'll save on expenses.
Plus any idea what's happened to James Child running the line on big games, not seen him appointed for any games recently.