Both clubs have to approve the appointment I believe so we're obviously fine with this.

The ref should have no bearing on how well/poorly we play.

He refereed wakey/warrington at the weekend, even some neutral journos were saying he was poor. Getting basic calls wrong. Had a look at the Wakey board (i know you take it with a pinch of salt as every fan thinks refs hate their club) but it sounds like Mcmullern all over again in his refusal to use a card for repeated foul play.

To be clear, the reason why we lost at home to Workington was 100% nothing to do with the referee whatsoever. We played poorly, the team selection was wrong and Workington did the basics right and took their chances.

Yes they were a bit fortunate with the kick hitting the ref but that was a freak occurrence and unlikely to happen again.

Anyone freaking out because of a ref appointment sounds to me like Worky already have them beat mentally. Some of the replies on twitter to the ref announcement are an embarrassment.

Spot on Nothus.

Yep, everyone on here knew what was in store this year. Been my only bugbear with JK this year when he's been referencing how slow the play the ball is at this level. It's never going to change, we know what's coming and need to be ready for it and (should) have more than enough talent to be dealing with it so just get on with it, play to their ability and it'll sort itself out.

p.s. I'd take Mr Griffiths in charge than a certain Mr Ganson any day

Well said Nothus.
I heard that many people after the home defeat to them, saying how rubbish the ref was and he was the reason why we lost.
I told everybody that said to me that yes, the red was poor but he wasn’t as poor as we were that day.

Play somewhere like we can, like Sunday, and we should be fine. That’s not over confident at all, just stating a fact

Well said that man.

Nothus also

I reckon Nobby called it right years ago when Bulls Fans perceived wrong calls and bias with Refs during a run of games which looked to us as costing the Team games.
He just said "the Team have to be better than they were". He was right with that pragmatic statement.

At the end of the day the day the Team has to be better than the opposition and the Officials!

It's the close loss games that usually emphasise the Officials errors be it a perceived wrong call, missed infraction or misinterpretation.
The losing Team usually had the chances to win but mistakes cost them without any of the Officials being involved!

But as a Fan its easier to criticise any other but your own Team and that won't change either!

Those of you who have or had the chance to see any of the old Big League videos will realise that Refs are far better than they were!

My annoyance is based on the fact this is supposed to be a final. Sending an inexperienced ref may be a pat on the head for him but for me it's the RFL telling Worky and us that, though it's an important game for us, they couldn't really give a toss about it.

You won't see him in the GF will you?

He is a super league ref. He literally reffed a super league game last week.

..but he's no Hicks is he? There are top drawer refs sat on their hands this weekend which could, though admittedly not much I suppose, have added to the pomp of the occasion.

How can anyone say the RFL are not taking it serious. We've got in goal judges this week !!!

By all accounts he was way out of his depth. We've been in the championship/L1 now for 4 years and i don't remember too many games he has refereed us in them four years, if any. So i'm not sure if he's being fast-tracked.

I agree with you that it's down to us, the ref certainly isn't biased, or like some idiot said on social media, because he's refereed Worky already this season, then they have some sort of advantage

My grievance is i want to watch a good fair game, like we saw Sunday, a referee in control and any BS like throwing the ball away, he sends them to the sin-bin. I don't want to watch a repeat of the Mcmullern farce, high shot after high shot not being punished. I don't expect Ben Thaler, but one of the less experienced SL refs would have been fine or even a more experienced championship ref.

Anyway, i was glad to see the clever so-and-so who runs Worky's social media account get called out. Yet again he was trying to paint the Bulls in a bad light by looking for idiot fans comments and retweeting them on the official club account. Got called out on it by some media and has since taken them down. If my clubs official account ever starts retweeting angry opposition fans silly tweets, we've officially become small time.

Yeaaaah!! We're in the big time now. Jesus, we'll get a mention on Look North next... well, assuming there's no big netball match in Sheffiield, that is.