I think he's absolute crap

I went to watch Batley and London last night, Jamie Bloom was ref and I thought he had a very good game. I think the fact he is an ex player was no coincidence. There was a few high shots but he only pulled the ones that were really obvious not the ones that were on the chest and ended up fairly high and I think that was because he has played the game.

If Hicks, Childs are Cobb are some of the best we are in big trouble

Don't think any are the 'finished article' as yet and I agreed that Cobb totally 'lost it' in the game at Leigh, but he refereed well in the later, less 'intense' games which, just like a kid in the academy, suggests he's still on a learning curve. I guess that's just the way it is in the lower divisions. For my two pennorth, much of the blame goes to the referees' controller, who picked someone who wasn't ready for the job, rather than just the man in the middle.

To be fair, I think we should give them a chance and, whilst I'll always reserve the right to criticise, I wouldn't pull on that ref's jersey for all the tea in China, so they'll always get the credit for that.

www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk/a ... wo-matches

www.doncasterrugbyleague.co.uk/a ... wo-matches

Why does it take so long for these things to be heard?

It seems grossly unfair that Gaskell was quite badly injured by that deliberate elbow (watch the incident on Bulls TV)
and we were deprived of his and Bailles services for the Dewsbury game, whilst Doncaster played both men for the trip to London.
It's almost as if the RFL view offences in the championship less damaging than SL?

Fairness is not what the "F" stands for is it!

Well, Groak is up tomorrow. I hope the grub gets the maximum.

Guess he'll get the reduction for a first offence [in the UK] if he makes the early guilty plea.

Is Gaskell's reported jaw injury as a result of the Groat incident?

No jaw injury has been reported, so if he does have a jaw injury, then for all we know he could have done it shaving.

Groak should get the max for his grubby shot, regardless of whether he caused an injury or not.

I wondered about that too.

I think there have been rumours on twitter [shock horror, who would have thought that...] but nothing actually from serious sources. Of course, they could be correct for once!

Groat gets a 3 game ban. Ridiculous.

Anthony England ony getting 4 for deliberately spitting at opponent too. The RFL disciplinary panel are unbelivably soft.

I agree with you on the Jaime bloem thing! He knows the ins and outs of the games and knows high shots happen in the spur of the moment! But on the other hand he will jump on any foul play and is consistent for both teams this is why we need more ex players reffing

To be fair, I'd bet most referees have played the game - though not necessarily at pro, or semi-pro level.

We don't "need more ex-players reffing", if you mean SL reffing as a career pathway for SL players, it is ridiculous. For one thing, just because you play SL doesn't mean you'd be any better at reffing than the Dalai Lama.

Surely someone who chose to be a referee at an early stage, and has had many years of officiating at various levels of the game until reaching the top level, is the only sensible route to fill the bulk of places. And nobody is stopping ex players from applying, are they?