There was a kid at my primary school who, before we played football at lunchtime, would insist on all the best players or he would throw a tantrum, make up the rules as he went along as ensure that he would win all the time and if he lost he would throw a tantrum and he would always go on and on about how unbeatable he was.

Sort of reminds me of the ARL.

Amen brother.

Typically poor, and expected, decision from the RLIF/ARL.

And individual ref'ing standards have dropped in the NRL because of this IMO. Silverwood, in one game, looked head and shoulders above Archer and is the better ref and neutral... this should have been an easy call!

Indeed. Really gutless effort this one.

This is a poor decision, especially with a very capable neutral ref involved in the series, there is no reason to appoint Archer, who i think has been poor so far,
at least we can watch the final and then judge the ref as neutrals. May the best team win.

Are we neutrals? I will be willing the Kiwis to win, can't stand the Aussies.

Interestingly whilst watching the C9 commentary in Oz they seemed OK and didn't comment on reffing. But on watching the replay on Fox Sports, you had the kiwi feed and they seemed a little critical at times of Silverwood.

There is only one word for this decision - DISGRACEFUL.

This presumably explains why Archer won "International Referee of the Year" to cloak this decision with some legitimacy.

It was a refreshing change at Eden Park to see 2 neutral referees for the two games and in fairness two good referring performances with little of contention in either games.

And then for the game that matters we are back to this FARCE and it brings international rl into contempt. Australia have the benefit of the best players, a tribal Queensland crowd in Brisbane for a team with 10 Queenslanders in it and to top it off a tame referee who in the previous game seemed to be on one to one terms with "Cammy" Smith.... If NZ do pull this off it will be against significant odds..and not even the hope of a level playing field from the ARL/RLIF.

It pains me to say this but the only option seems to be to withdraw our custom as stakeholders (ticket and merchandise buyers etc) unless the credibility of the sport and the international game we all love is restored. I dont even want to think about what a regular sportsfan (non-regular RL viewer) would think about this decision.

In my experience, they don't care.

Bingo!

Poor decision. The last paragraph is a though.