Quote: knockersbumpMKII "The psychology behind adjudicating/officating sport is actually very important. The way it is currently done as mentioned by the OP is actually allowing the sport to deteriorate further as a spectacle and encourages the players to push the boundaries of what is acceptable within the rules. No other sport in the world are the rules coached by the officials in the way RL is and by doing so the RFL show themselves up to be yet again complete tools at not understanding what is required to keep players/coaches in check.
That the game is fast flowing does not require the ref to tell players X, if the players are not making those errors deliberately or otherwise because it's not drummed into them to do so by coaches then the ref by definition does not have to remind them.
Watch old matches back, the ref doesn't have to tell the players to stand onside, he doesn't have to tell the tacklers to move, if a player is offside then the ref penalises it, the player then doesn't encroach again or is less likely too, you change the way the player thinks and so control how players behave through the way you officiate. As others have said and we've been down this route before, penalise the crap out of everyone then when the players learn they can't get away with it they won't infringe as much, it's called behavioural modification*
It's basically the same as speeding in motorvehicles, have a lesser chance of being caught then people will push the boundaries with their speed, if you are left thinking you will be caught and are in fact penalised again and again and again then you're less likely to speed/modify the way you act.
*B.F. Skinner, is known as the “Father of Behaviorism.”, developed a theory of operant conditioning, which states that all behavior is governed by reinforcing and punishing stimuli.'"
Which is a different argument to that of the refs being vocal. Union ref's are just as vocal, they are constantly telling players to get out of a ruck, get their hands off the ball, to stay onside or that they're out of play etc etc. It's just not as obvious.
As I said earlier there's some calls from the ref that can go, the Move call, the "hold" and "go" calls could go. There's no need for the hold and go calls, it's up to the players to see when the play the ball has started and to move up. The move call isn't necessary either as its up to the players to get off a tackled player, however we do need to ensure the players know when the tackle has been called. This would be massively helped by a 2nd ref who would be a lot closer to the tackle.
As others have said, some of the unnecessary "no penalties" chat can go, although communication between the ref and players is fine if there's a particular issue.
Yes the refs were less vocal in the past but there was also an awful lot of stuff going unpenalised/unnoticed by the refs too. A massive amount of offsides and dodgy play the balls for instance.
So if we want the refs more involved we've got to expect more noise from them.
Really the issue is that Sky/BBC have the refs mic audio on when it's not necessary.
