I don't know. I'm sure you aussies aren't that bad!

that will be the day!

With an Australian as the RLIF chairman? Aint gonna happen.

Technically they have got a neutral referee rule, but then you have that old chestnut that always crops up whereby if a neutral referee is not available for one reason or another (normally because they are "Amateur Andys" according to that **** Geoff Carr), then the referee appointed is based on "merit".

How is "merit" defined though? You have two comps in England, and the one referee per game, but only one comp in Australia and two referees per game.

At the end of the day, in this situation, there is a competant neutral referee in Leon Williamson, so the Aussies will just have to like it or lump it.

Hayne will just be blasé about his bias towards Australia. Ganson, after reffing the Ockers twice will start to feel the pressure so he'll feel he will have to bend over backwards to give the Aussies everything, especially as there has been more scrutiny in the ref appointments for the final than for the group game. Alibert - well, the less said about him the better. It's got to be Williamson that referees, though the Aussies don't seem to think that if he does ref the final, it will be to their advantage as he's used to reffing in the Southern Hemisphere.

Despite the comments from our puerile Aussie friend here, it looks simple enough to me:
1) Neutral ref should be appointed
2) If one of the finalist objects to a neutral ref, they should have no say about who gets the job instead.

As for 'we should have the best ref for the final', apart from the obvious question [i' According to whom? '[/i on this logic 'we should have the best' should maybe apply to the teams as well? On this basis, as Aus and NZ contested the last WC final, we should 'select' Aus v NZ for the 4 Nations final, never mind the actual results.

Says something about the Aussies that after 30-odd years of crushing superiority, they still try and work every angle to get an advantage. Reminds me of Bill Murray's character in Kingpin.

Which automatically disbars any Australian referee. We've had far too many "patriotic" refereeing displays over the years.

It's a straightforward choice between M. Alibert or Leon Williamson.

If the Aussies are going to bleat on about French Referees not being acceptable and not wanting amateurs, they might like to get some Kiwi refs into the NRL.

You see what you've done there? You've assumed the Aussies actually give a sh*t about the world of rugby league beyond their coastline, and would like to see it develop accordingly.

International development is all well and good, providing it doesn't involve actually doing anything that doesn't raise money for the ARL.

That's the key point in my opinion. The Aussies are insular and care little about anything other than themselves, whereas the RFL have taken action to try and improve the international game even at the detriment of the domestic game. A good example of this is letting Alibert gain experience in Super League in an effort to promote French officials despite him clearly not being up to it.
There was even the ridiculous matter of Kiwi official Glen Black flying all the way round the world to gain experience in Super League when the biggest Rugby League comp in the world is on his door step but the Aussies clearly didn't want to know.

is'nt the ref for the final meant to be appointed today??

At this rate there won't be a final.

The England set-up should dig their heals in and tell Sheens and co. to do one.

they gave us 4 aussie refs for our world cup games...so sod em'