I remember when someone always posted who was refereeing our games and comments were made about whoever it was or who we would prefer. Well just seen who got the Wakefield vCastleford game, it’s Kendall btw and we have Thaler for ours. Anyways the standard of the referee’s is abysmal to say the least right now. And for me they could ask some bloke walking his dog to ref the games it’s that bad.

Video ref I thought was getting a little better but that’s dropped off and the Liam Moore show at the Cup Final was embarrassing how long he took to give that try.

The try no try as got to go, if the RFL want to improve standards they really need to copy the NRL and don’t use costs as an excuse just stop paying useless people big payoffs Ralph Rimmer.

All is forgiven though if a ref give’s something against Saints.

Agree on the try / no try thing, just let the person with the best view make the decision.

I fear we’re in a bit of a vicious cycle with referees. Warrington are looking to improve the quality of youth coming through the club, to do that they are increasing the number of young players at junior RL they have in their development pathways. So the RFL should do the same right? Try and bring through more referees? But then what young kid in their right mind is going to take up refereeing as a profession when they’re getting abuse thrown at them from parents at junior RL games - when they are just kids themselves?

Because of the abuse referees get there is no way I would have ever considered taking up being a ref, regardless of the money on offer, fewer people reffing means you’re picking from a poor talent pool, fewer refs to chose from means poorer refs, means more abuse, which means fewer refs to pick from - a seemingly never ending cycle..

Yes the standard of refereeing can and should improve, but I think a change in attitude from the fanbase & the SL coaches would help that immeasurably - but I can’t see that happening.

Your point on attitude from fanbase and coaches I don’t see how that works given what we are seeing week in week out. I don’t know if Refs are held to account for their performances. As for coaches shouting the odds Wellens and Rowley I get their annoyances and I guess we don’t want to shine a light on that in public but hey ho.

In my original post I was going to suggest the bunker system they have in NRL but having read the farce with Owen Farrell (yes will wash mouth out) but could see us making a mess of that and that comedy no penalty in the round ball game at least it’s not just our Referee’s that are poor.

Coming to your point on the kids referee’s I have witnessed the abuse at kids football on the park when walking the dog, think that needs sorting the most as they really have no protection at all. Do that and you would think it would improve the quality.

Billy Thompson was the greatest

I remember his last game in charge of the Wires, 1st April 1984 at Odsal.

Wires were clinging on at 19-16 and Bradford crossed in the steps corner in the last minute and Odsal went crazy.
10 seconds later Odsal went Ballistic when they realised Billy had disallowed it.
Billy blew for time and needed a police escort up the 126 or so steps back up to the changing rooms through the baying mob

We have no choice but to accept the referees and their decisions. We might not think they are the best, but they're doing it, not us. Constant bagging the refs is a very poor thing to do and the abuse will not improve them.

Russell Smith. (obligatory mention on a referee thread)

i have spent 30 years screaming at referees.

all of them are inept.

After he left SL refereeing, RS was asked the question, what was his worst mistake as a ref, he said blowing a penalty against Paul Cullen that effectively cost Warrington the Championship.

Billy Thompson never gave his regrets of disallowing 5 tries vs Hull FC in the 1/4 final CC.

Mike Greg knocked on, Cullen then(according to Smith),went in with his knees on the Wigan player who pounced on the ball. From what I remember it was jiffy who gave Smith a gobful for the extra 10 metres. Not that the 10 metres mattered, seeing Wigan had a certain frano botica playing for them. The game was decided as soon as Smith blew for that penalty.

Dead right. Everyone ought to try reffing (any sport) whilst at school. It's not easy.

That was the one, he later must’ve that game back and saw that Cullen hadn’t touched him with him with his knees. His error robbed us of the Championship.
Yes it was JD who appealed colourfully.
It took him until interviewed years later to admit it.

I don't think Jiffy's gob was the turning point, that metronomic sod Botica would've kicked it from anywhere anyway.

The referee's have a tough job. They get all calls wrong, for one side or the other. The people I am more concerned about are the MRP. They dissect each game in minute detail. They make a decision who to charge and subsequently make a decision on the offenders penalty. The problem is there is no consistency. Reckless, careless, dangerous are bandied about in their minutes. Whether they forget most people record TV games and can go back and compare I'm not sure. Looking on various boards here you can read that many fans compare tackles in the same game that are the same tackle. However, when you read the minutes one player reads to be one step away from being a total thug, whilst another player is seen to have unfortunate circumstances and nearly taking someone's head off wasn't really his fault.

Yes the refs get one go at it (with the help of the touch judges) & are under much more pressure to give a quick decision whilst the MRP get as many views as they want to get it right. In theory they should get much greater consistency. Years ago they used to have Disciplinary Panels where they had no video evidence ... now that must have been tricky.