Penalties are killing us because we're giving them away...they are clear penalties. Things such as holding onto the players ball carrying arm when he gets up to the play the ball....running in front of the kicker on restarts...these things are clear - no amount of sly chat to officials will change that.

I agree with the sentiment of this thread, we should have someone calm and confident enough to pass of grievances with officials during the game....captain Gower should be doing that - its not as if he isn't experienced enough!

Watched the game yesterday and was nearly pulling my hair out...so many occasions we got into good field position only to blow it on the first tackle in defence/attack...just not good enough.

If we play like we did in the last 20 mins v Hull for the majority of matches going forward, we'll win more than we lose. It's just a shame that the opportunity to advertise the Broncos on Sky TV coincided with a total mess of a performance. The score board flattered us.

Captain's job to talk to ref through game. Not coach.

We don't want to be giving away even more penalties for dissent. I've tried getting on referees' backs myself and it doesn't achieve anything positive. However I do agree that the captain should be having words with the ref about any injustice.

It's the captain's job. The ref doesn't talk to other players unless he specifically calls them out for a chat/warning. And this is done with the captain present.

As you're a player, keep out of the way. Don't mouth off to the ref as it won't do you or your side any favours.

Even when you're captain, if you're mouthy, it may harm your delivery and a ref will send you away even when you think you have a valid reason to talk to them.

I wish I still had the interview I conducted with Bill Harrigan for this website, some 8 or 9 years ago. You may have found that interesting. He revealed that he sent off Gorden Tallis in an Origin game not for calling him a C__T, but for calling him a cheating C__T. He took exception to the suggestion he was cheating! He also mentioned that the nicest player he dealt with on the pitch was Andrew Ettingshausen as he was a gentleman as captain on the pitch.


On the original poster, I totally agree that a player when tackled should fight to get up. They get taught that here. Equally important at times is to get a player to hit the deck quickly when tackled without it being a surrender.

its quite interesting when team captains find the need to talk to the ref just after a penalty has been awarded to slow the play down and try to buy a couple of seconds stop the quick tap, think its called err yep trying to cheat, even the captain is not going to change the decision