Looking at the referee appointments now - I see that Mr. Hicks hasn't been given a game for Round 22, only as TJ for a game.

Is this likely to be from the Wigan game on Saturday ? Seen Boots 'N' All - The Tries last night and he denied you two tries that looked legitimate. Rob Powell brought up a perfectly good point : is there any use in the IG judge's if the referee is going to over-rule them.

We've had Hicks a few times this season. He's dreadful ! Not good enough for Super League at the moment.

I see where your coming from. The worst were his set of officials for the Crusaders-Wire game at the Racecourse in June.

They played 10 minutes too long in the first half - no hooter went off. You could see Hicks looking at his watch and thinking ''Bugger ! I've played too long''. Immediately afterwards he blew for HT. Shame that Wire scored 3 tries in that 10 minute period.

As you say, he has the potential to be a good referee, but at the moment he is very poor.

Two things with his set of officials usually, they seem to ignore the offside and forward pass rule.

For what it's worth, I have seen far more inept performances this season from other officials than the one Hicks put in at the weekend.

He wouldn't go by the name of James Child would he ?

Indeed. I'm also unsure what all the fuss about Alibert is, people on the VT are making him out to be the best ref in SL, I think he is absolutely useless.

Couldn't agree more ! You can't complain about Aliberts fitness, but he seems to lose control of games and his decision making is very poor.

Best referee in Super League in my opinion in Ganson. As well as being a good referee, he takes no crap off the players and is a funny character too.

You should have seen him in the 9's tournament (he didn't know the rules).

Regrettably, it is possible to be both.

I'm with you on this one!!Alibert , best ref in the league
Best laugh I've had since someone told me Sam Allardyce will get West Ham promoted back to the Premier League as champions!

That's exactly right. He wasn't of a standard suited to the two sets of players - and one of those sets was us!

I think essentially there are two types of referee at the moment. Those who are essentially honest but incompetant: Alibert and Hicks and Child. (Actually scrub that, Child is incredibly biased against certain clubs!), and those that like to be the ones dictating the game - not the result just the pace and structure: Ganson, Thaler, Silverwood and Bentham.

Both types have a capacity to ruin a spectacle - the former through poor decision making and the latter by obsessing about certain elements of the game that are not as important as others. How often do you see the likes of Ganson give a series of penalties for one thing and the next week give a series of penalties for a different thing. If you get him on a good day then he may want to let the game flow and you get a good spectacle but I guess the long drive down south must do nothing for his mood because he never seems to help our games flow. Not that we ever seem to get any of the so-called better refs at our games any more.

We all know it's a tough job - too much for just one person in the middle really so if they get tough calls wrong you have to accept that. But it's the real lame-brain obvious stuff that really gets me. For example THAT forward pass against Hull KR, and in the case of Saturday, THAT obstruction on Purdham. Also he can't have seen the ball go forward as Gale was putting the ball down so you cannot therefore give a knock on, it's play on and Mitchell scores. Purdham's put down was not tidy but he can't rule he dropped it if he sees no separation. And certainly if you do need to consult with the other officials maybe take the opinion of the guy 3 yards away over that of the guy 60 yards away!

Obvious refereeing is obvious to coin a phrase.

Another perspective, George Rileys Blog. www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/georgeriley/ ... eague.html

Another perspective, George Rileys Blog. www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/georgeriley/ ... eague.html

The annoying thing about one of the decisions was that he spoke to the in goal who gave it & then he ran to the touch judge furthest away who was stood by the flag 50 metres away on the try line who then didn't give it. A TJ not giving it is OK but when they are stood by the flag that means all is OK but did not see the grounding-If he was 5 metres up the touch line then he has seen an offence/problem