Robert Hicks

Quote: aspouea "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!
I'm going to put my neck on the line and say the gap between the Super League and the NRL is bigger for the referees than it is for the players. Why is Stuart Cummings not called into account by the RFL and made to show what he is doing about it on Boots n' All and the Super League Show, his response would be to show the development that the RFL is doing at grass-roots level, amateur level, through to the full-time officials and what the authorities are doing to make sure the refereeing team do not allow forward passes and can recognise a forward pass. I have seen as many forward passes in five or so games at the Stoop this year as I have seen in the previous five years there.