Quote: Luke Leaner "It doesn't. Against every other SL club, when playing at home Catalans got more penalties than the opposition. It's not easy to prove - and of course, however unlikely, it could well be because every visiting team committed lots more infringements, but McDermott was suggesting that the referees were perhaps being influenced by the crowd. The stats backed him up - ergo he was stating a fact - and for this he got fined.
That's not quite the same as moaning about a 50/50 video ref decision that didn't go your way or bleating about the ref having a mare (see any Cunningham/Baloo post match loss interview for an example of this.)'"
How is it a "fact" if it could also be because a visiting team committed lots more infringements? Maybe its possible, or even probable that this is the case, but it doesn't make it a fact just because there were more penalties given against visiting teams. The only way of determining that would be to review every decision, non-decision, question the ref (undermine him if you will) and compare like for like - not basing it on a generic penalty count.
He is actually questioning the refs being impartial (which starts to border on corruption and I would suggest more serious than having a moan about a 50/50 call not going your way) and yet when a Wigan player has questioned a "50/50 decision" which means the ref has 50% chance of getting it wrong (which couldn't be proved other than probably technology that we don't have and using physics) he's suddenly the one that's classless. At least he wasn't saying the refs were being impartial, just that they thought he got the decision wrong which as refs are human, will happen. If its a 50/50 call then surely that's open to interpretation and ones opinion. Unfortunately for Wigan the ultimate opinion is that of the refs and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks - but it doesn't mean they can't have an opinion.
I think its just a case of some people aren't even happy just with Wigan losing, so much is their hatred of Wigan...
