Quote: Choc Ice "Generally I can't stand people moaning about the refs.
Reasonable criticism is fine but I really think that's the minority.
Far more often IMO the fans have no clue what they're talking about. Look at the reaction to the Griffin head pat, 'When has that ever been a penalty! A penalty for THAT in a playoff game!, Wigan can do it but you can't do it to them!' all things I've seen when in reality Wigan were penalized for it, last year, in a playoff game.
People often complain about forward passes in tries and of course you'd like the refs to get them all right. But it's another case where so often people don't understand the rules and physics of running with a ball.
Another element of that is for example the pass to Sneyd where he nearly scores travels about 5m forward, it might have been backwards out of the hands but it doesn't look good. The point is though that no one remembers it because Wigan defended it anyway.
Saints fans last year made out like they had no chance to win once the Knowles try had been disallowed. It was one try in the first 5 minutes, if you can't overcome that you don't deserve it anyway. And then it's not like they played the perfect game but the ref just robbed them of that try, Saints made about 20 errors in that game.
I'm not even going to get into the conspiracy stuff you see about certain teams receiving beneficial treatment.
I wonder if people in their own lives hold themselves to the standards they expect of referees, or would welcome the scrutiny and treatment they call for.
I try to bear in mind there is no game without them and almost always the teams have enough say to have won with or without the mistakes of referees. Where there are Ganson Magic levels of mistakes criticism is warranted but i really think it's generally way over the top. Was there some golden age of referees where they were all great and no one complained about them? Are they that much worse in rugby league than other sports? Im not convinced.'"
Bang on mate. I'm having a similar conversation on the VT.
The truth is refs make mistakes. Sure, we'll bag them for the obvious ones but some of the stuff I've seen recently is just plain ludicrous.
My favourite at the moment is "Wigan's line speed is because the ref lets them move before the ball is played or stand yards offside whereas Saints' linespeed is because they're apparently all amazing athletes" or variations on that theme.
Comments on the Mcllorum one are valid. It was, or should have been, obvious to all. But can anyone honestly say they "saw" the Tomkins one? I don't mean after the sky pundits pointed it out or after Myler complained, but actually as it happened in real time? I'm guessing no one. Yet, despite asking Myler did he want to complain to which he replied "no", he's being castigated for it.
Refs aren't perfect and I'll give it plenty during a match just like everyone else. Let's keep the written criticisms to the bad ones though. Like you say, we have no game without them.