What worries and annoys me about match officials, particularly James Child is that they are regarded by Ganson and the Rugby League as infallible and can do no wrong. If a coach or club criticise them they are punished. Players can be charged with bringing the game into disrepute but bad officials don't appear to be viewed in the same way. THEY ARE NOT GODS (even though James Child has the right initials), and the games hierarchy has to recognise there are good refs; there are bad refs and there are b****y terrible refs.

As mentioned elsewhere on the "Child" thread; why can't there be a system where after a game each club could put three questions each to the referee and then throw open the floor to journalists and let them have a question session.

I don't think it would be right to question incidents there and then in public after the match, the chances are that the official won't fully remember it, and the coaches will still be angry about whatever decision they feel was against them. Better for all parties to go away and re-watch the game as it often becomes clear why a call was made in a particular way on watching it over

The problem with punishing refs for mistake is they are in such short supply anyway...

There definitely is a system in place to drop officials for mistakes or poor performances...I used to regularly speak to one of the best touch judges in super league and remember one morning seeing him and he was absolutely gutted that he’d made a wrong call on tv and had been dropped to the championship the following weekend...

The major problem for me is consistency...I can accept the odd wrong calls as all refs will make mistakes...they’re human...just like players will make mistakes...hate to see where they penalise one team for say an offside, or a ruck infringement and then totally ignore the other side doing it like the offside we got against us...fine, yes, we’re offside penalise us but don’t then go the entire half and not penalise the other team once when they were offside countless times...

That's a fair point.
However, they are not accountable at all.
There should be something on place following the game - the next day or the day after - for the refs and coaches to meet to discuss decisions.
They shouldn't be seen as bombproof.
After all, they will retain their job regardless - players and coaches won't.

But how many times do we watch Sky games and Trinity tv and see incidents that the ref missed that Stevie Wonder could have seen. While ever there’s a shortage of officials they will answer to no one.

Well he will have to answer to the paying customer because I won't go if he's the referee just like it put me off going last night

I think all we can do is keep highlighting his appointments and performances across as many platforms as possible. Does anyone 100% know the actual statistics of our games with him in charge?

I think you should read the tweet from Gareth Walker from a Super League Referee’s wife, and then close down this discussion quickly. Referees are human beings. We may not like every decision they make, but they deserve respect. This place (not as much) and that Northstanders page are becoming so vitriolic and poisonous. Not just referees, but others associated with the Club, who are also life long fans, just doing their job to the best of their ability. And yet they get publicly lambasted, with their families directly or indirectly told about it, and the whole world to see. At times, it’s soul destroying for me, and I don’t get 1% of what referees, head coaches, or players get. It’s time to start thinking about we actually do and say.

Excellent post. I put on here there aren't enough refs to go round basically, I wonder why that is?! Don't get me wrong, in the heat of the moment I've shouted the odd thing at them like we all have, but at the end of the day, without them there is no game to go and watch. Using words like cheat on here is ridiculous, I don't believe any ref has a vendetta, or favours' any particular team, and those that accuse them of this have to come up with evidence and facts.

Well said Daddycol.

While we all bemoan refereeing performances, and think we have all been guilty of it in the past. I do think that there are some that tale it to the next level, and personal abuse of anyone, is unacceptable.

Maybe, looking at the refereeing as a whole, how about increasing their pay, and train ing etc, but at the same time, make them more accountable, when errors are made. Potentially, if you are a player in a team at the wrong end of a bad call, you're livelihood, could well be at stake

If they make a bad call and it costs someone their job, that's unfortunate, but not the end of the world. People make bad calls in other walks of life that cost people their lives, and get away with it, the people in the highest ranked, paid professions, who probably should know better, probably some perspective needed if a ref gets it wrong at a sporting event.

At the end of the day, if Jowitt kicks one of those goals we win, pure and simple. Then whatever had gone on previously becomes irrelevant, whatever Child did or didn't do wouldn't have mattered because we had the opportunity to win, he didn't take that away from us, because that's how the game panned out. If we had won i'm sure many would have still bemoaned his performance, but his refereeing did not cause the game to finish 26-26?