I just finished reading Hoe's KSS and of course earlier in the week Daz's statisical masterpeice.
I don't bother reading other clubs fan sites or equivalents of our own, so it is with that admission that I cannot imagine anyone coming up with the mastery of what these two guys do week in and week out. Unquestionably if I was part of the coaching staff I would be making sure I recorded and relayed the aspects of the game these guys focus on in a regular and diverse way.
I will now diverse myself to some aspects of this years standard of NRL.
1. I think the skill and execution from all sides in the competition would be higher than I have ever seen in the past 70 plus years.
2. This puts the game at a new level from a spectator point of view, my wife watches' Parra religously but says she gets bored with the other games, up until this year. They seem closer and more exciting. Thats a big admission from her and me when you consider so far Parra is not actually on "fire".
3. To add to my own experience I dont think I have seen so many close games, and this includes games wherby the scoreboard does not always tell that story.
NOW THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM IS REFEREES ( including touchies), BUNKERS, MATCH REVIEW COMMITTES and the EXECUTIVE OF THE NRL
I can go into reams of diatribe, but those listed in actual order or responsibities are all linked with a examples and people can list out the items that stick in their minds over this area of the game.Saying such and such ref, or official specifically is a moron, yes go and say it but there is no need get to the Individuals at MRC and EXEC NRL (because they are a committe) without make it a total whinge. Finally as seperate point to the challenge (upcoming) is for Christ sake when you have a draw, give each team a point and let them play for the "golden point" ......it would be a true golden point then!
THE CHALLENGE for our 2 Superstars.......starts with a question?
Is there any data or record of Refereeing decisons of a
1. Questionable nature of integrity or emotion....... 2. 50/50 calls that arguably do not need to be made (yes a mistake record for refs) 3. A record of Sin Bins that are disputable in application and as such "match deciders" soley on the whim of a referee. (last nights game was ruined between Broncs/Titan when the Titans captain was binned needlessly in a game that was very close and then became a blow out. Inconsistent application of Sin Bin rules are changing the course of matches and thereby games decided by immature whims of referees.4 MRC, Suspension of players with charges and inconsistiencies which impact the course of a club in their premiership quest. The inflexibity demonstrated in the Kafusi case at Dolphins and Matto at Parra being prime examples of inflexibility.
I am sure other's will have things to be added but I think you are getting the drift.
So NO Daz and Hoe, I am not asking for you guys to collect such data as much ask for people to inbox Daz and Hoe with examples of such match/premiership ,changing episodes or provide any source of imformation or alternatively someone that is keen enough to do that for them and have them make final judgements......that person maybe intersted enough to start other fan sites collecting such data.....even if it starts as an underground record, it will be used after a while and people will take note.
A simple example would be us losing against Storm, Cronulla, Manly and Roosters because of refereeing issues......good example RCG against Manly, simply cost us the game.
If we are going to have as much emphasis on stats and the like in analysing our performances, these numbers have to be recognised, start publishing them and make the NRL accountable, it appears there is no accountability at present when these bludgers make errors. They maybe ignored by the NRL to start with, but making judgements will ultimately come from the true supporters of the game.
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Add the knights were robbed against the Panthers last night. Being penalised for grabbing Luai by the hair where it was clear he had his jersey and hair. Gagai given 10mins in bin for yelling fuck me dead like 100 other players each round. And numerous other questionable calls and penalties to help Panthers regain momentum.
People argue refs make errors but blatant errors like this and the Tino sinbin are unacceptable and definitely only occur when a favoured side is losing. If you reverse the teams a penalty wouldn't even be given yet in these cases a sinbin occured.
The other issue is refs being quick to sinbin certain players as they are deemed to be dirty such as victor Radley yet if someone like Cleary did the same thing it would be play on.
Oh! you are so right in every respect FM, last night with Penriths/ Knights was absolute daylight robbery!
These are the records that need to be kept and then see how the trends appear.....your example of Cleary is perfect, Radley made a bed for himself and has to lie in it.....that said the subjectivity and objectivity still needs qualifying.
Haaha, Pops, good blog mate. And you're way too kind. This is way beyond me as well. I don't have much more insight to add.
Given human nature and life's realities, though, imo there is a darker underbelly to the game beyond human error, which includes either bias (we're limbic creatures) and/or some dodgier murkier stuff top-to-bottom -.not just with refs.
From some administrators, officials, some businessmen involved in the games, even some coaches, some agents, to off-field player extra-curriculum activities. All the way through.
I've heard plenty of rumours from different sources on all that (all hearsay) and I hope less than a quarter of it is true, but I suspect it may be more prevalent.
Perhaps, it's a blessing a lot of it is under wraps. It would damage the game. Part of that is due to the tribal and emotional nature of the game (and human nature). It's not just about dosh, IMO.
And with refs, when you get some dodgy on-field calls due to whatever bias (e.g. hometown or to the superior team that should win), players react which exacerbates it, and then sometimes you see refs try to counter-balance (square up the official ledger a bit more) and penalty counts, repeat sets or whatever, later on, when the game is not in the balance as much, to appear less biased.
As an aside, I miss the old days when coaches used to give it to refs. Far more entertaining, and real. Nowadays, it's all political. Masks and correctness, hiding some of the darker stuff and monsters in the shadows.
Refs are a far more protected species these days. At worst, they might get dropped to reserves or whatever for making serious errors.
I suspect you're on the same page with a lot of this. Not sure there is a fix.
I am loving the response to this, its the sort of thing that can start some records, BE I didn't know there were no stats on 6 agains, that is mindblowing until you mention it and say Yeh! I never read an actual number.
Hoe, love your response, it shows you care and I am hopeful that someone will start producing something to feed you with it, the power that you and Daz posses is to express it an a format that is not a supporters rant.
Bupper, you know how high my opinion is of your football brain and having been around as long as you have and loving the game the way you do means there is something rotten in Denmark for sure.
Lets leave the corruption issue aside and focus on the incompetence and emotioal response that referees and officials in general find themselves in BUT let us not also forget that gambling is a big thing in this game (like most) and history suggest's that corruption is more than likely.
For this reason alone stats need to be made on officials decisions the same way at law would look at bias in police arrests, defences by some attorneys and decisions by some judges!
Pops im starting to really hate 6 agains - or at the very least not knowing why they were given in the moment. There is no stats metric kept on the offical NRL stats page either to see how many each team were getting. It comes across as a referees square up at times, no matter if it actually is or isnt.
I see no consistency with it and its playing a bigger part in the results of a game then what we realise.
I don't beleive it's the onfield ref that is making most of these calls it's the complete dipshits in the referees box in his coms.
Youll see a referee completely miss an incident on the field only to March back down field and put a bloke in the bin after conferring with the eye in the sky.
If you haven't binned a bloke in real time it doesn't deserve a binning . If it's missed by the idiots with the flags and the bloke in the middle those corrupt bastards in the MRC should deal with it after they've read the papers and listened to the commentary to see if there is significant backlash in the media before determining a penalty.