I just want to concentrate on two games over the weekend involving bottom teams against top teams, Parra v Roosters & Titans v Dogs.
The refs performance in the Parra game imo was not too bad except for a few exceptions. The Pauli tackle penalty that led to a dropped ball was just stupid.
The offside and not clearing the ruck penalties seem arbitrary and hard to judge but my perception is that they seem to be awarded against lower teams more than top teams. In saying that I did see late in the match all Parra players standing about 1 metre ahead of the ref without being penalised.
Now the Titans game the bias against them by the refs was astounding. Penalty for tackled Dogs player throwing ball away - same thing happened in Parra game against Dogs either early in season or last year - dropped ball ruling against Titans player playing ball with Dogs player all over him and blatant Dogs knock on when ball kicked thru near their line - which no commentator mentioned but Bird certainly did - which led to try.
One thing common in both matches was the latitude shown the top teams of slowing the ball down by basically sleeping on the tackled player. Keep an eye on this aspect in future games when top teams are behind or under pressure by lower ranked teams.
So are referees biased or is it just human error?
Replies
I think all people who judge others have natural unconsious bias, sometimes siding with the better team, sometimes being influenced by the crowd more than they should, sometimes i believe the refs are a bit in awe of the big guns and give them a better go, sometimes getting played by the alpha personalities,
I dont think they do it on purpose much, i just think its human nature, cricket umpires do it too, Billy Bowden admitted he was in awe of the Aussies when they were at their peek, all the calls went our way, he just got carried away with the moment and the pressure and couldnt distance himself properly.
But I dont think many refs are on the take, id be surprised if there was one in the NRL that was rigging games or favouring teams for money, it could happen, its probably happened before but it would be very hard in the current climate, but anythings possible.
But yes, unconsious bias is rife, and some of that just comes down to poor training and poor mental preperation on the refs behalf.
If i was a ref id pride myself on honesty and making fair calls, and im sure they do too, except in origin, fuck the qlders.
A classic example of the ref being played by an alpha personality is Cameron Smith every week.
Personally i never gamble but i cant help but think sometimes things appear to be rigged in favour of the gambling agencies. Cant prove anything, it just seems so.
If you keep losing and make lots of errors then refs will assume you have done something wrong
Don't blame the refs
View the refs as an important part of the game and devout time and planning to get the best out of them
Spot on Wile, when we make as many mistakes as us theres no point blaming the ref even if theres some shocking calls which no doubt of late there has been.
I think the Refs look at teams that are rank outsiders more as they suspect they will have to push the limits t beat a team that is well ahead of them on the table and it then looks like biased.
I don't think the refs go out of the field to favor one team over another.
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next