Firstly I think Phil Gould's new nickname should be Karen.
I disagree with Phil on two out of the three latest referee decisions.
1 - I agree Norman's one was not a strip. Ridiculous decision.
2 - Even with my blue and gold goggles on I think Mahoney placed it on the line.
3 - The dragons no try was technically correct it came away from his hands slightly and touch Paulo. Pretty simple really although it would have been a try in any other era that's only because technology wasn't good enough to get it right.
For what it's worth, although not part of "Karen's" rant I think the Jennings challenge was the wrong decision too against us.
Regardless, we lost because they wanted it more. Good teams find a way to overcome the random, yet understandable, referee blunders.
Replies
Agree
Jennings bad bunker decision cost us dearly because we lost our challenge early and it was a momentum changing decision
Agree with the other ones. Although I agree with 3 technically - the rules are wrong that should have been a try.
But with all of these you cannot look at them in isolation - the refs often seem to do even ups for their last bad decision.
Watching the game on the box last night, Mahoney's no try call was terrible as all of the clips with the video were very close to the ground, which highlighted the ball ever so slightly/maybe touching the inside of the line with a blade of grass touching the ball higher up (see below). It showed however that the height of the grass and how high its cut can play a very big part in how the game has changed so much, with picture perfect green fields of grass creating a wonderfully nich scene.
If one was to compare this no try/try to the Jarryd Hayne sideline touch and no try given they both are pretty much identical in as far as being touching the line.
One other point in this no try is that with the rain the sideline paint again was hard to see as it washed down into the grass, & on the bunker angles showing the grass, none of the white grass appeared to be touching the ball, the height of the grass was also evident in the amount of the balls tip being fairly well down in to the high grass.
In all this though, these blunders and mistakes were not the cause of why the eels lost.
Apparently you have to see grass to award a try. I thought Ellis was a try for sure. He had control of ball at all times. Glad it wasn't a GF. If they had awarded Reed a try and not Ellis can you imagine the controversy. I thought Reed tried hard last night and was one of Eels best but can't do on own which some expect on here. Both Warriors and Drags played so well. Mary might have kept his job if they played with that intensity every week and obviously alot of affection for him. I shed some tears myself. More mediocre coaches than him running around. So happy Warriors are moving into top gear too. How good are their 6/7 and 9. Warriiors trainer Stacey Jones out there too great to see.
Disagree slightly that we lost because Dragons wanted it more. Regardless we were at full strength and they were down on key players. We should have beaten them regardless of their enthusiasm. We played pathetic.
100% we should have beat them. There are no excuses for this team. They failed us. Imagine we had as many injuries as the roosters. Imagine we had the following players out;
and then mid game we lost Moses, D Brown and Niukore. Scary to think what we would dish up.
No thanks. My imagination is already guilded enough by our underperforming attack.
All 3 decisions were wrong. The Reed Mahoney decision was wrong because the on field ref called it a try, so the bunker has to have definitive evidence that he put it on the lineto overturn it, and there was no such definitive evidence.
That's exactly my beef Brett. Had the decision been sent up no try, and the bunker ruled as such, then you live with it and move on. But there was no definitive evidence for it to be overturned.
Watching a video of the try this afternoon, what can be seen is Reed grounding the ball with his hands as the ball touches the ground and then goes back towards the goal line, as he goes over the dead ball line horizontally.
100% agreed, but the bunker was shocking in that game