REFEREE Ashley Klein has been dropped from first-grade after a performance last round which drew the ire of Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy.
Melbourne was on the wrong end of a heavily lopsided 11-3 penalty count — including a 7-0 count in the second half of last Saturday’s 32-30 loss to Newcastle.
MCLEAN RETURN TO BOLSTER STORM PACK
Bellamy was furious post-game and singled out Klein for what he perceived as a bias against his side.
“Ashley Klein obviously doesn’t like the way we play our footy,” Bellamy said.
Newcastle Knights v Melbourne Storm: Match report
“That many times we have had him this year and the penalty count hasn’t even been close.”
The coach escaped NRL sanction for the comments and Melbourne officials identified a high number of errors, particularly in the final stages of the match, that have been pointed out to the NRL.
The club is awaiting a response.
Klein has been in charge of Storm games six times this season, five of which resulted in Melbourne losses.
He was also the video referee who controversially overturned an on-field no-try call in Storm’s round nine win over Manly.
Bellamy was so incensed by the inconsistency that he did not attend the post-game press conference.
When the list of match officials for this week’s game were released on Tuesday, Klein’s name did not appear.
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It will be the first round Klein has not refereed this season.
Storm faces last-placed Cronulla on Saturday but skipper Cameron Smith said the players would be treating it as if the Sharks are leading the competition.
Storm has beaten league leaders Manly twice this season as well as notching up impressive wins over second-placed South Sydney and Penrith.
But it is a different story against teams sitting below it on the ladder, highlighted by Saturday night’s devastating loss to the Knights.
Melbourne has suffered losses against three of the NRL’s bottom four teams this season and
Smith said complacency was costing his side dearly as it fights to secure a finals spot with four games remaining.
Ashley Klein has been dumped for a below par performance in the Newcastle-Melbourne game. Pic: Colleen Petch.
“We need to go out and play as if we’re playing against a team that’s in the top three,” Smith said.
“It’s clearly an attitude thing — when you’re preparing for a Manly or Souths game you know you need to be up.
“That’s an issue we’ve had this year — we’ve been beaten by teams below us on the table and we need to fix our attitude when we’re playing teams that aren’t in the top three.”
“If we had won on the weekend we would be equal fourth, now we are down to seventh and possibly out of the eight with another loss, it’s that tight.
“Our focus for the rest of the season, more so this week, is to go out and play well and, in particular, defend well, defend like we have in the past four weeks before we faced Newcastle.”
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That's bullshit! The only referee who actually pulled the storm up on their dangerous tactics gets his job ripped out from under him because of it.
Now _thats_ how you get the rub of the green, damn!
Replies
Yes, we mustn't upset Bellamy and the Storm fans.
We've had refs f!@# us worse, and nothing happens.
Klein is a hero. He should be rostered onto every Melbourne game.
Klein was the head ref in the Melbourne v Dragons debacle earlier in the year when Melbourne played the ball after the siren and won.
I've been saying for a couple of years that it doesn't appear to matter who the referees boss is, several referees are at least mildly fearful of some coaches including Hasler, Toovey and in this case the Bellamy. This is because generally, when they REALLY have a hissy fit, very often the ref is dropped.
Unfortunately it doesn't happen at many other clubs.
We don't have refs sacked when they totally fark up in our games.
1 referee was far better than I have ever seen with 2....PLUS a video ref!
I guess there is big demand for employment for refs in general which far out ways the importance of having a quick flowing and watchable game without as many of the pink heroes being required?
More often than not in todays' game after a match is finished, I am left thinking..,"that was a great match spoiled by those pink bastards. Man they are on themselves, man they pisss me off!"
Bill Harrigan should be shot immediately.
This doesn't happen in other codes of footy in Australia.
The game is corrupt and rigged, what else can you say????
The first ref to stand up to their grubby tactics gets shitcanned.
Honestly it is getting harder to watch and enjoy the game, so over this corrupt bullshit.
One thing is for certain though -
No referee will be stupid enough to stand up to the storm again.
Have I ever mentioned my thoughts on BETTING AGENCIES running the game now?
The refs do NOT undergo ANY form of group training so they all read from the same page.
We do NOT have one decent ref who is up to First Grade standards.
Even (professional??????) commentators and Ex players argue about how a rule should be applied.
[Edit] - the precedence is now set - ALL coaches will now be able to get refs pre-selected to control THEIR games.
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