Bill Harrigan was on Triple M's The Grill Team after Origin 1 and responded aggresively when Gus Worland told Harrigan that in his opinion the refereeing has gotten worse this season. After the first 12 rounds this season I have crunched the numbers. By going through Harrigan's weekly article on NRL.com I have worked out that referees have got 6 important decisions wrong so far this season not to mention the little mistakes every game that are made. By the same time last year referees had only made 3 mistakes that affected the outcome of the game. Based on those stats it seems that when it comes to high pressure decisions, referees are simply not coping with it and making decisions that simply are not correct. Yet, Harrigan continues to defend them. He is yet to rule out appointing Cecchin and Cummins to Origin 2 despite their incompetent performance in Origin 1. As to why he didn't appoint either Tony Archer or Shane Hayne remains to be seen, 1 of those refs, if not bothe have to be appointed to Origin 2. It seems that as more and more referees are being brought through the grades, more mistakes are being made. It needs to be addressed before more games are affected.
For some useless trivia, Ashley Klein played reserve grade rugby league for Parramatta before moving to the UK. There are also 2 current referees who have played in the NRL in the form of Henry Perenara and former Roosters premiership winner Luke Philips.
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