It has been mentioned in commentary on the past two sky games and during the season that more and more players are talking to the officials and questioning decisions. Plenty of the Leeds players have done it over the years and it appears to becoming a bigger problem this season not just for Leeds but all clubs. Kyle Eastmond was nearly down Silverwoods shirt last night after the no try decision.

Is this just the game moving forward (the refs appear to want to be the centre of attention and quite like the chats and laughs off the ball) or a lack of respect for the officials from the new young blood of the super league?

My personal opinion is that it should be the captain and only the captain that speaks to the official. The offending player can raise the point through the captain but only the teams captain can speak to the officials.

Anyone else's thoughts?

Couldn't agree more. The players know the rules about dissent. The captain and only the captain should speak to the referee.

However, there does need to be more consistency between the referees on this ruling. Ganson penalised us everytime a player (barring Sinny) spoke to him, out of turn. But then Silverwood failed to do anything about Eastmond.

there were two sinbinned at the JJB for it on friday night!

It was/is also the subject of Sky hype at the moment.

Any picture of a Leeds player talking to anybody last night was painted by Stevo as a continuing verbal assault on the referee.

Its up to the referees to stop it before it gets out of hand - really easy for them to do so as well, doesn't need a rule change just an enforcement, it'll take some time for the more gobby players to learn but you'd expect that from big daft lads.

I agree with the rule that players should not argue with the ref, it has been allways a rule in the game. But the ref also have to be fair. Ganson on Friday was a disgrace he gave everything against us, the pen he gave them which they kicked two points was a joke and to penalise Senior for head high tackle before the end was unbelievable. To my mind Ganson as an agenda against Leeds, he should not be allowed to ref Leeds

When I played (many many years ago) I was always under the understanding that if you ‘back-chatted’ to the ref he had the authority and know how to remove one of your bollox which he would then place on his hat in the way that Aussies have corks dangling from theirs.

Maybe the sight of Ganson in a testicular adorned Australian slouch may just remind player to keep their frickin’ gobs shut.

Totally agree with Mcf. It simply needs the ref to march them 10 yards back up the field for the first offense, with a clear message to the skippers that it'll be 10 mins in the sin bin if the same player repeats the offense.

As with all rules, it requires consistency from all the Officials.

I largely agree with the sentiments but at the same time, I think that we've also got a trend where there is a barrier between the referee and the players (or at least, the team captain).

The players should be able to talk to the referee and ask for clarification on any decision, particularly when certain scousers seem to blow their whistle with little rhyme or reason.

I think that we also need to be very careful that, as a sport, we don't get to the point where referees are considered to be untouchable. Behind closed doors, the referees should be subject to the same performance measurement that players are subject to and yet, because we only have a handful of full-time referees, I don't believe that's the case.

Signs of modern time it does seem. I'm sure 4 or 5 players in the bin every match would clamp it down. Does anyone want to see this though?

This topic has been mentioned for a couple of seasons now. Is it the same old chestnut, or is it gradually getting worse?

simple


for every sin bin clubs should be fined £5k

RFL allow clubs to make players involved pay 10% of the fine

would stop back chat plus other such acts and would tighten up the game

Evidently.

i'm a pretty emotive player. I do have previous for gob. But the thing is sometimes with adrenaline testosterone and numerous endorphins blasting through the bloodstream it's hard not to react to perceived refereeing blunders. Problem is your outburst gets you pinged. Is that a lack of respect? I don't know.

If you all went to watch games in stadiums rather than listen to eddy and stevo bang on about it you’ll realise it’s a minor problem in our game. If it gets out of hand like at Wigan they get sent off.

In fact I think we should start a new group “tape over players mouths with holes in them so they can breathe whilst playing rugby league” in order to keep the moaners attending our great game.

2 players got sin binned in the Wigan match for dissent. Couldn't believe what I was seeing when Ganson didn't pull the yellow card out for Ablett.

Back in the day even at amateur level the ref was always refered to has Sir and his decisions werent questioned...

having said that a certain well known local Leeds and District ref at the time of the Jewish persuation sent me off for disent and I quote.."for what you are thinking"

Back chat ..get marched back 10...simple

Carry on back chatting or bemoaning 10 minutes ..simple

Kyle eastmond raging at the ref last night WTF is that all about and who does he think he is !! should have been given 10 minutes ...Simple as that

Refs do cock up on decisions sometimes and thats life, just as top players make wrong decisions and take wrong options ...but hey its about respect and if we didnt have the men in the middle, then we wouldnt have a game to watch...

Did you call him Sir Cumcised?!

Personally I think the guys at sky are over egging it. Not has bad as they make out.

Across the game it is more a frustration of just how poor reffing has become this year. They need to accept some of the responsibility.

TAXI....

Do you manage to hold yourself back from punching an opponent after being fouled? Or even after getting frustrated at an opponents success? If so, why wouldn't you be able to control your reaction to the referee?
Don't make the excuses of endorphins and testosterone.

I can say that is obvioulsy not the case for most players. Even the most mild mannered of players will have lashed out at an opponent on a rugby field. I played for many years and I can't think of any of the guys I played with who hadn't swung a punch for one reason or another. Mostly harmless and handled appropriately by the ref without overreacting.

There's a lot of talk about Ablett on Friday - even talking about yellow cards, but not many people will know actually what he said. We have been told (Bluey mentioned it on the after match interview - so we have to assume soem level of bias) that he was pinged for laughing at the "trip" on Drew. If ref can't accept mirth at one of his decisions then the ref is the man with the problem not the player surely?

But when you have someone like ganson, trotting round like he's the dog's balls giving ridiculous, awful decisions all over the joint, just because he can, do you really blame the players for getting frustrated?

It seems all you have to do to get penalised for dissent, is breath near mr ganson.

We all know what Ganson is like. He doesn't particularly like Leeds. We also know that he soesn't stand for dissent. Ablett laughing at him for a decision looks like he is taking the mick out of him and Ganson won't put up with it. It's simple - don't do it!!
We do need consistency between the referees though, as they send out very mixed messages over dissent (i.e. you can push Silverwood further than Ganson before you get a penalty). Eastmond was mouthing and in Silverwood's face, but he did nothing about it.

I'm sure MR Cummings will have taken note of the glaring inconsistencies in this area between his two match officials over the two televised SL games last weekend and will ensure it doesn't happen again in future.....


Yeah right.