I just thought this was worth a separate thread, as it's more general, than just last night's obstruction thread.

As the late John Laurie would've put it..... We're doomed. DOOMED.
The standard of officiating is at an all time low, and it's going to get worse. We've got a load of inefficient robots, controlling each match. No consistency from match to match, from referee to referee. It's a casserole of confusion, each week. Last night's previously mentioned obstruction try, being the tip of the iceberg. SCUMings (Sky's refereeing "[iguru[/i couldn't see anything wrong with it, neither the other game time "pundits", yet Hicks gives "no try". I know it's down to opinion, but where was the obstruction?.... There wasn't any. The RFL (and Sky) don't want people switching of, when games are getting too one sided, so, it was deemed "no try", too stop the inevitable landslide.... It certainly helped.

Which brings me on to VR
The Mamo "no try", where, let's face it, Thaler wasn't concentrating, Mamo made his attempt, and as an afterthought, Thaler poohed his pants, and thought, better let that [igo upstairs[/i and let them decide. WHAT IS THE POINT OF ALL THIS TRY OR NO TRY? If you've not seen it, let someone else decide, WITHOUT giving the VR a leading decision. There was no clear way even superslow TV replays could decide whether the ball had touched the deadball line, so a try SHOULD have been given. Speccies go to games to see tries. Not no tries.

Kyle Wood's second try (the scruffy double kick one). It went to VR, but, if you look closely, on the second kick, Wood is ahead of the kicker, but VR (iirc) wasn't frozen for that. What's the point of VR, if you can't get the basics right.

Generally, I now no longer think that RL has a rule book, anymore. More like a set of guidelines, giving refs "elbow room" to just officiate how they want. Case in point, Tomkins' trip in the GF. HE SHOULD BE OFF. Tripping/Cumberland throws are illegal. Yet Hicks bottled it, because it was a big, televised game. Officiate properly. It doesn't matter if it's a GF, or Crosfield v Woolston Rovers U11's. DO IT PROPERLY.

Now, I know we're not angels. Brough whinged about our laying on, last night. Of course we did. Everyone does. They (we) do it, because they (we) can get away with it.
Get some decent refs, who officiate PROPERLY, and all this laying on will stop.

Just happened.
Saints' Coote has just done a goal line drop out, AFTER the shot clock has run out. Why no penalty?
WE HAVE A RULE.

Ive no idea why we have try/no try onfield. It makes absolutely no sense.

Totally agree. The VR's decision should always trump that of the on-field ref, because he has access to far more reliable evidence.

You're aware Ben Flower got sent off after 3 minutes of a Grand Final, right?

Come on.
Even OJ Simpson's lawyer, couldn't have kept Flower on the pitch, that night

A blind mans guide dog could of called that one.

Another reffing f00k up
A second Saints player has his hands all over the ball, trying to strip the ball. The penalty should be Cas'
Saints get head and feed, score. Ridiculous reffing.

I'm not sure it's an all time low, the refereeing standard has stank for years and years. It makes rugby league look pathetic. Its never helped that the commentary teams over the years have pointed it out and ridiculed their own sport. It really needs sorting, call the game as it is, I wouldn't be too fussed if it's different game to game so long as both sides in any particular game get the same treatment. There is scope for referees interpretations and more respect. The trouble is you have to be able to trust a referee and I don't think we have any that are in that bracket. We need our own version of nigel owens.

The grand final is the worst, the amount of niggling and messing at the ptb, lying on that goes unpunished just leans itself to a poor spectacle and the masters of the spoil Leeds and Wigan taking the prize every year. When was the last truly classic grand final?

only reason the refs we have still have a job is because there is literally no one to replace them.

As for the Grand Final , the refereeing is so shoddy & the rules so lax that it is becoming unwatchable.

Last nights match got switched off before half time in my house.

I’m absolutely fed up with all this Sky/RFL nonsense. I would not be sad if the Sky contract was not renewed, yes it would send us back to the dark ages but it wouldn’t be any worse than it is now. I enjoyed Rugby before Sky so I’m not bothered if it left.At very least take VR away.

Consistently inconsistent.

Trouble is the clubs rely on the income. The game is propped up by Sky money.

I must admit I enjoyed Rugby League just fine before Sky.

They do need to scrap the on-field call, it can rule out perfectly good tries as we’ve seen. Also, I think they should check for everything. Case in point, that wakey try with the kicks, if there’s boot touching the ball, check everyone is onside regardless of whether the idiot on the pitch has asked to check. Check every possibility, it really wouldn’t take that much longer to draw a yellow line on the screen in line with the ball, like football’s offside graphic, and then its indisputable. Just do it automatically. Rule any doubt about any incident.

Just say “I want to check the grounding but can you make sure everything else is ok?”.

Then again, I’d also check for forward passes. Perhaps we’d be here all day!?

It’s also bloody annoying how it’s clear sometimes they get a word in their ear, such as when someone shouldn’t be getting head and feed at the scrum and it’s overturned, yet, other things that are blindingly obvious get ignored, the cynic in me says, to keep the game close or interesting. I’m also fed up of referees not calling held and still penalising a player, such as Charnley on Thursday when he piled that Wakey lad into touch. The linesman raised his flag, that’s our ball. The goons on tv agreed that’s why he’d raised the flag. Nobody shouted held, Josh had every right to continue the contest.

Anyway, like many other things, officiating is killing my love of the game, slowly.

I like the onfield call. There was too much chalking off tries when there wasn't enough video evidence to award it....which was far worse than it is now.
The only thing is we can now blame 2 of them if they get it wrong.

The game is propped up by TV money. Doesnt mean it has to be SKY. Other companies have offered better deals but the RFL simply keep going back to their chums.

A thing that annoys me is the number of times the VR sometimes takes to review a try / no try when it is patently obvious what the decision needs to be from either the first or second viewing. There was an example in the Cats v Leeds game when a Cat try was reviewed half a dozen times by Thaler when it was quite clear after one, definitely two replays that it was a try. After all the attempts to speed up the game why didn't they look at this. I know the aim is to get the 'right' decision but this is now causing avoidable delay. Even with the VR they got the Mamo try wrong which everybody seems to agree was a try.

Which organisation has offered better deals and when?

I am not interested in

1. Hearing the refs voice.
2. Hearing endless commentary about referees decisions.
3. Hearing a referee commentator (FFS how did it come to this)
4. Watching a replay screen on referee decisions.

I just want to see high impact, aggressive, fast, skillful, honest sport played by athletes amid fierce northern rivalry played on the cusp of the rules with no quarter asked or given.

Indeed. Hopefully with Eddie and that godawful producer leaving at least the presentation can improve tenfold. Just bloody commentate on what is occurring in front if your eyes instead of chopping and changing the so called narrative that Hemmings wants to impose on the game and change at will - amazing comeback, massive injury list, off field problems blah blah blah. God i hope the next commentator is decent and all the pundits go - except for Clarke and Carney, the former I don't mind at all.

Mike, what TV companies offered a better deal.
A genuine question because I wasn't aware of any other companies.

That’s was just Sky’s shot clock that the commentators made their decision from. In reality the real shot clock may have been a second or two later at starting and the Castleford stadium hooter would have sounded if the time has ran out as I can’t see Cas being involved in an agenda to help Saints rack up some points.

1. I agree to a certain extent. Hearing his voice on tele - especially on Sky as there’s always about three people speaking at once in commentary at the same time - just gets mumbled up into a really poor outlay of voice noise with the match commentator. But I’d like to hear the ref when he’s speaking to the captain and when he sends something to the VR

2. I agree. Commentary - especially on Sky with any of around five people in the commentary gantry, sometimes a few speaking at once. And I want to hear simple commentary from the commentator and punditry about tactics; not continual hot topic conversations about rules and ref decisions

3. I agree we really don’t want need Cummings at all!

4. No harm in that for me, stops the possibility of corruption