Official NRL reverts back to 1 ref for the rest of the season

Scoooby

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Good, game will/should flow a little better and not having one another changing the others ruling.!!
 

Roll the Bones

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I couldn’t really give a toss one way or the other, but for anyone who thinks the refereeing woes will instantly go away by going back to 1 ref, should go back and watch a few games from the 90’s and 00’s for a reality check. We don’t have too many great refs, so why the fuck does it matter? Guaranteed, we’re still going to be bitching about refs, whether it’s 1 or 2 or 76 of them out there or in bunkers. Personally I just want to see the biggest blight on the modern game somehow resolved, the fuckin wrestle, the fuckin Melbourne Storm wrestle. Get rid of this and the game will flow better again. Oh, and maybe reduce the interchanges by 2 as well, but that’s another discussion for another thread. And btw, I think going back to 1 ref is just the nrlol being tight arses, but to their credit, at least they admitted to this as the reason why they are doing it.
 

Dogzof95

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Project Apollo! Are they going to be playing on the moon!
 

TwinTurbo

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Good, game will/should flow a little better and not having one another changing the others ruling.!!
I believe absolutely the reverse will happen, the 2 refs was introduced to "speed up the ruck", reduce the wrestle, get the defensive team on side more often etc. Of course there is still the wrestle, but it was noticeably less than it was when Melbourne made such an art of it. Only one ref will ensure Bellamy returns them to the same game slowing tactics that he introduced and was so successful with. Right now you can bet he is out recruiting another wrestling coach.

Go Dogs
 

Bob dog

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The game should flow a bit better than stop start, bring back the sneaky tricks for sure, a good decision.
 

Rod67

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This is not only the best news for this season it's the best news for the game in 11 years.......I started a thread on this very topic a few weeks back......having two referees was ridiculous, the game survived on one referee for 100 years. Super League one referee, ARL and International matches one referee. All two referees did was make the game harder to watch as there was NO clear direction and they were getting in the way of plays way to often. Take last years Grand Final for example if it wasn't for Ben Cummins calling "play on" and then could be seen waving his hand over his head calling last tackle Canberra would've won that GF.......Having one referee isn't going to eradicate bad decisions but at least it allow referees to focus on the game which had been the case for 100 years. I've seen as many if not more bad decisions with 2 referees than when we had one. Watching Super League games and older matches where there was ONE ref it showed the game to flowed and was a far better spectacle.....2 referees should never have been allowed to have gone on this long......yet of course we have Politis the powerbroker of the Rorters disagreeing with these rule changes.....Funny about that.....hope they start looking into TPA's sooner rather than later as well.
 

Rod67

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I believe absolutely the reverse will happen, the 2 refs was introduced to "speed up the ruck", reduce the wrestle, get the defensive team on side more often etc. Of course there is still the wrestle, but it was noticeably less than it was when Melbourne made such an art of it. Only one ref will ensure Bellamy returns them to the same game slowing tactics that he introduced and was so successful with. Right now you can bet he is out recruiting another wrestling coach.

Go Dogs
Yeh not disagreeing with you TwinTurbo, but I'd say most coaches and their staff would be awake up to this and would find ways to counter that ......Remember when Des came over from Manly and he brought that same 2nd phase style of play to the Bulldogs......It got us to a GF but it soon became redundant as most opposing teams knew what to expect every time they played us. Was all down hill from there.
 

no1bulldog

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while they are at it get rid of the trainers as well, its like watching under 6's with the trainer/coach following them and getting in the road
 

Motorhead

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while they are at it get rid of the trainers as well, its like watching under 6's with the trainer/coach following them and getting in the road
Too true.
 

Shanked

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thought the refs were doing ok this yr (granted it had only been 2 weeks)
 

Dognacious

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Seen some people bagging the removal of 1 ref like its breaking the game. Only had 1 ref for like 100 years before it was 2. If its slows down the ruck as they say, it might bring some sides back to our speed lol.
 

Nexus

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I'm really not a fan of the 6 again rule!!!
It’s ridiculous. I remember them testing it out in a pre season comp and refs were just seemingly giving 6 again at random, no one understood wtf was going on. Also makes it easier to affect the outcome of a game for any corrupt refs out there.
 

boggie23

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1 red should slow down the ruck. Which should mean less points, less dummy half runs and more structured defence. If anything it should play into our hands. With quick play the balls we were so clunky that by the time the ball got anywhere the teams were up in our face.

I agree the 6 again rule is absurd. If he keeps on giving 6 again it will gas a team. Makes it feel like touch footy almost.

The spectacle of league is origin and finals. Where it’s gritty, it’s defensive, it’s hard hitting. Why does that happen? the refs sit on their whistle to a degree and lets the better team win. They don’t blow their advantage. If they could implement that into nrl the games would be lower scoring, more intense. Much more slower, but sometimes winning 16-12 is more exciting then winning 32-30.

Definitely looking forward to seeing how it goes. Should have no issues with interpretation if there is only one person with a whistle. Worst thing was when the pocket ref would be trying to influence the ref.
 

KambahOne

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It is now officially a different competition and therefore the points from the first two rounds should be removed. Nick was right.
 

Wahesh

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I love how they are scrapping Greenberg's brilliant ideas...

what's next? no more $15k diamond rings for player's wives??????
I can't stand Greenberg as much as the next person but 2 refs was introduced before he left the dogs. However this should've been the first item on his agenda to change.
 

Trafford10

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I love how they are scrapping Greenberg's brilliant ideas...

what's next? no more $15k diamond rings for player's wives??????
what the!!!
I didn't know about this, just looked up. Only Smith's wife right?
 

Trafford10

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Hope Gerard Sutton is the first to go but I think it’s a pipe dream.
br careful what you wish for. Now you said that we will get that prick Sutton for 30% of the remaining games this season.
 

Alan79

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I've got a couple of friends that are right into horse racing that think Vlandys didn't actually clean up racing. They're of the opinion that he's owned by gambling agencies and covered up cheating where possible. His predecessor was well known to catch and punish cheating in the racing industry. When Vlandys took over nobody has been caught or punished in the industry during his time.

Extrapolating from that, you could look at the reduction of refs and the six again rule change as an attempt to give the game an appearance of being cleaner and less prone to having refereeing influenced outcomes. Taking the 6 again rule for instance. When a kick for touch or scrum was called, the coverage had time to replay the penalty causing incident, thus giving the fans a chance to clearly see for themselves if the refs got it wrong. A six again call will mean that they have limited time in the coverage to replay the incident.

It's no secret that fans are entirely fed up with poor refereeing. So I won't be surprised if these moves are being made to reduce the amount of footage fans have to judge whether the refs made a wrong decision.

It's a bit sad that I can't just enjoy games without being suspicious of every decision made by the administration anymore. I've been close to just giving up supporting the game for years. It's hard to stop supporting the team, but I don't watch anything but our games now. Once upon a time I'd watch three games a week and missing rep games wouldn't even cross my mind. So it's not impossible to see myself just switching off completely from league if it isn't cleaned up. But I'm not sure that it ever will be while gambling agencies have a strong link to the game. And Vlandys might just be the most powerful pawn that they've been able to entrench into the power structure of the administration yet.
 

flamebouyant

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It’s ridiculous. I remember them testing it out in a pre season comp and refs were just seemingly giving 6 again at random, no one understood wtf was going on. Also makes it easier to affect the outcome of a game for any corrupt refs out there.
Exactly. It's pretty rediculous imo. Just another grey area for the game.
Imagine making this rule while also introducing captains challenge. 6 again eliminates a storage in play, therefore one less chance to challenge a call.
 
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