The news of the Director of Refereeing Tony Archer being sacked has Sports Talk regular Terry Pascoe believing this is only one part of the problem.
It has been reported the Director of Refereeing Tony Anchor has been stood down from his position.
This is off the back of numerous controversies throughout the 2018 NRL season and beyond.
Well, this is what most reports are alluding to.
Let’s take a step back and have a look at the standard of refereeing in the NRL over the last few years.
Archer was appointed the head coach of the referees in 2014 after Daniel Anderson’s one-year appearance.
Let’s also remember, Anderson replaced Bill Harrigan &Stuart Raper, who replaced long-standing referee boss Robert Finch.
The NRL have sacked five-referee coaches in less than eight years, almost as bad as some of the NRL clubs.
Do you think the standard of refereeing has improved since this merry-go-round started?
The one thing that hasn’t changed is the same people making these blatant errors, the referees themselves, are still refereeing!
Why hasn’t there been a major change in the ranks of the referees?
I get the idea we need to keep the experience on the field but the new referees aren’t coming straight off the street.
A lot of them have been officiating for a decade at the state level.
So, why aren’t we letting these experienced individuals move up into first grade, especially if the current crew aren’t performing?
Do we really need 10 officials with 200 games of experience each to be refereeing at a top level if they are not performing?
It feels like they want regular faces in the game over getting decisions right.
Case in point, Clayton Sharpe officiated 201 Intrust Super Cup games and was widely praised for his 2012 Grand Final performance for having only blown two penalties the whole game.
Now, this wasn’t because he threw the rule book out the window.
This was because he had control, patience and more importantly, he had the ability to read the game.
So, why wasn’t he moved up to the next level?
It’s believed it’s because of his age.
Apparently, being in your early 30’s is too old to move up to the NRL.
It’s understood the reason Sharpe wasn’t offered a full-time contract was that they thought they would only get a couple of years out of him.
Am I the only one that thinks this is ridiculous?
Shouldn’t our focus be on decision making and not your age?
My next point is there has been a slow decline in recent years of the quality of football we are seeing.
Little infringements being let go because we want the game to flow, only for coaches to exploit, and rightly so.
Coaches are in the business of winning and will do so at whatever the cost.
In my opinion, and some of the referee coaches in the system, this is because of the loose way Archer refereed himself.
The 2018 ‘crackdown’ should never have happened if the referees were officiating correctly from the start of his reign.
They were simply trying to fix a problem he had created.
So, if coaches are in the business of winning at whatever cost, why can’t referees be appointed on their decision making, at whatever cost?
Especially, if the minimum wage for a referee is $150k per year.
Sports Talk Media 