I always find it funny when I see people whinging about the referee’s. Referees are always out to get their team. They always have to overcome the “pricks in pink”. The only thing standing between their team and premiership success are the blokes with the whistles.
I have a really simple view of refereeing decisions that go against my club. Over the course of a season, everything evens out. Some weeks the 50/50 calls go against you. The next week they might go your way. There is no use in blowing up about the referee’s because when it comes down to it, the best team just about always wins the Grand Final.
At the end of the day….isn’t that what we all want to see?
When I see one team getting smashed in the penalty count, I don’t focus on the referees. I take a good hard look at the team that was giving away all of those penalties. In the vast majority of those cases the team getting penalized deserves to get smashed in the penalty count for repeated infringements.
Referees are an easy target for any player, coach or fan that doesn’t want to face up to the fact that their team simply wasn’t good enough on the day. I’ve seen team that let in 40 points piss and moan about a single refereeing decision, as though their lazy defense, poor ball control, poor decision making and lack of heart wasn’t really to blame.
You also get people that focus so much on referees that that create a narrative about their performances. They want to know where the referee’s are from so they can whinge about them being biased against out of town sides. Some are even trying so hard to be unbiased against their local teams that they favour the “away” teams. They just can’t win.
I like this idea that referees sit around during the week just waiting to get their chance to ruin the chances of one team or another by blowing the whistle every chance they get.
In this day and age where every game is shown on television, then reviewed by referees bosses and the NRL itself, and then statistically analysed…a referee wouldn’t have a job if he consistently went out and gave one team an advantage while giving other teams a disadvantage.
Referee’s are not robots. They are not perfect. They are out there doing their best. As a life long fan of the game I am constantly surprised by how much they see. If you think its an easy job, try watching a game while running hard on a treadmill for two hours. You’ll notice you miss a lot of little things compared to when your sitting back on your couch or eating a pie at a game.
When it comes down to it, if a couple of refereeing decisions are enough to end your teams chances, they weren’t good enough to begin with!
So the next time you think of blowing up at the referees because your team lost a game take a look at how your team performed in the first place. You’ll probably find the 17 blokes wearing your teams colours were to blame for the loss, not those pricks in pink!
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