Castleford Tigers v Bradford Bulls 3.30pm
Ref G Hewer TJ T Roby TJ P Wharton IG M Hawkes IG G Hodgson RR C Neilson MC D Milburn

I've given up thinking we will get a decent ref anymore, they're all as bad as each other

i agree mate, why do we even start a discussion about it

I wouldnt mind if they were fair, but Alibert on Friday night was shocking for both sides. He looked ok on Sky, obviously the camera's must have helped him out a lot

Well you know what to do if you think you can do better...

We're leaving that to you mate!!

Shout at them?

As long as they're consistent for both sides it doesn't bother my who we have.

I've never thought I could do better, I just enjoy it, always try to do my best, maintain my fitness and consistently refresh my knowledge on the laws of the game.

My point is that unless you look at the game in a completely unbiased manner and develop the knowledge of the laws of the game that any match official has, then you won't realise just how good the guys at the top really are.

But at the end of the day ?





They're still WAN KERS

Hewer is a decent ref chaps or at least he is at our level ( cougars) dunno about speed of sl though.We like him at cougar park.

you no as well as i do its all about if your face fits! your dad and mine were better than what we hav to put up with these days, refs fast tracked they need to ref more amateur games to learn there trade!! rant over lol

So Thierry Alibert is a good referee? Put it this way if i was touching for him i would want double pay as your reffing the match really!

He has plenty of experience and if he wasn't any good, why would he have been given the job?

He is in the comp because he is French simple as. He is crap for all teams so this seems to even things out a little and i understand the bloke is on a learning curve.
If you can't see this bloke is crap you really have the blinkers on.

Really. Do I? I don't see any justification here from anyone as to why he is "Crap," just a few comments that he is. Have the people suggesting that he is "Crap" ever picked up a copy of the 'Laws of the Game' and are they familiar with the RFL's operational rules? Or is it purely a case of unsupported opinion based on him awarding a few penalties against us on Friday?

I can't comment on Friday's game, Hull on a Friday is a no-no without a day off work and an overnight stay – but every time I've seen Thierry Alibert ref, whether live or on TV, I've been generally impressed.

Bonzo you know all refs are crap, we should get rid of them all

, but hang on a minute, there would be no more games

mmmm.

As i said in my post though, he missed stuff for both sides

Infact, towards the end of the game we kicked the ball out on the full and he awarded Hull a 20 metre restart

The thing is nobody's actually being specific about what he "Missed for both sides". My point there is maybe they're not as familiar with the Laws of the Game as the man in the middle. As a fan of one side or the other in a game, you're never going to look at it completely impartially either which kind of makes the thread pretty pointless when you think about it.



I don't remember that one - was there a chance the ball could've gone out on the full over the dead ball line, or touch-in-goal? This would result in a 20m restart. If went into touch, was it definitely a 20m restart or simply a handover on the 20m line?

It did go out on the full over the dead ball line.....which was actually my next question to you, as i was not familiar with that ruling

He did miss offsides for both teams and imo a few forward passes (but they are pretty standard stuff that gets missed anyway)

Yep that's a 20m restart.


They're both things you can't possibly see from the end and unless you're in the middle monitoring the game, they're not always as cut and dried as they might appear from the stands.

A player isn't offside unless they're interfering or involved with play - simply having a foot in front of the mark won't generally result in a penalty like so many think. Also, someone behind me was constantly moaning about markers not being square on Friday - try looking at their feet rather than their bodies - that applies to getting back the 10m too.

You have to be 100% certain about a forward pass before giving it. The action of passing the ball can't be in a forward motion, but if this results in the flight of the ball being forwards whether it's via the player's forward momentum in relation to the ground; whether it's a high lobbed pass; or whether it's caught by the wind then it's not a forward pass. Every team is coached to pass the ball flat in the modern game. A flat pass from a standing player to a running player as an example, will from most angles appear to be forward although the pass itself is not.

Having played and followed rugby league since i was 6 and i'm now 44 i have a very good knowledge of the rules thankyou. I am not a ref knocker and i am happy the standard in super league is improving but prince albert has a long way to go. From the dozen or so games i have seen him officiate he has a way to go to get the pace, judgement and confidence. As i said earlier he is on a learning curve.
I don't base my opinion on penalties against Cas by the way.

Have any of those games not involved Cas?

Also I thought I had a "Very good knowledge" of the rules until I first picked up a copy of Laws of the Game a few years back to find that there were quite a lot more that I was unaware of, in addition to some for which my interpretation was incorrect.