There was a fair few high shots and grapple tackles on display at the stoop on Sunday and not just from the Crusaders. Sat in front of the try line, I had a clear view of some ot the Quinns last ditch try stopping tackles and some of them were far from squeeky clean.

sorry lads,just remembered Mr Hicks is now SL reffing - well deserved and good luck to him for 2011

There's a certain irony in the way he referees games. Every game I've ever been to each sides supporters are shouting for a penalty at every PTB. Child, more often than not shares that view and gives a high penalty count.

Still the supporters are not happy. It's what makes RL such a great game.

Fans ' cheating ' , putting their club before the ' good of the game ' ? , never

Surely not in a family game.

First game I ever saw him do was Rovers vs Wakefield and I thought he was very good (Hull KR lost btw). Since then he has, for me, gone into the category of refs that are impressed by reputation and I dread getting him against the more successful teams (Bentham and Alibert are the fairest to the underdog IMO, for slightly different reasons). He does also tend to get into a rut of blowing for every little thing, which can be frustrating - especially if your team is on the receiving end!

Thomason is easily the best ref in the CC IMO. Lets the game flow which makes for a much more entertaining game. Complete opposite of James 'Centre of Attention' Child.

Crusaders were lucky not to get penalised more yesterday for the number of high shots they were doing. Harris needs to look at the tackling technique of his players as I think a tougher referee would have used cards yesterday to stop the persistent high shots.

From experience, I can tell you he's a humourless sod on the field as well.

He worked a touch tournament I was playing in a few years ago and I've never seen an official less interested in a bit of banter and more up his own backside.

Its a well known fact the Australians ' cheat ' more than british sportsmen , thats why you lot used to do quite well in SL , wereas now your rubbish

I've not seen that Leaguefan character on here yet. Doesn't he tend to try and turn these threads around and pour scorn upon the players and coaches because he feels that the referees are infallable and are all blameless?

That'll be his sunbed tan.

If I remember right wasn't it Child that hammered us with about 12 penalties against Saints when we were by far the most disiplined side in the comp up to that point?
If it is I remember even the SKY guys saying that we were very hard done by that night.

I am convinced the quality of refereeing has deteriorated since they went full-time. Child is a good example of it.

Why?

When they were part-time, they could have a decent-paid main job and so were far from totally dependent on the RFL money. Just as well, too. This meant (IMO) you tended to get guys who where were both good at the referring job - because they enjoyed it and wanted to do it - and could afford to do it. Kirkpatrick (who IMO developed from a struggling rookie to a first-rate official) was a good example. And remember Cummings was a teacher.

Now its full-time, the salaries on offer are hardly likely to be enough to make a guy rich, I suspect? And what does the guy do when he has to retire from being a ref when all he has done is be a referee for years? So does anyone think that - in the main - you are always going to get the very best candidates for the job?

The cynics and conspiracy-therorists might also say that a part-timer, with decent outside income, might be less amenable to following any alleged "team orders" from the RFL than a full-timer might be.

If I was dictator, I would allow both full-time and part-time SL referees. And they would get picked on performance regardless. We'd not have lost Kirkpatrick that way, IIRC?

Crusaders tackling technique might have crept up a few times but O'Hara got whacked right across the grill and it went ignored. Childs hasn't a clue.

He seems to react to player and crowd participation too which just adds to how clueless I think the bloke is. We didn't deserve the win yesterday and seemed very lacklustre at times but Quins did enough to win and hats off to them for taking the two points on offer.

It was agin Oldham, and he effectively cost Ste Mac his job. That was one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen from a referee. He was just about as pedantic as you could get. He loved the sound of the whistle and made the most ridiculous, and flamboyant (Ooooh, everyone look at me) signals.

Still, we had a referee yesterday (Tim Roby) who may as well have just come on the field with a flute, he was blowing up so much. The RFL should just make James Gallway and Ian Anderson referees and have done with it. At least, if we’re not actually getting to see some nice, flowing RL, we’ll get to listen to a decent recital.

Sounds like a tribute to the players and their coaches as well as to the referee and other officials.

really good point adey. i reffed football at at swmi pro level and had an assessor at every game and a good crowd. you had to caution for certain things as that was expected at that level. now i'm back in local leagues in front of one man and his dog and i can use common sense, something i couldn't higher up.
as a result my marks from clubs are sky high and clubs look forward to me reffing. as i said a very valid point

Yeah a mate of mine refs at championship level (association game) and he says whenever anything happens his first thought is 'What did the assessor make of that?'

have to agree with most of that but you can't generalise like that - Thierry Alibert for example has a good job to go back to when his reffing days are over - he was lucky enough to get 'leave of absence' for a few years to be able to fulfil his dream of SL reffing.
I don't think the general standard has dropped in SL,it's just that Mr Child isn't up to the task IMO.
He wouldn't be any better or worse if he was full or part time IMO. I don't have a problem with the other SL refs - it's always been a thankless job and will remain so whether they are part time or full time.I,like most fans just expect to see some consistency with the refereeing, that's all.

thats not necessarily the measure of a well refereed game. Ive seen many a game spoiled by a ref 'letting the game flow' which mainly consisted of boring and turgid play, slowed down by lazy defense and poor technique which wasnt punished.

The referee refs the game, if there are infringements he needs to to punish it.

So are we saying that full time ref's are no better than part time ones? I'd pretty much agree that there hasn't been a visible improvement since the switch and also that good candidates will be put off from going full time because they earn more money in other jobs. Kirkpatrick, for example, turned down the chance to go full time because he had a good career as a banker (that's Banker) and the RFL refused to let him carry on part time when they switched to full time refs. You might think he was a crap ref but the point being that if he was then lost to the game because of the full time thing, then there are probably many others who we miss out on who would make good officials but just happen to have a decent day job they don't want to give up.

I see no reason why we need full time refs as I don't think it's led to the improvements that were expected - if it had, then fair enough, but the refs who switched to full time don't seem that much better now than when they were part time. I certainly see no reason to exclude refs who would rather be part time as long as their performances on field are up to scratch. Maybe the full time thing is why a ref who looks good in Championship RL doesn't get a shot at SL because they won't switch to full time. Maybe Mr Child was third choice to be stepped up but the other two said 'no thanks' to the full time thing (I was also surprised he got an SL gig after seeing him in action quite a bit). If you can keep your fitness up, keep performance up and make a few ref meetings, I don't see why we can't allow part time officials in SL.

to sanjunien - I wasn't generalising, as I hope is clear from the end of my second paragraph - you'll get very good full-timers and very good part-timers.

You bring up a good point regarding consistency, though, and it comes out of the points made by the previous two posters: if the RFL can exert more control over the decision-making of full-time officials (lets say for this purpose they can, although there are likely arguments for and against) then you would think...hope..that that would lead to greater consistency in decision-making? Something most fans want to see.

We still don't see it, though, do we?

Incidentally, this is in no way a knock at the referees generally. Thankless job that I would hate to even consider doing. Indeed, if I was dictator I would look to significantly increasing what I paid full time AND part-time top-flight officials, as well as providing a run-off income (like an early pension) for a few years after full-time guys retired from the top flight. That way, you'd perhaps be able to attract more talent and have a wider pool to select your top guys from. Just need some brass to pay for it, that's all...

I remember from somewhere (unknown can't think who) hearing some said that the only thing to have improved after going full time was his handicap.

quite agree with all that

as a general sports fan the officiating in my lifetime at RL,RU,Football & Cricket to name but a few has always been inconsistent - how can it not be because the people involved are humans and humans are prone to error - this will never change in whatever sport.All we can hope for is that the laws in existence at any given moment are interpreted as accurately as possible on a consistent level
Officiating errors are and always have been,a part of sport and will never change.I'm quite happy with the standard of RL reffing in SL,C/C1 & LER though I feel the linos could be of more assistance to the refs who only have one pair of eyes and miss some of the off the ball stuff that goes on. I don't my skin is thick enough to be a lino ! another thankless job...i'll just stick to abusing them instead !