I did not think he reffed too badly at all, generally consistent. Yes he allowed saints to hold down but he also allowed cas the same luxury.

Powell could have reffed the game himself and not affected the outcome.

according to the stats cas got more penalties ?

Child was truly awful. He gave Saints everything & killed Cas early in the game. I'm a fan of neither side & actually took Saints at 6/1 to win the GF.

I'm glad they are just 80 minutes away from being able to try & erase that run of bridesmaid appearances, but I completely agree with Powell on this.

He does also say Saints were too good for Cas & that his side need to be far better.

Up until Friday Saints were yet to win a game with Child this year after 4 attempts... So our win percentage under him was 0%

That must have been a proper pulling off!!

must read posts back before posting!

Beat me to it

Every club's fans think Child is against them because he can produce horrendous performances time and again so there is a good well to drink from if you want to bring up some perceived historical slight.

Unlike certain referees, I don't think he is biased; he just isn't very good.

Very surprised at how Powell has criticised the ref. I think his game management was good.

I can't think of many decisions that were questionable too. The only two I can think of is where Thompson lost the ball but he called a strip (understandable given how the ball came out) and the forward pass that never was (but not sure who made that call).

Can you attribute blame to a ref in a 41-0 defeat, yes I think you can, I remember Ganson reffing us v Hudds inna playoff game, he reffed in such a way it played to our strengths and eliminated all Hudds strengths.

So yes I think you can blame a ref for a one sided loss.

Question though, do I think Cas lost due to the ref? No, all their own fault.

I would be interested to hear from Powell what actual incidents he thought went badly against them. On first viewing I thought a few decisions went against them when I was watching in real time but when the replays were shown the officials got it spot on.

I think both sides had one bad decision go against them first half but bar that there wasn't that much to groan about referee wise imo.

Maybe I've got my Cas blinkers on but rightly or wrongly Powell has complained about the referee after just two of our nine league/playoff defeats this season - Salford away back in April, and St Helens on Friday night. James Child was the ref for both. Which is hardly blaming the referee after 'every defeat.' I have yet to see Fridays game so can't comment on his performance.

The referees for our 28 league/playoff games have been:

Child 7
Thaler 6
Roby 4
Silverwood 4
Bentham 3
Hicks 2
Stokes 1
Cobb 1

But what incidents is he actually complaining about? What was so horrendous? Nobody seems keen to elaborate.

No idea Sir, like I say I haven't seen the match, I don't think a 41-0 defeat is down to the ref though. Just pointing out that as far as I can recall, Powell hasn't blamed the referee after every defeat.

As for him being smug after every victory as someone claimed earlier...again I can't see it, but maybe it's best if a neutral (i.e. someone who isn't a Cas or Leeds fan!) judges that!

He ridiculed the ref for not giving the Makinson try.

Also thinks we were on rough end of a stick from a lot of the 50/50s from reading today's RL press.

Seems very balanced to me and was just calling Child 'horrendous' in general. We do seem to have been on the end of a few wrong, bad calls from him though across this season.

Maybe that's because powell keeps slagging him off.

I wont hide the fact I wanted Castleford to smash Saints but I honestly couldn't see anything to suggest they were hard done by and I was looking for every little thing



I don't think going after a certain ref will ever do him any favours in the long run either tbh.

In a close game I can understand coaches having grievances about bad decisions. But if the ref's performance was foremost in Powells mind after that then I think cas have off field shortcomings too.

I think that bearing in mind the speed of the game and the scrutiny their decisions are put under from TV and the fans, that all the referees do a good job. Any coach who blames someone else for their teams poor performance should go look at the stats and see how many missed tackles the ref made.

Taxi to Red Hall for Mr Hetherington and Mr Powell

GH wont need a taxi, we all know he is based there.

Hetherington proving how it's possible to run both a club and the RFL at the same time without bias by charging himself.

Is GH schizophrenic?

Worrying development that he's charging himself.

Afterall he runs the RFL, right wakey and huddersfield fans?

We’ll let you know,that's if he manages to stop Carney going to France

.

He didn't prevent Greg Bird going to France in 2009 and I don't expect him to succeed here either.

Embarrassing whiny behaviour from an increasingly agitated CEO who is perhaps feeling the pressure with regard to the direction his own club appears to be heading in.

What do governments/politicians do when under the cosh? They embark on creating distractions.

Well if he does run the RFL, it's good news for us Wakey fans, since his wife is "consultant chief executive" at Wakefield.