You might want to rein it in mate.

The message being discussed - the vitriolic verbal abuse of a ref at a game, reported by the wife - wasn't about Wfd v Hull. That means it's a 50% chance of it being the Saints game.

Your wider point; of course Wakey have moaning fans - every club does.

Abuse has got to stop!

agree with this - was it the ref that made Johnstone run it on half time that eventually cost us two. points that would of won the game- was it the ref that made Lynne drop the ball when we got with in six ?

If the ref really was biased and didn't want us to win he would of disallowed booth of johnstones tries that could of gone either way

How could he have done that?
They were clearly tries.
As usual you are commenting on something when you are not there.

Who are you talking about??

Out of the 5000 fans there supporting Wakey on Friday, exactly who are ALL these fans blaming the ref? Go on, make a list of posters on here who have blamed Child - there may be 10.

It's an urban myth that any club, never mind Wakey, always blame the ref. Hell, we've watched enough substandard teams in our time to know we aren't always competitive and don't need to find scapegoats.

Cut the hyperbole.

Always? I think if you look back at posts about our defeat v Hull KR in Rd 1 for example you'll see no blame other than we were crap.

The thread is about James Child, no one else. There is nothing better than seeing any other guy getting appointed to our fixture. We love other refs.

Oh, no, I can agree with that point - if Child really wanted to ensure a Hull FC win, he could very easily have called no-try on those. Ruling out such miraculous trys would be easy to explain away as "human error".

I have no doubt at all the ref made mistakes in the game; but because he's a cheat? No way.

I think you'll find it was the touch judge that gave both decisions.
He would have looked a bit daft overruling it when the touch judge gave it as he was so close...

....and I've never said that he was a cheat, so if your implying that, I hope you'll take it back.

Of course I'm not happy that referees and their families get the abuse and threats from certain sections of the community and I never said that and never will condone such actions as I said in my previous post. No one in any legitimate job should suffer such actions, and I take umbrage to the idea that you seem to think that I may do so.
The references in my previous post were to your statement that all referees deserved respect. I recall that when you took over the reins of Wakefield Trinity you stated that you were a man of honesty and integrity and I have no reason to believe that the claim was not true as you appear to be a gentleman. But can you honestly put your hand on your heart and state that you believe that James Child refereed last Friday's game and the earlier game at Castleford fairly and honestly. ?
I eagerly await your response.

I think the point being made is that it's a different world now.

I never used to hear my dad swear as a kid, except from the terraces of Belle Vue, and often directed towards the referee. That has always been there, and I think most people accept it as part of the pantomime of supporting sports. But social media has changed everything. It's made it the equivalent of sitting behind the ref on the bus as he goes home from the game, screaming in his ear, and then shouting through his window all night about what a dreadful person he is.

I don't mind Child on the whole. He's made some decisions I've found baffling from time to time (the potential penalty try for Batchelor at Cas, for example) but I've never considered it as bias. We give penalties away when we're under the cosh, and the nature of our squad means that we will often find ourselves under the cosh (ie, not as good as some of the other squads).

Yes I can. I don’t believe any ref is unfair or dishonest. I don’t think I can be any clearer

We weren't giving penalties away when Child waved an extra six tackles for a deliberate kick for a rebound off the Trinity players legs. We were weren't giving penalties away when Hull were constantly stood offside and not punished. We weren't giving penalties away when Johnstone was tackled in mid air when taking a high ball.
I agree it's a vastly different world to the one that you and I remember; mostly made all the worse by the appearance of so-called social media. Apart from my taking part on this forum I have no truck at all with social media being it Facebook or Twitter or any other form. I despise it and the anti-social behaviour that has resulted from its inception.

I appreciate and accept your comment and response , DC.

I for one personally think Child refereed both games fairly and honestly. Whether he reffed them well is a totally different argument. I don't believe for a second he is biased and watching the Cas game back on Sky the other week i can see why pretty much all the decisions were given, even if i might not have agreed with all of them. As a neutral i doubt i’d have thought anymore about them. Do i think he had a good game on Friday? No i don't. But that doesn’t mean he is cheating.

When he is having a bad game then he is bound to get criticism from the crowd and i’m sorry to DC but yes it comes with the job to a degree i’m afraid. It has always been the case and always will be but there is obviously a line that shouldn’t be crossed. Shouting he is have a stinker is one thing, but personal abuse is a big step too far. And from what i heard from some in the north stand on Friday then i’m not sure as a club we can act all high and mighty regarding Isreal Falou when some of our fans shout what they did at the referee this weekend. And as for the curse of social media, some of the vitriol on those platforms these days is pathetic. It does say more about the braindead idiots posting it than the person it is aimed at but it will hurt. i’d love to think that a #bekind type campaign would work but lets be honest, it won’t. The world has changed irrecoverably and sadly it’s not for the better.

I couldn’t agree more with your last 2/3 sentences. However if I give up, and accept that this is just how it is these days, I don’t want to be part of that. We cannot give up and let these ‘idiots’ win. What the hell will we leave behind us?

I know exactly what you mean but trying to change it is like King Canute against the tide i’m afraid. Social media has ballooned into some great behemoth that is in reality out of control. It has given people the chance to say exactly whatever they want, without justification and without the consequences. Up to 20 years ago to say things that are the norm on these platforms would have to be in person and would get you a fat lip and you’d think twice about doing it again. Now there are no real comebacks. Many of the people who find these things reprehensible have already been shouted down and don’t use them anymore, so the abuse is more acute. I’m really not sure what the answer is, or whether it is just too far gone to be stopped. Maybe it would take people walking away from the game and putting the club or game they purport to love to make people think but i wouldn’t be sure.

I always try to be measured about the referee - and make a point that the outcome of a game is in the hands of the players, not the officials; it is very hard to take however, when a referee is inexplicably inconsistent, and makes big decisions that do in fact turn out to influence the outcome of the game - as happened on Friday night.

On reflection, I don't think Mr Child is biased against Wakefield; I also happen to think that he's *technically* one of the best referees in the game - he quite clearly knows the rules inside out. What I don't enjoy, is his pedantic application of the rules, which seems to exclude interpretation and situational awareness. I also believe that he focuses on one team for periods of a game, then switches his attention - hence a lopsided penalty count, that evens up later.

He doesn't hate Wakefield - he's just not an especially good all-round performer, which is frustrating as a spectator; personal abuse however, is entirely unacceptable - and given recent events, one would hope that people would realise that. They won't though.

No, the TJ does not "give" trys - he merely indicated he had no reason to indicate a no-try. Both very brave calls from him, as you'd be forgiven for thinking they were just too improbable!.

The ref could have disallowed it/either, if he wanted to influence the result of the game.

Social Media making it mandatory to use your own name and details is a good start. Like on here maybe 2% post under their own name. I know it's how it was set up but some people are cruel, vile, rude and disengenious with what they say. They know they can hide behind a username. Reasoned debate also seems to have been lost. In respect of Child's. I did feel he didn't penalise Hull like he did us, within the ruck and offside. However I said at the game I'm often wrong with decisions when I watch it back so I'm interested to watch. If I was right the ref doesn't deserve the abuse he gets. I totally get fans aren't going to watch in silence and are going to moan, I have. But there's a difference between shouting loud come on ref same for both f*cking sides to I hope you ing die in a car crash.
I don't think anything has gone too far to be stopped although I agree it's very difficult to change attitudes. A kid announcing over the tannoy isn't the answer!

As Mick says above, some requirement of proof of ID should be mandatory to get a social media profile, and the social media sites should be required more easily to disclose those proofs of identity. Further, there should be a presumption that a post made on a social media site is made by the profile-holder, unless the profile holder proves otherwise.

The criminal offences are there, but it's the effort involved in proving it that gives people a free rein. And further offences could be introduced. I'm no longer on social media as it is just too draining, which is a shame, because in its infancy it was great. Even on here, people have all sorts of spats, but face to face it would be nothing more than blokes rambling in a pub.

The internet is one of the world's greatest inventions. But it is also one of the worst.

No one has explained the statistic (if true) of only 3 winning games out of 30 matches reffed by Mr Child. Are these the figures of an unbiased official? I'd like to see his statistics for the other 11 clubs in comparison

Maybe we were just crap?

If they were recorded over the last couple of seasons possibly so, PT

How about the very well researched stat on another forum that since the start of 2017 our record with him is won 6, drawn 1 (Friday, i’m classing that as a draw), lost 6.

Or does not fit your agenda?

It needs clamping down on.

We could start with the clubs themselves.

Coaches, officials and staff should never comment on a referee or his decisions, other than on facts (e.g. "the game turned when we conceded 3 penalties in a row" is ok, "I don't think we got the rub of the green on the penalties tonight" is not)

Fans on the terraces [and keyboards need to learn the difference between challenging a decision and challenging the decision maker. (e.g. "no way was that a forward pass" versus "come on you nice person, there's two teams you know" or "don't you know the rules Mr. Kershaw?" or other less polite comments directed at the person.

Clubs need to take action against any unsuitable chants from the terraces the same as they would for racist or homophobic chants. Fellow fans need to grass them up. Make it unacceptable.

I don't think there's any need to announce the referees for each game beforehand, just choose 6 for the SL fixtures and allocate them randomly.

Confirmation bias is rife. Someone, says we've only won 3 out of 30 with Child as ref and then that gets repeated by others without fact checking because it fits their agenda.

Mmmm! But what about all the previous seasons, Sacred? Your figures cover 13 games; crikey, he reffed us more than that many in ONE season!!!!!! In one period we seemed to have either him or Hicks every other game.