Don't know who ref is for Saturday. But as far as I am aware we have had Thaler ref us only once in the last two years, and that was a mistake because he had to step in at very short notice because the scheduled ref pulled out.

This is more than a coincidence and I can only think of three reasons for this.

1. The club have told the RFL they do not want him to ref our games.

2 The RFL have decided they do not want him to ref our games.

3. Thaler has asked not to ref our games.

I wonder if Daddycool could enlighten us further, and if not Maybe they could make a formal request to the RFL to find out what the problem is and why we never have him.

Would be nice to see him on Saturday, not because he may favour Wakefield but because he's the best referee around at the moment. Plus I'm sick of seeing Child and Kendall.

I know Powell complained about his "allegiances" once. But yes, Thaler is the best ref in SL I think we should have him ref at least once before he regular season is over. Same with Bentham, a change from Child/Kendall/Hicks would be nice.

1. The club have told the RFL they do not want him to ref our games.

I think that is extremely unlikely

and the other two, only very unlikely

I suspect he'd rather not referee the club he used to support.

its not just the reffing or who ref us the whole games all to cock whether televised or not its so lob sided it just doesn't makes sense to watch any more, by speeding the game up it only adds to more mistakes.
some of the basics rules of the game is being lost now, professional fouling is the norm now to get away with time wasting, falling over for penalties like a dying swan, harassing the ref its becoming a farce, no respect from the players will lead to no respect from the fans

Well if that's his decision so be it, however I would ask why he had no problem reffing us for several years and what made him decide to stop.

Well, move it on to Child then.

I mean, they're supposed to be professionals and be completely dispassionate.

If they're not, do we say Child is being just a bit too anti Wakey to avoid the same accusation.
He doesn't have any qualms about reffing wakey games despite being born in the city, leaves himself open to it.
Thaler is the best ref we have, if he cant ref dispassionately, we're in trouble.

I seem to remember DC tweeted about Ben Thaler reffing more in Denver than Belle Vue?
Mc “Statto time. Since July 2014, Ben Thaler has referree’d more games in Denver, Colorado, then he has regular Super League games involving Wakefield Trinity “

I quite like Hewitt?? But we only get him once a year.

You know what I think PB - I think it’s the Wakefield syndrome. In the same default way that we only beat teams who are playing badly I reckon it’s the same with refs, I think that consciously or otherwise it is the default reaction of any losing coach to assume the ref was poor and complain about them. So in the end nobody wants to ref us because it’s to much hassle. Just a thought.

I'll take any ref, they're just blokes like me and you, non of them are out to be biased towards one team over another, they're all human and thus make mistakes, some more than others but they're just as likely to fux it up for the opposition as us.
Luck and the chaos theory have more influence over a game than which side of the bed the ref got out of that morning.

He refs where the controller of refs tells him to. Perhaps we should be asking Steve Ganson why we never seem to get Ben Thaler.

The wife sees Ben in town most Saturday mornings, so I will get her to ask him

19 games played - James Child reffed 8 of them, Kendall reffed 4, Hewer 3, Hicks and Moore 2 each. Not a single refereeing appearance for Thaler, Bentham, Mikalauskas or Smith in any of Wakey's games.

Thaler confirmed as ref for Saturday

Bentham has been injured for a few months after a collision with Chris Houston. Latest rumour is that he'll be back at some point for the 8s.

Smith went part time last year and is mainly linesman for SL games and refs the odd Championship match.

That aside over the last 2 years there does feel to be a heavier weighting in appearances to Child and Kendall. The RFL should monitor this more closely to ensure an even balance.

In recent times I'd welcome Hicks back. Although this year I think Hewer and Moore have been the best refs I've seen at Wakey matches. None get everything right.

Has Child been dropped to the Championship?

Yep, he has been allocated Batley vs Leigh.

See we have Ben Thaler for Catalans game

What are the chances that Steve Ganson reads these forums.

Nil I hope or we really are in bother!