He was spot on with what Washbrook and JJB did putting the ball on someone then claiming a penalty needs cutting out but so do head butts that go unpunished.

It happens in too many games where the ball is played on the tackler if he is close enough to get to, I guess the difference between the two incidents mentioned is that JJB didn't get a penalty and Washbrook did. That said I'm really surprised that Burrow stayed on the pitch. I know, as fans, we are always frustrated at referees when we don't get the decision we want but I'm not sure the standard is any better. I went to a game in Australia earlier this year and there was only 4 or 5 penalties in the whole game. I'm not sure if it's having 2 referees or the players are just that bit fitter so there's no need to mess about at the play of the ball? If it is the former I'm not sure we could recruit enough refs for 2 per game.

Tbf we were very very niggly last night as the fatigue started to creep in (although Leeds weren't much better). Radford did say he didn't care how bad the game was if we got the result. If you want someone to blame for last nights spectacle, blame the scheduling. We can't be blamed for trying whatever it took in that situation.

Haven't seen the full Sky one but seen his post match press conference interview and he readily admits his team do it as well. I think this only highlights the problem more that we have a coach who hates these kind of things but accepts his team does it too. We've reached a point where coaches who don't even want to have this in the game have players who do it, it's become a necessary evil if you want to have any chance of competing.

Can you be successful in today's game without it and taking the moral high ground of playing it clean?

If the players not in the way, wouldnt be a problem, the reffing is the problem, players feel need to do things like that because the refs dont police the ruck properly, washbrooks was a penalty because he couldnt play the ball from the correct position, jjb wasnt because he tried playing it from the wrong position

the play the ball area does need sorting, every play the ball imo you could penalize either team, its scruffy and you hold you breath awaiting a penalty one way or the other, the answer imo would be 2 refs the only problem with that is we havnt enough good refs to go round at the moment, all teams try to gain advantage but it can spoil the flow of the game,

When Sutcliffe score last night Hougton was ranting about something and I didn't have a clue what. I've just watched the highlights and I assume otnwas that on the play the ball for that try JJB was getting to his dived and dived about 2 metres off the mark and played the ball nowhere near where the tackle happened. There's so much inconsistency when it comes to penalizing moving off the mark.

Do the refs really need to be that good if 2 of them, doing half the job, so in theory should be a lot easier

Agreed. You can have a senior ref with a junior one and they only have half as much to look at as they do currently

I believe Castleford play a pretty clean game and I totally disagree it's become a necessary evil

I don't have an issue with Mcdermotts comments, it's about time it got addressed because in recent seasons there have been glimpses of football tactics (Sam tompkins springs to mind)

Milner and Mcshane in particular play far from a clean game in my opinion but i get your general meaning.

I agree, but what they would need to do, is act on what they see. If one is watching the PTB and the other the offside, then you would hope it wouldn't take too many games for the players to catch on, and consequently make for better games.

Doesn't need two refs, all the RFL has to do is instruct teams/coaches that from now on these incidents will be penalised ALL the time from minute one to minute eighty.
1. stepping off the mark/moving forward off the mark with no relevant influence from a nearby tackler (so that a mere touch/brush/hand resting on top of tackled player doesn't count)
2. Not making any attempt to move out of the way of the ruck/not obstructing the dummy half from passing in any direction.
3. Not making a genuine attempt to extricate yourself from the tackle prudently.
4. Not moving away immediately 'move' is called (if we are to continue with that)
5. Diving/faking interference.
6. Encroaching the 10m before the tackled player even has the ball through their legs never mind in the DH hands.

Penalise the cr ap out of teams that infringe, basically this will cost teams games, i don't care if the first few games are a penalty fest because the subsequent games will have to be much cleaner otherwise teams that continue to infringe will simply not be able to compete.

The rule is that you can move once the guy playing the ball has touched it with his foot. Given that no one touches it with their foot anymore its a hard one to police.

Would possibly agree with you, if it hadn't been proven in the NRL that it really does work. Im sure the RFL instruct the clubs at the beginning of every season on the points you make, but in practice just to much for the ref to deal with in such high speed sport, and nobody wants to see the game stopping and starting every 30 secs, 2 refs the way forward for me imo

A certain Mr Child's seems happy to stop the game every 30 seconds (or that's how it feels at times)!

I think everyone would agree that a quick play the ball is what teams in possession aim for, and a slow play the ball when defending.

I've said before that just about every tackle nowadays could generate a penalty, that's how bad it's got.

So, penalise the team in possession when needed, but, rather than giving a penalty against the defending side, how about simply not increasing the tackle count?
Blatant infringement of the rules would still need to be penalised.

The refs could tighten up the rules without ruining the game (even more).

Not bad idea but could be carnage with players and fans not knowing what the tackle count is. First thing they need to do is bring back the rule of playing ball with your foot. At least then it gives the ref chance to decide when teams are offside. Olso the video ref should be able to make calls ie when every person watching on sky can see a blatant head butt yet the player stays on pitch

I wouldn't call it carnage.

Not playing the ball with the foot started about 20 years ago, by wigan if I remember correctly, and has been pretty much ignored by the officials ever since.

Tend to agree with Bumpy on his suggestions (and agreed with the thrust of McDermott's rant). The first few weeks of 2018 would be fun if this was policed properly though.

I remember years ago when interference started getting silly. The RFL intervened and it was a penalty every time for a while until players learnt not to do it. Then the refs relaxed and the players reverted to laying on etc knowing they could get away with it, which they still do.

Bottom line is that the refereeing set up isn't fit for purpose - having Ganson in charge doesn't exactly help either

Anybody tuning into the NRL on Freesports this week will have noticed a MASSIVE difference.

Game much quicker, less wrestling on the ground, very few hands in delaying PTB - far more of a spectacle where frankly cheating has been eliminated - two reasons:-
1).

contd,,

1). Absolute clarity from the top about what is accepted, I suggest all clubs properly advised by governing body & firmly enforced.
2). Two refs just has to be the way forward - one polices the ten metre, the other the PTB. This was announced by SL a couple of years ago but never happened - think it was the cost ? coupled with lack of suitable candidates.
All SL players are naturally pushing the barrier & seeking to gain advantage - for the good of the game it has to be sorted. Fully agree with BMaC - if he can't explain what dominant or submissive mean then what chance have the players, the refs orus long suffering fans ???

But the problem is that mcdermott and all of the other coaches are training their players week in, week out to slow down the PTB then when an opponent gets the drop on them he complains. washbrook clearly did what he did on Thursday on purpose 'but if the attacking player wasn't getting up next to him while he was trying to play the ball then he wouldn't have been able to do it. For me, the issue is with the defenders, not the attacking player. if you're still in the way then you should be penalised.

Get rid of the 3 and 4 men tackles, the wrestling, the pulling the man to the floor after held has been called and everything else aimed at slowing down the opposition attack and the game would be much better for it

Again, you don't need two refs in your scenario, the touch judge polices the 10m, just as he/she should police the offside line for scrums but currently don't even do that either properly. In fact a touch judge has a far better view as he's looking down one line in one direction so players offside are easy to see.
The referee doesn't even need to stand 10m away just as referees in the past didn't have to always stand the 5 or 10 and were often found close to the PTB when it got a bit messy. Players respected the offside line far more then and also didn't give the ref even a quarter of the lip they do now. start pinging whiners 10m every time they open their gob and some teams would never leave their own 20 when you factor in their general match tactics. jesus if players like Wellens, Tomkins and Maguire acted as they did BITD, goalkickers of the era would just be laughing with attempt after attempt at goal for 2 without ever having to worry the opposition would get a sniff unless they played fairly and didn't gob off to the ref.
kick off, laying on/messy play the ball, penalty, offside at 1st PTB, penalty, gob off, marched another 10, kick for goal, rinse and repeat.



We can enforce the rules without sanitising or slowing the game down, it just needs the coaches, the players and more importantly the officials to do what they should all be doing.

Exactly, completely agree, makes me laugh people who don't normally watch the NRL didn't even realize that 2 refs are on the pitch! Quite clearly works, and the simplest solution imo