: Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:56 pm  

Match Officials standards have dropped since Stuart Cummings has become boss of them. We all make mistakes and I accept they will miss something. However its the way often Referees are so consistant especially in SL with the top teams who get away with alot whilst other teams are penalized for the same thing.
I have seen games at both Champonship & SL level where there has been alot of high tackles and laying on-yet one side it seems to be OK for one side but the other not. Or where something will happen right before the eyes of a TJ or Ref but they just seem to ignore it but then a few minutes later they pull a team for something nobody has seen! The Leeds & Bradford game last year is a prime example of the shocking mistakes by Match Officials
And Stuart Cummings when a Ref/Match Official is criticized straight away jumps to the defence of his man instead of properly looking at the reason why. There is a problem as Terry Matterson, Justin Morgan etc this year have openly criticized officials. Instead of Cummings looking in to why people have a poor opinion he just makes excuses or tries to justify there reasons.
The age and experience of some of these officials is quite frankly a joke. Most are young lads who have never played the game at a decent level in the amateur game let alone pro game and could be the reason why they seemingly have little idea what is going on. I would love to see that arrogant knob Stuart Cummings leave and have somebody efficient in place.

: Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:02 pm  

I think they've simply struggled to keep with the pace of the game. Add to this the plethora of rule changes that they've had to cope with and you then understand that it's that side of the game that hasn't advanced. I still think they do an OK job - my main gripe is the inconsistencies during the game. What a thankless task it is though. Imagine, EVERY week being booed and barracked by one set of fans at least. It comes with the territory i suppose but i couldn't stomach it to be honest.

: Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:02 pm  

The Lucky Black Cat wrote:

Match Officials standards have dropped since Stuart Cummings has become boss of them. We all make mistakes and I accept they will miss something. However its the way often Referees are so consistant especially in SL with the top teams who get away with alot whilst other teams are penalized for the same thing.
I have seen games at both Champonship & SL level where there has been alot of high tackles and laying on-yet one side it seems to be OK for one side but the other not. Or where something will happen right before the eyes of a TJ or Ref but they just seem to ignore it but then a few minutes later they pull a team for something nobody has seen! The Leeds & Bradford game last year is a prime example of the shocking mistakes by Match Officials
And Stuart Cummings when a Ref/Match Official is criticized straight away jumps to the defence of his man instead of properly looking at the reason why. There is a problem as Terry Matterson, Justin Morgan etc this year have openly criticized officials. Instead of Cummings looking in to why people have a poor opinion he just makes excuses or tries to justify there reasons.
The age and experience of some of these officials is quite frankly a joke. Most are young lads who have never played the game at a decent level in the amateur game let alone pro game and could be the reason why they seemingly have little idea what is going on. I would love to see that arrogant knob Stuart Cummings leave and have somebody efficient in place.

Cue a job for you??

: Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:10 pm  

Cassandra wrote:

Cue a job for you??

No time and not living in UK and no interest to go back likely rules me out! I will do a Refs course when I retire though and have reffed odd games in the past. Not as easy as people think but main thing is to stay calm, stick to your decisions and then I asked people what to work on- for me it was to make my signals with ht e hand/Arm more visable.

: Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:42 pm  

littlerich wrote:

I think they've simply struggled to keep with the pace of the game.

I agree, while SL may use mainly FT ref's, we've still got p/t ones ref'n games with teams containing 6 or 7 full time pro's, plus players with SL experience. The game is far too quick for them & they receive very little help from ageing or far too young tj's

Re: Standard of refereeing : Tue Jun 23, 2009 7:27 pm  

spanishbob wrote:

I am sorry Soldierboy, but you are not strickly correct there. We have been to games where we have well beaten the opposition and discussed the poor standard of the refereeing.

Poor refereeing does not always result in loosing a game, but there are some poor inconsistant refereeing displays, both in our league and in Superleague. I do go to some Superleague games and I watch ALL that are on SKY and the interpretation is different week on week.

Sorry the wording came out wrong.What i meant by thrashing teams by top play, because you are much better than your opposition.For example if you are up by 40 points and the odd decision is bad against you, i just not get as upset.Yes consistency is a problem and i look fwd to more battles with fax.See you in grande final i hope and at the stobart stadium.I hope you bring a few fans aswell.

: Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:58 pm  

Just seen a "knock-on" in the York v Oldham game. It wasn't a knock on - it went backwards. What are the referees being told? If you lose the ball - either way is it now a knock on?

: Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:17 pm  

The Lucky Black Cat wrote:

Match Officials standards have dropped since Stuart Cummings has become boss of them. We all make mistakes and I accept they will miss something. However its the way often Referees are so consistant especially in SL with the top teams who get away with alot whilst other teams are penalized for the same thing.
I have seen games at both Champonship & SL level where there has been alot of high tackles and laying on-yet one side it seems to be OK for one side but the other not. Or where something will happen right before the eyes of a TJ or Ref but they just seem to ignore it but then a few minutes later they pull a team for something nobody has seen! The Leeds & Bradford game last year is a prime example of the shocking mistakes by Match Officials
And Stuart Cummings when a Ref/Match Official is criticized straight away jumps to the defence of his man instead of properly looking at the reason why. There is a problem as Terry Matterson, Justin Morgan etc this year have openly criticized officials. Instead of Cummings looking in to why people have a poor opinion he just makes excuses or tries to justify there reasons.
The age and experience of some of these officials is quite frankly a joke. Most are young lads who have never played the game at a decent level in the amateur game let alone pro game and could be the reason why they seemingly have little idea what is going on. I would love to see that arrogant knob Stuart Cummings leave and have somebody efficient in place.

Standards definitely dropped when Stuart Cummings took over from Greg McCallum. He gets very defensive whenever it is mentioned that one of his referees might have got it wrong.

Barrie Mac hits the nail on the head in his book where he says that he thinks sometimes the referees read the rulebook on the way to the game and go 'oh I'd forgot about that rule' and then spend the game penalising people for it. I'd go as far to say that they do it in game, things like not-playing it properly frustrate me because it could be given so many times during the game. You get the feeling that they think 'I haven't looked at the play the ball for a bit, wait he didn't play it, penalty!'

: Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:18 pm  

littlerich wrote:

Just seen a "knock-on" in the York v Oldham game. It wasn't a knock on - it went backwards. What are the referees being told? If you lose the ball - either way is it now a knock on?

The call was wrong, but at least he isnt just caning one side!!!!!

: Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:31 pm  

spanishbob wrote:

The call was wrong

Not good enough.
What has he seen? Certainly NOT the ball going forward. That ball was more backwards than Styler - what on earth has the referee seen? He's seen a lost ball and just lazily blown for a knock on. Rubbish. Just rubbish.