I don't disagree. Grant shocked me the other week when he refereed Saints, I've never seen anything like it. There are amateur referees who would control the game better than he does. The Childs/Grant combo at the weekend let themselves down and I don't think they've been given the whistle this weekend off the back of that (Despite McNamara stating Napa's yellow was 'very harsh'
).
But I think as a sport we've got to make a shift away from desperate cheating and our collective obsession with officiating. If the coaches and players weren't so hung up on cheating every little advantage out of the referee, it would be so much easier to referee it properly. As a competition we've got to improve the ruck. If you watch the NRL and Origin it looks so clean and dynamic. The play the balls are quick and clean. Over here, players make more metres after the tackle than they do before it. Constantly pushing forward and moving off the mark, which then throws the entire defensive line offside and the markers not square. If they all got together and just agreed to stop that and have proper, controlled, play the balls it would look so much better. It would then give the referees a chance. What happens now is the spectators get riled up, the players get frustrated and someone does something daft. The referees then miss that as well or make a bad call and it all falls apart.
I'd start by resetting the play the ball constantly for a few weeks. If a player moves in any direction, other than slightly backwards to move away from the tackler, it should be reset. Constantly having that and losing momentum from sets would soon cut it out. We get that happening and marker offences and offsides become so much easier to referee.
