just_browny wrote:
It's almost as if the fact we didn't have the usual pre-Grand Final disciplinary drama they've felt the need to cook one up. Completely mad and there have been far more frivolous appeals all year.
Unless you know the content of the appeals, I doubt that's true. There are guidelines on what you can appeal, there has to be a reason for it. You can't just go back with 'we think it's harsh, he's a nice lad' etc. You've got to have a reason why it either doesn't qualify for the kind of charge that has been brought or why it can't be the grade it's been charged at.
The MRP has again just got ahead of itself and charged players completely without need. Lees does absolutely nothing wrong, the Catalans player backs into the tackle, drops himself to the floor with his back to the tackler. What can Lees do in that situation, he's not put the player there and makes no attempt to hurt the player once he's there. The referee spotted that and told the player to get on with the play the ball as he knew what he was trying to do, to milk a penalty. Yet the MRP just see pressure with the neck and ban Lees.
Why don't they just trust the referees? Why is there this enormous chasm between what a referee sees an appropriate punishment being and what the MRP sees? Williams is another good example. The match officials see it, penalise it and warn Williams about it. He then judges that it's not worthy of a yellow card and I agree with that, the treatment is 100% correct. Then the MRP wade in and ban Williams, suggesting the referee was wrong and should have RED carded him. Imagine how stupid a game we'd have if Williams was sent off for that? To make matters worse, Keighran in the semi final hits Percival smack in the chin off the ball with the point of his shoulder, with a decent amount of impact. Not spotted by the referee, not banned.
I just don't see why the MRP exists with the scope it has now. The MRP's role should be to grade the red cards given by the match officials (As a yellow card is 10 minutes punishment, deemed to not be worth a whole game, so why the MRP add further bans to those I'll never know) and to review anything the match officials note in their match reports and pick up any SERIOUS ones the referees miss or make a mistake on. They should not be forensically going through 11 camera angles of every game to search for any little possible reason to ban a player. No other sport does this.
