The Melbourne Ruck....

[Ron Burgundy]

After one such interaction between the ref and Teddy, even Dan Ginnane said something along the lines of “Grant Atkins’ troubled relationship with the Roosters continues”. I think there’s an issue there, and everyone knows it, and that needs to get sorted pronto. Any referee that lets his personal opinions colour his decisions or the way he interacts with the players has no business refereeing anywhere, much less in the NRL. Having said that, I don’t think Atkins cost us the game.

Teddy doesn’t help his own cause with that stuff though by getting so riled up. Needs to take a leaf out of Cam Smith’s book. Stay calm and politely tell them what the right decision should be instead of getting cranky.

[bondi.boy]

[/B]

The way Atkins spoke to Teddy numerous times in the game was downright rude, dismissive and belligerent. It happens all to regularly unfortunately. The club needs to start supporting their captain through lodging complaints through official channels, or replace him with someone that will be more respected. He’s the Australian captain FFS, so I don’t understand the lack of respect from officialdom.

Waste of time trying to talk with the referees, best to just ignore them, treat them with contempt.
Time our club started firing off letters of complaint to official channels, including the Commission/ers.
Get no satisfaction there, then to the media.

[milanja]

Waste of time trying to talk with the referees, best to just ignore them, treat them with contempt.
Time our club started firing off letters of complaint to official channels, including the Commission/ers.
Get no satisfaction there, then to the media.

Maybe the players should start applauding every time the ref makes a dubious call, would be funny seeing all 13 players clapping with contempt.

[gragra]

The speed of the defences line speed is a big part of our problem...particularly when playing the storm and Penrith. The defence shouldn't move until the dummy half puts his hands on the ball..that is the ball has 'cleared' the ruck. More often than not the fast moving defence has started to arrive as the ball is being picked up. Clearly the defence has moved too early to have covered 10 metres in 1/2 a second.. that's twice as fast as Usain bolt!. I said to Trent (true) our dummy half should stand and wait a quarter of a second before playing the ball and call out/catch the defence as being offside. It would become way more obvious and harder for the ref to ignore.

[Carlos Parra]

The speed of the defences line speed is a big part of our problem...particularly when playing the storm and Penrith. The defence shouldn't move until the dummy half puts his hands on the ball..that is the ball has 'cleared' the ruck. More often than not the fast moving defence has started to arrive as the ball is being picked up. Clearly the defence has moved too early to have covered 10 metres in 1/2 a second.. that's twice as fast as Usain bolt!. I said to Trent (true) our dummy half should stand and wait a quarter of a second before playing the ball and call out/catch the defence as being offside. It would become way more obvious and harder for the ref to ignore.

It seemed to me last night that our defensive line was always back 13 metres and theirs was only back about 7 or 8.

It was truly frustrating.

[Carlos Parra]

I’ll be honest I thought the rucks were pretty good tonight.

My issue with the Melbourne rucks is that advantages they look for when they have ball in hand. Whether it’s holding a defender to stop them getting back onside or playing the ball off the mark to put the markers offside. It’s clearly intentional as you can see them attack the space where the held back defender would’ve been or run right through the ruck when they’ve managed to get away with a play the ball off the mark.

They do it very well and they know it’s not something referees look at.

My only other grievance was that Grant Atkins said Luke Keary was milking an obstruction call early in the game which is fair but then when Papenhuyzen went down from the slightest of touches are threw his hands up in the air like he was so quick to give the penalty. If you’re going to ignore penalties for milking then it needs to go both ways, you can’t just pick and choose when a player milking minimal contact is ok and when it’s not.

I do wonder how much of these little things have to do with how clearly the referees do not like James Tedesco and the way he speaks to them.

I like the way you read the game.

[The Real King]

Teddy doesn’t help his own cause with that stuff though by getting so riled up. Needs to take a leaf out of Cam Smith’s book. Stay calm and politely tell them what the right decision should be instead of getting cranky.

I think it's great Tedesco has started to get riled up.
In my opinion...repeat my opinion... he has been too quiet and just accepting what the ref has said in previous years.
We need to be in their faces and put the pressure on.

[weplayforprems]

I like the way you read the game.

The Papi penalty was really the only issue I had all night. Barely touched, was never a chance in hell of getting the ball and Atkins blew it immediately. Other than that it was the least annoyed I had been at a ref in our games forever