Referees in revolt against Harrigan and Raper

[BUDDY]

The Mole@RLW_Mole
BREAKING: Refs in revolt against Harrigan & Raper. Whistle blowers turn whistle blowers. Crisis talks at NRL tomorrow. Stay tuned.

The Mole just tweeted this.
Our probelms could be over.
I think we should all be there in our jerseys to support the referees.

[SConcierge]

IT'S the Hollywood ending nobody saw coming - referees coach Bill Harrigan is fighting to save his job after losing the support of the game's top whistleblowers.

NRL boss David Gallop has confirmed he took hold of a document listing Harrigan's failures as refs coach after a secret meeting with Brad Fittler and two referees yesterday. It's understood that the referees believe future development is in danger if Harrigan continues in the role.

Their frustration bubbled over following Harrigan's direction for them not to comment on the decision to award Greg Inglis a try in last week's State of Origin - the GI Joke clanger - a decision the referees privately agree was wrong, but which Harrigan has justified.

Gallop has passed the document to Harrigan's immediate supervisor Nathan McGuirk for review but would not be drawn on likely outcomes.



"There's certainly some issues that we need to look into and we'll do that," Gallop said.

It is almost certain Harrigan and co-coach Stuart Raper will be moved into different roles with Russell Smith or Tony Archer replacing them.

Gallop said Fittler asked for the meeting.

"I catch up with Freddy from time to time about various issues and he asked me to meet him and a couple of referees," he said.

Fittler was reluctant to say too much but confirmed it was to discuss growing dissatisfaction with Harrigan.

"I've had a bit of a relationship with the referees, taken a bit of an interest, purely for the interests of the game," Fittler said. "The way I see it, the game needs massive refinement and it isn't happening. It's at a critical stage where we need the best people in the right positions."

Gallop flew to Wagga Wagga after the meeting, but not before ordering McGuirk to open an immediate investigation. The final frustration for the referees was how Harrigan has managed to justify Inglis's try, ruling it the result of a "rebound".

Harrigan insisted the decision was correct when he met Gallop for a "please explain" on Tuesday night.

Audio of the referral in the video referee's box reveals debate over whether Blues hooker Robbie Farah deliberately or accidentally knocked the ball loose from Inglis's arm.

Amazingly there was no discussion on the ball touching Inglis's arm once it came loose.

The following morning Harrigan made no reference to Inglis's second touch in a radio interview with Triple M's The Grill Team.

Yet later that day Harrigan, for the first time, focused on the second touch and declared it a "rebound" - a ruling drawn from others areas of the rulebook but not directly connected to the laws on try scoring.

[Guest]

Great news if it's going to fix all the problems but is it really all Bill's fault?The current convoluted over complicated way of doing things was in place well before Bill was there as refs coach.
If they really want to fix it they need to get back to basics, one ref, no bloody tip sheets, simplify the role of the video ref etc.
If sacking Bill is gonna get them there well and good but if they're just going to put another guy in charge of the same system then I doubt much is going to change.

[Guest]

Funny that years after he's hung up the boots Freddy might be the only thing we've got going for us.

Criminally underrated by some on here and the league world in general.

[PKR]

I don't care what people think of Freddy ....... I still love him.
If he can do anything to sort out what is happening with the ref's, then good on him.
Maybe we will get a fair go then ...... we sure as hell don't now.

[stephenj]

great stuff freddy your still one of us!

[Guest]

Great news if it's going to fix all the problems but is it really all Bill's fault?The current convoluted over complicated way of doing things was in place well before Bill was there as refs coach.
If they really want to fix it they need to get back to basics, one ref, no bloody tip sheets, simplify the role of the video ref etc.
If sacking Bill is gonna get them there well and good but if they're just going to put another guy in charge of the same system then I doubt much is going to change.

Definitely Harrigan's fault. The first step to fixing problems is acknowledging them. This arrogant twat has done everything in his power to deny the refs are making mistakes.

I am still amazed that someone who made the most controversial video reffing errors would go on to become the refs coach.

[Guest]

When a team is under pressure a lot of people will come out & say that it's not the coach dropping the ball & missing the tackles etc. It's not Bill missing the dropped balls, forward passes & allowing tries that clearly aren't. I'm no fan of the way Bill has handled the refs blunders but I am worried that he'll be made the scapegoat by the current crop of useless & incompetent whistle blowers just to take the pressure of themselves.

[player 1]

Archer? ARCHER???

I would prefer to keep Harrigan. Harrigan is just arrogant. Archer is a proven cheat.

[Guest]

Archer? ARCHER???

I would prefer to keep Harrigan. Harrigan is just arrogant. Archer is a proven cheat.

If it gets ARCHER away from refereeing them I am all for it.

[elo]

Great news if it's going to fix all the problems but is it really all Bill's fault?The current convoluted over complicated way of doing things was in place well before Bill was there as refs coach.
If they really want to fix it they need to get back to basics, one ref, no bloody tip sheets, simplify the role of the video ref etc.
If sacking Bill is gonna get them there well and good but if they're just going to put another guy in charge of the same system then I doubt much is going to change.

It's Bill's fault for carrying on Finch's flawed systems, I genuinely expected Harrigan to overhaul the processes but he has not and if anything has brought in further crap such as referees calling out when offloads occur, referees being even less approachable, (they all come across so angry on the field) and video referees basically doing as they please as the rules can be "interpreted" as they please.

Bill's been an utter disappointment.

[BUDDY]

Archer? ARCHER???

I would prefer to keep Harrigan. Harrigan is just arrogant. Archer is a proven cheat.

Archer is set to retire after this year.
We can't get a break. First Finch, then Harrigan and now possibly the mother of all rorters.

[trewhella]

Harriman didn't use Archer for
origin because he didn't want his personal record to be broken. FACT!

They all can't stand Harrigan.
He is never there.

[Guest]

It's Bill's fault for carrying on Finch's flawed systems, I genuinely expected Harrigan to overhaul the processes but he has not and if anything has brought in further crap such as referees calling out when offloads occur, referees being even less approachable, (they all come across so angry on the field) and video referees basically doing as they please as the rules can be "interpreted" as they please.

Bill's been an utter disappointment.

I totally agree with all that. But if they're just going to bring in someone else who has been part of that same system like Archer then he's not going to change anything either.
They need a new approach, some fresh thinking, new blood. They're definitely not gonna get that from friggen Archer. I hope they stop and think a bit harder about where to next instead of just sticking Archer in there.

[Headless Chook]

Bill is happy with video refs getting 97% of the decisions right. What he conveniently forgets to mention is that in probably 70% of all video referrals, the decision is cut and dried. Its the 'grey area' or 'fine line' decisions that are the issue and it would be interesting to know what percentage of these decisions are coming back as a correct call. I would be confident it would be well below his 97% pass mark and closer to 50-60% which isn't good enough in my opinion.

The other issue is 2 referees. Bill refuses to admit that it hasn't been a success when its pretty obvious that the major issue players/coaches/fans etc have with referees is consistency. You just can't possibly get consistency in calls when you have two different people deciding what is and isn't a penalty etc. Some of our rules are so subjective that it is just not humanly possible. Each referee has a different standard for deciding how long is too long when holding down in a tackle for example and this is what frustrates fans and players alike.

As a Roosters fan, I can see that probably about 90% of the penalties we incur are warranted. But what annoys me is that when the opposition infringe in the same manner, in a lot of cases it is not ruled as a penalty in our favour. Get rid of the two referees and I think a lot of the consistency issues are taken out of the game.