Captain's Challenge

[ithepact]

In most of the games I watched almost all the challenges were successful. Does anyone know where to find the statistics for this? It would be interesting to see individual referee stats regarding the challenges.

[King Salvo]

This is last years stats- 2020

https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/11/22/...ins-challenge/

No stats for this so far in 2021

https://www.nrl.com/stats/

As long as the Chooks don't sign Tim Payne as a Captains challenge consultant they should be alright in their decisions in using the Captains challange.

[Hawkeye]

One annoying thing, is the use of the captain's challenge purely to waste time at the end of the match. Seen numerous times now a club in the last minute or two use the challenge quite obviously for no other reason than to have a break and waste time. Classic example Wade Graham in the last minute of Rd1 match asking the ref for the captain's challenge with the biggest grin on his face so obviously knowing it was a ridiculous challenge but done purely to wind the clock down.
Not illegal and why wouldnt you do it, its not like you can bank up the unused challenges and keep them for another week ...but given how they are continually looking for ways to speed the game up ...this one is just annoying !

[ism22]

One annoying thing, is the use of the captain's challenge purely to waste time at the end of the match. Seen numerous times now a club in the last minute or two use the challenge quite obviously for no other reason than to have a break and waste time. Classic example Wade Graham in the last minute of Rd1 match asking the ref for the captain's challenge with the biggest grin on his face so obviously knowing it was a ridiculous challenge but done purely to wind the clock down.
Not illegal and why wouldnt you do it, its not like you can bank up the unused challenges and keep them for another week ...but given how they are continually looking for ways to speed the game up ...this one is just annoying !

His team was down by 2 points with ~1 minute to go though? To me it was more the case of a 'last roll of the dice'... he was wishing it was wrong and sometimes they find other stuff when you challenge. See what you're saying but the clock was stopped and he was basically asking them to scrutinise a call that would determine the outcome of the game.

Wasn't he successful anyway? I thought he lined up a penalty at pretty much full-time from
the sideline and it went wide?

[Johnny Tobin]

One annoying thing, is the use of the captain's challenge purely to waste time at the end of the match. Seen numerous times now a club in the last minute or two use the challenge quite obviously for no other reason than to have a break and waste time. Classic example Wade Graham in the last minute of Rd1 match asking the ref for the captain's challenge with the biggest grin on his face so obviously knowing it was a ridiculous challenge but done purely to wind the clock down.
Not illegal and why wouldnt you do it, its not like you can bank up the unused challenges and keep them for another week ...but given how they are continually looking for ways to speed the game up ...this one is just annoying !

Wade Graham is a cheat. I will never forgive him for what he did at the toss in Newcastle in 2016. He lied about what he called just to win a toss. Against the wooden spoon side when he was playing for the eventual premiers. It was a disgrace. And just like your example above, he thought it was funny.

[Hawkeye]

His team was down by 2 points with ~1 minute to go though? To me it was more the case of a 'last roll of the dice'... he was wishing it was wrong and sometimes they find other stuff when you challenge. See what you're saying but the clock was stopped and he was basically asking them to scrutinise a call that would determine the outcome of the game.

Wasn't he successful anyway? I thought he lined up a penalty at pretty much full-time from
the sideline and it went wide?

was talking about Rd1 against dragons with Sharks in front.
Yes Rd 2 against Canberra agree with you they were behind and it was last roll of the dice, so a totally different scenario to the time wasting situation they were in the week before against StGeorge when they were in front.

[milanja]

was talking about Rd1 against dragons with Sharks in front.
Yes Rd 2 against Canberra agree with you they were behind and it was last roll of the dice, so a totally different scenario to the time wasting situation they were in the week before against StGeorge when they were in front.

Surely the clock stops during challenges. Think it’s more about getting a breather.

[Mickie Lane]

One annoying thing, is the use of the captain's challenge purely to waste time at the end of the match. Seen numerous times now a club in the last minute or two use the challenge quite obviously for no other reason than to have a break and waste time. Classic example Wade Graham in the last minute of Rd1 match asking the ref for the captain's challenge with the biggest grin on his face so obviously knowing it was a ridiculous challenge but done purely to wind the clock down.
Not illegal and why wouldnt you do it, its not like you can bank up the unused challenges and keep them for another week ...but given how they are continually looking for ways to speed the game up ...this one is just annoying !

He is a top player geez I like him.

[Hawkeye]

Surely the clock stops during challenges. Think it’s more about getting a breather.

yeah you are correct and a poor choice of phrase on my behalf about winding the clock down ...but I meant stopping the game to have a breather and grinding the game to a halt ....at a time when VLandys & co are making new rules to make the game faster with less stoppages and bringing in the fatigue factor

[ism22]

General comment - isn't this why you only get one challenge? I mean you can use it for a 'breather' but then you won't get a challenge later on when you might need it. You get one shot and you've gotta use it wisely. I see no issue with teams making tactical decisions with this mechanism. For example the joke's on then if they fruitlessly challenge a blatant penalty, then score a denied match winner on the buzzer. You can either be a donkey and challenge stupid stuff, or you can bank your challenge for when you really need it...

What still weirds me out is those situations where the challenge is 'successful' but either:
- you get even further disadvantaged by it (e.g. round 2 the called an offside penalty instead of a knock-on); or

- the same call is made, but due to different reasoning.

IMO in such situations:
- All that should be considered is the call you are challenging. For example when saying 'Tupou didn't knock-on, he had the ball stripped', that's all they should check. If the ref got it wrong, then IMO you should get possession on the basis that the call was wrong. IMO it goes without saying that since players play to the whistle, nothing after the alleged penalty should be considered (because it's was time-out if you're accepting the ref's original call... so you can't be offside).

- The test for whether you get another crack at it should be whether the outcome woulda been the same. That way you don't get stupid situations where (for example) they're like 'actually no that was a shoulder charge not high contact... challenge is accepted but... PENALTY STILL!!' IMO that's just stupid. The ref's identified illegal contact, they've made the right call and I don't care if their reasoning is a little bit off. Both hits fall within the scope of dangerous contact. The ref's called the right outcome... the challenge has failed.

[Rooster_6]

I like the current implementation of the captain’s challenge and I think it’s been a good addition to the game.

The NRL just needs to get better at quickening up the process so that players can’t abuse it to waste time. In the case of the Sharks challenge late in the game against the Dragons, the game should not have stopped for more than 10 seconds and 1 replay and whilst that replay is occurring players should be setting up for the next play regardless of the outcome so that the game can kick off immediately if the challenge is unsuccessful.

[The Lip]

Why do we keep bringing up the sharks challenge as an example of what wrong with captains challenge though? It was a successful challenge!