I thought Robbo's presser was all class as he raised a few queries without being bitter or calling people corrupt/incompetent.
IMO he raised some questions that the NRL needs to answer:
- What was the deal with Collins' try? It wasn't even 50:50... it was a textbook try. How did the ref miss it and then how did the bunker miss it? Also were the bunker's hands tied? They really did seem to just look at one angle for about 2 seconds, make no attempt to look at the 100 other angles available to them and then made a really obtuse ruling along the lines of 'well... I can see that the ball's level with his hand, which is on the try line... but I can't see the ball touching the line because his hand's on the line'. I mean WTF? I swear we will never see that reasoning get used again, OR... a try disallowed so quickly by the bunker based on a quick viewing of a single angle.
- Why did the ref miss Hynes' knock-one and why didn't he then let Teddy challenge the decision to sin-bin Radley on the basis that he'd only gone back into the tackle for 'too long' so that he could cause a stoppage. IMO it was clearly a calculated decision to create a stoppage, which was clever because there's LOTS of situations where the ref stuffs up, then says 'you cannot challenge because there's no stoppage'. IMO if you see a knock-on, it's not unreasonable to hold onto the player, say 'oi gimme the ball, it's a knock-on!!!' and then when the ref says 'no, it's a penalty you gronk' the captain says 'I challenge that, sir... it was a knock-on and my player correctly stopped play for the turnover'.
[Side note, I'm gonna bank the above as an example of other teams getting special treatment when they do things like 5-man strips, sham free interchanges and take forever to leave the field so that the clock runs down for their sin-binning. IMO it was clever and the ref shouldn't have been so farking defensive about it! It's as if he took it personally and had an ego about his call being 'right', rather than being happy to let us challenge it, then learning from the situation as it's a first]
- Should Butcher have been binned?
- Should Cheese have been binned? (Robbo seemed to accept that one, but IMO it was a BS call).
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Not saying we played an amazing game, but IMO the ref made enough mistakes that it interrupted the natural flow of the game. I'm really disappointed by his lack of attention to detail as it ruined the viewing experience and robbed us of a tight finish.
Saying the above, I'm happy to accept that if Collins' try had been awarded, the Sharks may have still scored 2 more tries. That said, I suspect Cheese wouldn't have been in a position to be binned (the game woulda flowed differently) and the Sharks woulda been the ones playing catch-up rather than us. This would have been far more enjoyable than seeing a late sin-bin that all but sealed the result.
IMO he raised some questions that the NRL needs to answer:
- What was the deal with Collins' try? It wasn't even 50:50... it was a textbook try. How did the ref miss it and then how did the bunker miss it? Also were the bunker's hands tied? They really did seem to just look at one angle for about 2 seconds, make no attempt to look at the 100 other angles available to them and then made a really obtuse ruling along the lines of 'well... I can see that the ball's level with his hand, which is on the try line... but I can't see the ball touching the line because his hand's on the line'. I mean WTF? I swear we will never see that reasoning get used again, OR... a try disallowed so quickly by the bunker based on a quick viewing of a single angle.
- Why did the ref miss Hynes' knock-one and why didn't he then let Teddy challenge the decision to sin-bin Radley on the basis that he'd only gone back into the tackle for 'too long' so that he could cause a stoppage. IMO it was clearly a calculated decision to create a stoppage, which was clever because there's LOTS of situations where the ref stuffs up, then says 'you cannot challenge because there's no stoppage'. IMO if you see a knock-on, it's not unreasonable to hold onto the player, say 'oi gimme the ball, it's a knock-on!!!' and then when the ref says 'no, it's a penalty you gronk' the captain says 'I challenge that, sir... it was a knock-on and my player correctly stopped play for the turnover'.
[Side note, I'm gonna bank the above as an example of other teams getting special treatment when they do things like 5-man strips, sham free interchanges and take forever to leave the field so that the clock runs down for their sin-binning. IMO it was clever and the ref shouldn't have been so farking defensive about it! It's as if he took it personally and had an ego about his call being 'right', rather than being happy to let us challenge it, then learning from the situation as it's a first]
- Should Butcher have been binned?
- Should Cheese have been binned? (Robbo seemed to accept that one, but IMO it was a BS call).
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Not saying we played an amazing game, but IMO the ref made enough mistakes that it interrupted the natural flow of the game. I'm really disappointed by his lack of attention to detail as it ruined the viewing experience and robbed us of a tight finish.
Saying the above, I'm happy to accept that if Collins' try had been awarded, the Sharks may have still scored 2 more tries. That said, I suspect Cheese wouldn't have been in a position to be binned (the game woulda flowed differently) and the Sharks woulda been the ones playing catch-up rather than us. This would have been far more enjoyable than seeing a late sin-bin that all but sealed the result.
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