NRL Issues of Contention Round 8

Only 2 issue I will be covering but they are both very critical issues the NRL needs to sort out.

Once again the match review committee has shown it is about as fearful as a tiger, a tiger called Tigger that is. When Steve Matai decided to deliberately bump the referee which at the time led to a marching of 10 metres, it seemed a certainty that he would have a case to answer for. But as usual this grub of a player has gotten away with another offence. How must Blocker Roach feel about this one. He pats a ref on the head and gets 4 weeks, Matai shows his contempt at a referee penalising him and he makes sure the referee knows about it by making contact as he runs past and he doesn't even have to front the judiciary to answer his case. The NRL has been adamant that touching a referee is a serious offence that should be treated harshly.  Yet, here we have a case where a player intentionally makes contact and nothing is done.  For me, he should have been sent off for at least 10 minutes on the day and then be facing at least a 4 to 6 week suspension, but taking into account his record at least 8 weeks. If the referee thought it was serious enough to warrant marching ten metres, then he felt it was deliberate, meaning it should have warranted a more serious punishment. Maybe the match review committee should be taken out of the hands of former players and officials and be handed over to the fans. What more, is this the message the NRL wants to be sent to the young players. As a coach of junior sport I can confirm that players copy what they see happening at the top level and it is not the great skills they seem to copy best but the niggling, dirty tactics designed to win a game at all cost. So on the weekend if you see a junior player give a gobfull to a referee or lay a hand on a referee, when you try and admonish the player for their actions, here is where the NRL has given the child a reason why he can get away with it and they will have what they think is a black and white case as to why they can. Back to Matai though, next time that Matai gets taken out illegally, I for one will not be feeling sorry for the grub.

Round 7 started off with it being known the refs were going to be more stringent on offside. For the first 10 minutes this seemed to be the case and then it was back to the old ways.  What is killing the attacking side of the game is not only the wrestling and slowing down, but the continual ability for a team to get away with only going back 8 metres and another side being taken back 12 metres.  Add to that, the 2nd marker more often than not in no-mans land and a foot to the side.  It also seems to look like refs have forgotten about the 2nd and third man in flop. A deliberate ploy to slow down play an dis very rarely penalised these days.  We keep hearing about how the NRL wants to get these things out of the game, but the players and coaches are winning the battle in getting away with it.