Refs, Reps and Sex

Well, what a difference a week makes in rugby league. And once again we’re talking about things other than football...As a 12 plus year rugby league fan I personally have had enough of this outside bullshit I really have. We’ve got a great product that’s getting destroyed by this off field stuff and there are always excuses and reasons floating around. It has to stop now before it completely ruins the game of rugby league.

I didn’t want to devote a whole column to Matthew Johns or sex assaults or player behaviour or whatever but I will be giving my opinion shortly. First of all I will touch on three things thankfully stemming from on field stuff.

Hazem El Masri

One of the best players in the game and from all reports one of the best men in the game Hazem El Masri celebrates his 300th match tomorrow night. He has been a terrific ambassador for the game and fully deserves this achievement.

The Referee’s

They copped a battering on Monday but, even as a Queenslander, I didn’t find much wrong with their performances in both the Titans and Broncos game last week. For mine the Scott Prince thing was gamesmanship on Princey’s part that went wrong. Prince was doing what most players do, being a nuisance close to the line, probably unaware his teammate saw an opening and dived over for the try. The thing with gamesmanship though is sometimes it will go against you as Prince found out last week. Was the marker going to stop the try...NO, did the marker over sell what happened...YES...but if Prince doesn’t touch him there is no problem.

I had a minor problem with the Jamie Lyon bat/deflection in scoring his third try on Sunday but that problem only came on replay a day or so later. Watching it live, or more accurately delayed on Channel 9, I didn’t have a major problem with that or the torso one. Even if I don’t agree with the rules, they are the rules.

As for inexperienced refs...there’s only one way to fix that and that’s what we’re doing. I think there is merit in having one guy control the whole match and the other play ‘pocket’ but that’s not how the system works at this time. I’m more than happy to give the refs a go, take the good with the bad and bag them out when required!!

Rep Season

As a fan I like the current rep season with players backing up etc but I can understand the valid reasons for change. Player burnout is a big issue and the theory of rep games losing prestige due to their shotgun nature is a valid one too.

At the moment though I think the current set up is the best we’re going to get. The only other change I can think of is to have a 24 week NRL season where each team gets 12 home games and 12 away with no byes and rep games played alone on weekends. Even that extends the season by a month though.

So basically I don’t have an alternative unless they can make an 18 week season, 12 home games and 6 away, work but I don’t really want to see that.

Four Corners and Player Behaviour

Most rugby league fans would have at least heard about the Four Corners program the other night, or they at least know that Matthew Johns’ media career and reputation is now in tatters. The day after I happened to have a journalism ethics class in which the hundred or so students generally agreed the program raised some very important issues but from a journalistic point of view didn’t give a very balanced view.

As a rugby league fan, who does find Johns entertaining and enjoys his work, I hope that maybe, just maybe, this is the wakeup call the code needs. Now maybe finally players will see a rugby league persons’ career shattered because of an off-field incident and they will pull their heads in.

I did not see the news report breaking the Johns story last week and the first I heard about it was on the Footy Show. Once I heard about it I was disgusted, angry and didn’t want to see or hear from him again that night. While some of that has died down, I have no real interest in seeing Johns pass judgment on other players anymore.

Look, I don’t think he has gone forever and I may be able to accept him on TV again. He is only guilty of “infidelity and stupidity”, neither a criminal offence. Had he broken the law he would have been charged. But I can’t hack him passing judgements on other players I’m sorry so if he’s gone for good, I can live with that.

I will mention though that Andrew Johns is a regular on Channel 9 less than 18 months after his public disgrace and confession of cheating when he played so anything can happen.

Any thoughts I would love to read them: andrew.keyte@gmail.com or you can comment below.

Tips this week: Brisbane, Bulldogs, Roosters, Cronulla, Warriors, Manly, Souths, Storm
Last week: 2/4 (Total: 37/68)
Winning percentage: 54%

Cheers,
Keyto