Former Super League referee Richard Silverwood has called for “common sense” following a spate of charges handed out to players for alleged contact with the referee.
In the last month, Leigh Centurions’ Gregg McNally was charged with Grade C Contact with a match official, Widnes Vikings’ Chris Houston was hit with a Grade D and Castleford Tigers’ Luke Gale a Grade A.
Houston was found not guilty, while Gale avoided a ban through submitting an Early Guilty Plea, but McNally, who took the same option, was suspended for two matches for “deliberate or reckless contact with a match official”.
At the start of the season, Salford Red Devils’ Justin Carney was hit with a Grace C charge after appearing to make contact with the chest of James Child during a break in play as the referee approached the player.
At Carney’s hearing, the tribunal stated that they were “satisfied this was a deliberate raising of the arm which resulted in contact with the official”, that he “moved to the left to put himself in the officials’ path” and that “there was a deliberate block … to get the attention of the match official”.
Carney was found guilty, banned for two matches and fined £300. But Silverwood, who retired from the game in July last year after being suspended for an undisclosed disciplinary issue, believes Carney was treated harshly, and that McNally, Houston and Gale did not deserve to be charged.
“I’ve been very vocal on Twitter already about contact with the referees, and I just think there’s no common sense with it,” he told League Express.
“Right at the start of the season, Justin Carney gets done where James Child is walking into his path, and Justin just puts his arm up to stop him standing on his toes basically.
“I don’t know what Carney was meant to do in that situation. With the others, more recently, Phil Bentham gets in the path of Chris Houston at Widnes, and I don’t know what Chris is supposed to do there.
“He ends up colliding with Phil, gets charged with a Grade D, but then gets let off. I was at the game between Leigh and Salford, there’s a ball kicked into the in-goal area, and Jack Smith is right in the way of the ball.
“Gregg McNally is coming across, and he has to push the referee away or it’s a try for Salford. McNally got two games for that. “There’s no common sense with it.”
A French Rugby League player was recently banned for life for viciously assaulting a referee, but deliberate attacks in the sport at professional level are otherwise extremely rare.
“I’m all for banning players that deliberately push referees or attack referees,” added Silverwood. “There’s clearly no place in the game for anything like that, but I just think we need to see a little more common sense in instances of unavoidable contact.”