unapologetic pedant

This was my central criticism. I believe we do need to understand significant calls. Otherwise, we won`t understand the game. That can be different from determining whether they were strictly accurate or not. Competent TV directors should be able to distinguish between replays which would benefit from analysis and enhance appreciation of the game and those which wouldn`t.

On what I see, I detect no difference between UK and Oz. The ramifications are worse for NRL officials because the media scrutiny is wider and more intense. For good or ill, there`s nothing like the Annesley Monday morning Football briefing at RFL headquarters. Nor is there anything like Fox League. Most people have scant understanding of Rugby League Football. If too many things are allowed to slide, they never will have much understanding. And are far less likely to really enjoy watching it. If commentators (particularly co-commentators) are not there to explain, what are they there for? And if they are not qualified to perform the task, we need to know. Not least, so that they can improve. In a recent game which featured an 8-point try, Kyle Amor tried to explain what was happening. Said the ref had got it wrong and delivered a dog`s dinner about a penalty try. Which only proved how clueless he was. Is the best response to that, "just get on with the game"? I think not.

So you`re OK with commentaries that repeatedly tell viewers that officials are missing things with no opportunity to demonstrate that the ref was right and the commentators were wrong?

The Jillaroos and Kiwi Ferns squads have been announced. I make it 7 NZ-based players and 17 Oz-based players in the Kiwi Ferns. Of the 17, all but one has played NRLW. Two of the best young NZ-born players Destiny Brill and Tiana Raftstrand-Smith are not in either squad. Probably committed to Jillaroos but weren`t selected or available.

Just the same over here. Only made more egregious in a country where RL has a far higher profile. TV director incompetence has a considerable influence on the pressure officials are put under and thus the way they apply the rules. That in turn deleteriously affects how the game is played. Commentary teams are continually calling forward passes, knock-ons, obstructions etc, determined to cast doubt on what viewers are seeing. Eight games a week, week after week, year after year, relentlessly undermining faith in the game. All the more pernicious when many of them are no better informed than someone randomly plucked from the crowd. Sometimes a replay will force a retraction. Without a replay they can smugly bluster on with their incestuous blundering banter. Audiences are given a false impression of ongoing ineptitude from officials. At least in Soccer apposite use of replays keeps a check on ignorance and rash reactions. Commentators have no choice but to eat their words when a replay proves them wrong. Ensures a bit of humility. The only serious Soccer commentator who steadfastly didn`t allow facts to subsequently intrude on his summary verdicts was Alan Green on the radio. There are never any post-match reviews of commentator performances. During his Monday morning Football briefing Graham Annesley doesn`t go through all the errors of pundits over the weekend. Unlikely he`d be allowed to with the NRL de facto owned and controlled by media corporations. An appearance on Fox League by Peter Vlandys comes across like an interview on Russia Today with Vladimir Putin.

There was a big call in the first half of "Played at" which gave Penrith a repeat set when Parra were desperately hanging on. No idea whether the call was correct since the view on Spidercam was too distant and the incident was never replayed. That habit of failing to show significant moments again while lingering over insignificant moments is routine in RL TV coverage. It only happens in Soccer or RU when the director is French. Commentators in those sports then have to keep apologizing to viewers who aren`t seeing pertinent replays. RL commentators don`t even notice.

Ratings for the NRL GF weren`t too hot. Ratings for the NRLW GF were a lot more encouraging - Metro 342k Fox 132k. When both games are on the same day, these figures can be a little opaque with programmes and viewership overlapping. However, with distinct ratings for pre-game and post-game shows, the FTA number for the game itself should be reliable, and Fox only had the NRLW. Regionals for RL are usually more than half the Metro and should be higher with Newcastle in the final. So, the aggregate number should be edging towards 700k without streaming. I`m not aware of any Australian women`s domestic sport fixture getting close to that. Other than State of Origin.

Salford lost the Championship GF to Oulton Raidettes at Odsal on Sunday. Oulton are a young team who`ve been improving through the season. Whether they want to step up to WSL Div 2 is a moot point. Also at Odsal, Sheffield beat Illingworth in the League 1 decider and will presumably be promoted to the Championship for next year.

This game finished Turkey 4 Greece 8 and was followed up yesterday with Greece 28 Serbia 0. Greece and Turkey looked well-matched last week, which represents substantial progress for the Greeks since their only previous outing was a comprehensive defeat to Turkey in 2019. There was a pretty decent crowd for the game against Serbia. Think the ref was English. Had a good game. Even included exegesis of the 8-point try enigma when a Serb player carelessly put a boot in on a Greek try-scorer. Which means the women of Greece and Serbia now have a better grasp of the rules of Rugby League than BBC commentary teams. Curiously the Greek goal-kicker converted the one to the side of the posts then missed the one in front. One Greek player (think she`s called Maria-Anna Lamprou) looks capable of playing at a much higher level. With their political complications resolved and their women moving forward, if the men can make an impact at the WC, Greek RL could really be getting somewhere.

There is another way to prevent ball-carriers being held up after running headlong into 3-player tackles - high quality attacking play. Which can take various forms and should "attract and keep new fans" better than misguided rule changes. Just stop using the knock-on and obstruction rules to clobber teams who take risks and play more expansively. Stop fixating on bobbles or players running behind a teammate.

Michelle Dewberry presents a programme called Dewbs and Kerr.

Unless this is a case of mistaken identity, you picked me up for doing that in your previous deluded incarnation. Do Rovers fans see it this way? I`ll go with the Black-and-White view in any case. Mainly out of respect for the classic jersey. Second best in the game.

Which poses questions about Parra`s traditional fans. If all those people had remained engaged and passed the ties on to their children and grandchildren, with the addition of fans from new-Aussie backgrounds, the crowds should now be a lot higher. Has a large chunk of their 80s fans moved out, to SEQ or WA? This applies to other Sydney NRL clubs, especially the Bulldogs. Away from the West, I`ve been conjecturing for a while that most Swans fans come from RU areas in Sydney. Where previously they went to Wallabies and Waratahs games, they now go to Wallabies and Swans games. And they`ve switched their weekly allegiance partly because they see Fumble as a white game. As distinct from conspicuously multi-racial/multi-cultural Rugby League. Said many times that participation strategies take a long time to feed through to major expansion of the fanbase. Most Parra fans will only have a passing interest in the NRLW final on Sunday. The RL fanbase is not yet prepared to value women`s contests like the Aussie Soccer fanbase (Matildas` crowds are often a similar size to Socceroos). If only the NRL had invested in non-contact forms and the female game a generation ago.

Judging from the figures, the market didn`t want to dwell on last weekend, last weekend.

As a fan of Swinton and Pendlebury Football Club, it is a teensy bit irritating.

This isn`t such a great thing. It`s a consequence of not every GF being a guaranteed sell out. Most years, if people are buying 8-20 tickets, it wouldn`t be a concern. Once Parra were in the final, would have made sense to reduce the maximum number for each category. Let`s hope Ashley Klein referees this one as he did Origin. And the touchies and bunker have a pleasant evening keeping themselves to themselves. Nothing any of them can do about the charge-down rule. Parra are the better team to watch. If they`re able to open up and play, it will be a great game. If Penrith shut them down, not so great. And if the principal method of suffocation is an unchallenged Nathan Cleary launching spiral bombs in the direction of Waqa Blake, it will be the ultimate triumph for the most stupid self-harming rule in the whole of sport. Summed up by a headline in The Australian - "Nathan Cleary and the art of kicking `em to death".

How sure are you of a causal relation between inadequate off-field entertainment and lower crowds at these major events? My instinct is that failings in this broader area, day-to-day, week-to-week, are where the problems lie. Encapsulated by the RFL website - desultory, unreliable, banal, frustrating.

Somebody must have told our lot that they can`t say "We have a decision". So they`ve concocted that clumsy mouthful.

What`s the alternative? Natural habitat? Ancient territorial resting places?

Ray French on Andy Gregory - "Pocket Battleship"

So you never use initials for anything?

"7 Tackle Set" This is a media phrase. Should be "Zero Tackle". The refs usually get it right. At a 20m restart they say something like "Zero coming".

Agree with most of what you`ve said, but not this. Possession is more important in RL than in any other code of football, with the possible exception of Gridiron. Hence, an incident that leads to a transfer of possession is never trivial. It should always be replayed. The fact that it currently sometimes won`t be is a sign that TV directors don`t understand the game.

Don`t forget "Fourth and antepenultimate". Care to buy a username? One careful and weary owner.

"Play-the-ball" is used as a compound noun in RL. So "Play-the-balls" is correct.