League Express Podcast 25

[Martyn Sadler]

Here is the first part of what is a two-part Podcast with me, Jake Kearnan and RFL Director of Operations and Legal, Robert Hicks.

We talk, naturally, about refereeing, his career, what makes a good referee and several other current issues.

Part 2 will be posted soon.

 

[Martyn Sadler]

And here is the second part of League Express Podcast 25.

Our thanks to Robert Hicks for his participation.

 

[Harry Stottle]

On 30/01/2024 at 17:03, Martyn Sadler said:

Here is the first part of what is a two-part Podcast with me, Jake Kearnan and RFL Director of Operations and Legal, Robert Hicks.

We talk, naturally, about refereeing, his career, what makes a good referee and several other current issues.

Part 2 will be posted soon.

 

Again enjoyed the show, but I would ask a question of Robert on his comment which I quote:-

"Decisions are subjective, we all know there are laws to apply which there are but there are grey Interpretentational issues and sometimes consciously or subconsciously that will influence how things are going"

I draw particular attention to the underlined, and I do believe rightly or wrongly in my opinion that referees who have had an allegiance to a club i.e. being a native of a particular town, growing up watching that team as a fan, coming through the ranks from said town's referees society could be subconsciously influenced in decision making, and I also believe the same can be said for International fixtures.

I go back far enough in this sport when referees had to be totally independent of any connection with either of the participating teams, and I still think that should happen today, in our domestic SL we have I believe 9 full time referees and 6 fixtures each week, surely it is not to controversial to suggest that 'neutral' referees should be appointed for each of the fixtures.

Looking forward to part 2.