Neutral ref?

[Chrispmartha]

7 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

I see the appointment for Saturdays WC game is Wigan born and bred Liam Moore, I believe he still lives in the town, was a Wigan fan as a kid and came through the Wigan refs society, there are another 6 full time refs without a Wigan connection so my question is why?

Is this asking for trouble if there are any contentious decisions Wigans way.

I don't think any ref, touch judge or video ref should have any connection to any club in any game, not just this one.

Does Liam Moore ref Wigan games in the SL?

I don’t see the issue anyway as it’s not an international game, even if it was i don’t see an issue personally as the refs are professionals 

[Harry Stottle]

12 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

Does Liam Moore ref Wigan games in the SL?

I don’t see the issue anyway as it’s not an international game, even if it was i don’t see an issue personally as the refs are professionals 

Yes.

[DavidM]

16 minutes ago, StandOffHalf said:

The Suttons say Hi.

I notice the younger one who was dumped early last year after high profile howlers was back in the preseason games and looked just as bad 

[Hopie]

I think they changed the rules on "neutral" refs so Ganson could referee finals when St Helens were getting there regularly and preventing him.

[LeytherRob]

2 hours ago, Hopie said:

Based on the OP seems a very odd choice, but as is also noted English refs tend to notice their "biases" and go the other way. English refs tend to look scared of sending off an Aussie, and scared not to send off a Brit in the same situation. Aussie refs would watch a winning try for England on replay and disallow it anyway...  

Yep, look no further than the Ryan Hall disallowed try in the 2014 4 Nations. Absolute robbery.

[sam4731]

5 hours ago, JonM said:

It really, really isn't. It's pretty much universal. Just about every other international sport has neutral officials - football, cricket, rugby union, events in the Olympic Games. 

Maldives Football flies in a referee from India or Sri Lanka for big games because every referee they have is an ex-player of one of the small number of clubs they have.

Any other nominations for most obscure sporting fact on the forum?

Love it.

[Sports Prophet]

13 hours ago, Damien said:

I mean it really isn't. Practically every major sport uses neutral referees in international games such as this, whether that is Football, RU, Cricket, Basketball, Netball, Handball etc.

 

9 hours ago, JonM said:

It really, really isn't. It's pretty much universal. Just about every other international sport has neutral officials - football, cricket, rugby union, events in the Olympic Games. 

I am not talking about other sports and more importantly, I am especially not talking about international sport and neither was the OP. This is a club fixture and the OP’s discussion is about a Wigan bias, not a British bias.

I know from my experience in UK that in the recent past, referees were not appointed pro-club fixtures featuring clubs where they grew up or live.

With this point clarified and referencing my experiences of the club game referee appointments in Australia across any number of sports (seeing as you both wanted to refer to other sports), I am unmoved in my belief this is very much a British mindset and/or concern.

Edited February 22 by Sports Prophet

[Damien]

2 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

 

I am not talking about other sports and more importantly, I am especially not talking about international sport and neither was the OP. This is a club fixture and the OP’s discussion is about a Wigan bias, not a British bias.

I know from my experience in UK that in the recent past, referees were not appointed pro-club fixtures featuring clubs where they grew up or live.

With this point clarified and referencing my experiences of the club game referee appointments in Australia across any number of sports (seeing as you both wanted to refer to other sports), I am unmoved in my belief this is very much a British mindset and/or concern.

You are the one that referred to a British mindset. It is clear it isn't.

This is also an international competition. The fact it is club sides competing does not change that and again RL is the outlier in its approach.

Edited February 22 by Damien

[Griff]

[sigh]

I thought bent ref threads were supposed to be a thing of the past.

Edited February 22 by Griff

[Harry Stottle]

3 hours ago, Griff said:

[sigh]

I thought bent ref threads were supposed to be a thing of the past.

Who said anything about bent refs?

Let me just go back a couple of weeks or so when Robert Hicks was the guest on this platforms podcast he said:-

"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.

Just my opinion.

[John Drake]

4 hours ago, Griff said:

[sigh]

I thought bent ref threads were supposed to be a thing of the past.

If you want them to be, then you're gonna have to start reporting 'em when you see 'em, not just complaining when they appear.

There are only 2 moderators on here, and hundreds of posts every day. We cannot read them all.

See a problem, report it.

Thanks.

And, er, locked.