Ref Abuse

[Chris Taylor]

I don't think these comments are particularly helpful on social media, it perhaps would help encourage further abuse towards the match officials. 

 

[roversspud]

3 minutes ago, Chris Taylor said:

I don't think these comments are particularly helpful on social media, it perhaps would help encourage further abuse towards the match officials. 

 

I agree, Chris. I have no problem with official club medias reporting factual events, but when opinions start slipping in, it leads to problems as the only opinion that really counts is that of the referee. 

[The Blues Ox]

46 minutes ago, Chris Taylor said:

I don't think these comments are particularly helpful on social media, it perhaps would help encourage further abuse towards the match officials. 

 

Honestly I don't see too much wrong there. If anything it just highlights how indisciplined Fax are. I think clubs twitter feeds should be allowed a little room to voice opinion. Like using the 2nd one down what else can the social media person say there? They are not saying its the wrong call, more just calling the game. Even the one on 14 minutes about messing around seems to be aimed at both sides. 

[RigbyLuger]

58 minutes ago, roversspud said:

I agree, Chris. I have no problem with official club medias reporting factual events, but when opinions start slipping in, it leads to problems as the only opinion that really counts is that of the referee. 

And clubs have been doing it long enough without rebuke from the RFL. They can easily stop it.

[sweaty craiq]

22 hours ago, Click said:

Yes, exactly this.

But what you are suggesting is perhaps ref's shouldn't enfore the rules in all situations, as if they did then the game is awful as you mention.

If that’s how you read it then it wasn’t as I thought it. If they need to penalise and bin for 10 mins to get through then please do so but be consistent. My pet hate is 6 again on tackle 1

[roversspud]

3 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Honestly I don't see too much wrong there. If anything it just highlights how indisciplined Fax are. I think clubs twitter feeds should be allowed a little room to voice opinion. Like using the 2nd one down what else can the social media person say there? They are not saying its the wrong call, more just calling the game. Even the one on 14 minutes about messing around seems to be aimed at both sides. 

I agree that the second one is simply factual and therefore acceptable. The first and third however are the commentator's opinions and could lead to problems if the clubs only see incidents through their own rose tinted spectacles.

[daz39]

4 hours ago, Chris Taylor said:

I don't think these comments are particularly helpful on social media, it perhaps would help encourage further abuse towards the match officials. 

 

Clubs social media are often written by fans who more often than not forget they aren't just fans but representing the entire club but resort to posting personal opinion on events rather than just the facts, some of the official stuff on twitter is embarrasing at times.

Edited July 15, 2024 by daz39

[daz39]

Just watching Saturdays game back and there must be 3 or 4 occasions where the leigh fans can clearly be heard chanting something unkind towards the referee, weren't they fined a few years back for the exact same chant? 

You'd think they would have some kind of warning or request over the pa asking their fans to refrain but seeing the state of some of their fans these days I guess it wouldn't be heeded anyway. 

[Chris Taylor]

20 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Honestly I don't see too much wrong there. If anything it just highlights how indisciplined Fax are. I think clubs twitter feeds should be allowed a little room to voice opinion. Like using the 2nd one down what else can the social media person say there? They are not saying its the wrong call, more just calling the game. Even the one on 14 minutes about messing around seems to be aimed at both sides. 

I don't disagee about raising an opinion - it's creates that emotional connect with the fans. 

However, when these tweets seemingly criticise referees then this needs to be stopped. This isn't just Halifax btw, I'm sure you can select a number of clubs in the lower leagues that do this.

It's simply not professional.

[The Blues Ox]

36 minutes ago, Chris Taylor said:

I don't disagee about raising an opinion - it's creates that emotional connect with the fans. 

However, when these tweets seemingly criticise referees then this needs to be stopped. This isn't just Halifax btw, I'm sure you can select a number of clubs in the lower leagues that do this.

It's simply not professional.

I think you highlight part of the problem there when you mention that it is not professional and in fairness to the clubs its really hard to be in this respect as most of the time people doing these tweets or social media posts will be working for the club on a voluntary basis and to be honest other than a real die hard fan, who is going to volunteer for something like this?

[RigbyLuger]

There's a responsibility on the club to make sure those tweeting know what they can and can't do, regardless of whether they are being paid. Nothing wrong with being impartial, but certainly is in questioning decisions when under the club account.

[Andy JG]

I recall as a lad running on the field at the end of a Leigh game late 70's ( it was a very common thing to do ), and there was a fan face to face with Fred Lindop giving him dogs abuse. To be fair Lindop gave it him back in no uncertain terms. Never forgotten it. 

[Griff]

1 minute ago, Andy JG said:

I recall as a lad running on the field at the end of a Leigh game late 70's ( it was a very common thing to do ), and there was a fan face to face with Fred Lindop giving him dogs abuse. To be fair Lindop gave it him back in no uncertain terms. Never forgotten it. 

Leigh.

It's the new Fev.

[Chris Taylor]

21 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

I think you highlight part of the problem there when you mention that it is not professional and in fairness to the clubs its really hard to be in this respect as most of the time people doing these tweets or social media posts will be working for the club on a voluntary basis and to be honest other than a real die hard fan, who is going to volunteer for something like this?

I understand that a lot of these people are volunteers, however it's a communication platform that is visible to the world and can be used in so many different ways. It shouldn't be used as an excuse. 

No club, professional or amateur should be stating that the referee made the wrong decision.

If there isn't already there should be minimum guidelines in place for what not to say and perhaps actually what seemingly does well too. 

 

[daz39]

Leigh issue statement to their fans.

https://leighleopards.co.uk/a-message-to-our-fans/

Whoever wrote it still mananged to get in a little bit of a pop to take some of the blame off their fans.....

Quote

The club understands the passion and frustration that can boil over during games, particularly when mistakes are made from players and officials

I hope that's not a dig at the perceived McIntosh no try which cannot be called a mistake as it wasn't possible to prove or disprove it either way and the match officials made their decisions based on the rules they have to do their job within.

Leigh are turning into quite an undesirable club lately for some reason.

 

[phiggins]

1 hour ago, daz39 said:

Leigh issue statement to their fans.

https://leighleopards.co.uk/a-message-to-our-fans/

Whoever wrote it still mananged to get in a little bit of a pop to take some of the blame off their fans.....

I hope that's not a dig at the perceived McIntosh no try which cannot be called a mistake as it wasn't possible to prove or disprove it either way and the match officials made their decisions based on the rules they have to do their job within.

Leigh are turning into quite an undesirable club lately for some reason.

 

I don't see an issue with that statement at all. Players and officials make mistakes, cannot pretend otherwise, but the statement makes clear that the behaviour seen will not be tolerated even if mistakes happen.

[The Blues Ox]

Yeah looks fine that. Honestly I were more surprised at the amount of fallout over the kick for touch incident than there were over what looks like a clear mistake by the video ref. It were a try every day of the week, no seperation of the ball, commentators were gobsmacked and the video ref talking himself in to disallowing it because it was sent up as a no try. If it were sent up as a try it would have had maybe 2 looks at most before been given. As much as we have to accept officials will make mistakes with a split second to make a decision, there should be no excuse for a decision being called wrongly by the video ref.

[phiggins]

10 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Yeah looks fine that. Honestly I were more surprised at the amount of fallout over the kick for touch incident than there were over what looks like a clear mistake by the video ref. It were a try every day of the week, no seperation of the ball, commentators were gobsmacked and the video ref talking himself in to disallowing it because it was sent up as a no try. If it were sent up as a try it would have had maybe 2 looks at most before been given. As much as we have to accept officials will make mistakes with a split second to make a decision, there should be no excuse for a decision being called wrongly by the video ref.

I think the fallout on the kick for touch is down to the fact that it's a basic misunderstanding of a rule, rather than a split second decision which can always go wrong. Made even worse by the fact that the touch judge on the opposite side made the opposite call.

The disallowed try was frustrating, and showed exactly why the on field call is no good. McIntosh has said in an interview that the ref told him that he 'wasn't sure', which means the on field call isn't really worth much. Then Thaler bizarrely just says he can see separation that wasn't there, after admitting that he can't see properly because of the blurred picture. It was actually very similar to a try we conceded against Cas, which went up as no try, but was correctly overturned. Personally, I'd scrap video ref altogether. I think it hinders refs more than helps, and will stop a lot of the play acting we're currently seeing with players hoping the VR will give a pen and a card.

On the subject of ref abuse. The examples given in the video are vile. Sadly, the social media companies continue to refuse to do anything about it. If anything it's got worse, particularly since Musk got his hands on Twitter.  But criticism, and saying you disagree with a decision isn't abuse, as long as it's done respectfully.

Can't say I particularly had an issue with those Fax tweets. There may have been one where the admin didn't really get the rules for voluntary tackle, but ultimately the days of never question a decision are long gone. We can probably thank broadcasters for that. Those days are so far gone that we're likely to have Captain's challenge next season, so it's not even a waste of breath for a player to question a decision any more.