I agree, but I think we're also putting the referees in a thankless position.
As a sport, we definitely put too much emphasis on the referees. We see it on this forum when supporters immediately start commenting the second the referee appointments are announced. It really is quite pathetic.
But Ganson and Red Hall need to lead on this issue.
The referees are an easy target because they aren't really in a position to defend themselves. Coaches, many of whom are under various degrees of pressure, can call out referees in press conferences knowing that there's little recourse and that supporters will usually buy it. I can't remember which official it was, but I remember cringing when Richard Agar implied that a referee was being influenced by "comments he made about that ref in the past" earlier this year. We've even had official club Twitter feeds calling out match officials - is this really the sort of culture the sport needs?
There needs to be greater sanctions for players, coaches and club officials who do call out match officials publically. Let's be honest, most aren't doing it because they think the officials are poor - they're doing it to deflect from either their or their players' failings. I know people often retort to that sort of suggestion with "well the refs should be made to defend their decisions in public", but why? I don't expect Brad Singleton to go on Sky and explain his lazy swinging arm on Friday night, so why should I expect James Child to explain why he missed a forward pass?
The RFL needs to start making the job of being a match official easier. It's a bloody hard job and we're making it needlessly difficult. That includes making rule interpretations clearer, demanding higher standards of conduct from the players and eventually moving to a two referee system.
They also need to back their referees more. Ralph Rimmer can argue all he likes that James Child being sent to Widnes was not a 'demotion' following the incidents in Perpignan, but it was a real opportunity for the RFL to make a statement that it is backing and standing by its officials, and they blew it.
But above all else, the culture needs to change. We have to move from this culture where the default response from many sections from the supporter base is to 'blame the referee'. This goes from Super League right through to park rugby and until something is done about that culture, we're going to continue to have a recruitment problem in RL.
I really stopped caring about match officials a long time ago. I'm mature enough to understand that in professional sport, there's a strong possibility that I might disagree with a referee's call, but I accept that. I honestly found that it made me enjoy the sport a lot more.
