At the end of the Day you can't do much about it
Hardly any Referees in the Zone and its a given that an ex player or official will have to look after one of his Ex Clubs matches
I take your point about the BIG matches say 1st v 2nd, 1st v 3rd and 2nd v 3rd being looked after by an independent Referee but once again Availability is probably the key
I hope this comment isn't an inference of bias by a referee. I'd like to understand where the line should be drawn for a referee in terms of their club background? Don't you want referee's with playing experience officiating the game? Where do you guys think referees come from? Hint - The Referee Fairy doesn't exist.
I refereed the Waratahs v Ag College GF last year that saw Waratahs win. I played for Waratahs, won Premierships with them and Coached with them. Do you think I gave up my Saturday's for 9 years to achieve that outcome?
Aggies would be pretty upset with several decisions in their match yesterday at Conolly - 2 Yellow Cards and a Red Card dealt out by the the Referee ?
Waratahs back to their snarly best and basically wre given free rein over their younger opponents by the Man in charge (who is apparently an ex - president of their Club)
Probably be seen as sour grapes but lets hope future matches between these 2 Clubs are officiated by someone who hasn't played or officiated for the Premiers
The Red Card was a complete over reaction by the Referee and Aggies no doubt will fight the charge strnuously - the Send Off took the game out of Aggies hands who were fighting back valiantly at the Time
This sounds like an accusation of cheating to me and you really need to pull your head in mate. Maybe you should come along to a Foundation Course and work through the points that go into refereeing a game of footy. Or better yet, come down and look after a couple of Junior Matches at the next Gala Day, PM me your details and I'll get you a gig.
From where I sat on Saturday, the tackle that resulted in the Red Card was clear and obvious. The referee reacted appropriately and applied the correct sanction - Tip tackle, past horizontal, point of contact with the ground was head/neck = Red Card. Safety remains the absolute priority for any referee and should also be a mainstay of any coach and player. The alternative is not good. What Ag College choose to do in reaction to that is part of the judiciary case and I'd expect them to look at the scenario and defend their player as they see fit.
The guys from Ag College that I spoke to after the game were pretty aware that there was some stuff they needed to work, they were disappointed with the loss but upbeat about where they are in the season and know that they can do better.
I saw the win from Waratahs was actually pretty gutsy, take that how you want to. For those in the know, you'll take that comment with the grain of salt that it's intended. Or in Waratah's case, maybe a little less salt? Is there a "diet" alternative to salt?