Match Officials: http://www.rugby-league.com/the_rfl/rul ... _officials Looks like the name touch judge sums up their role on the pitch, with the exception of unseen foul play. Interestingly, the ref has the power to send off a touch judge. Quote:A Touch Judge is at all times under the control of the Referee and may be dismissed and replaced if, in the opinion of the Referee, he can no longer be considered to be neutral.

Match Officials: http://www.rugby-league.com/the_rfl/rul ... _officials Looks like the name touch judge sums up their role on the pitch, with the exception of unseen foul play. Interestingly, the ref has the power to send off a touch judge. Quote:A Touch Judge is at all times under the control of the Referee and may be dismissed and replaced if, in the opinion of the Referee, he can no longer be considered to be neutral.

Can the match commisioner remove the referee for same as they are in fact responsible for the whole game are they not?
Or if not bias just failures to referre the game correctly within the laws or failure to apply the laws if it's blatently obvious.

there were times in days gone by were I just wanted to pull the lads from the pitch and tell the ref we weren't going to play a different sport to the one he was officiating under.
the referees in our game are simply not good enough and having Ganson at the helm is not helping matters. he wasn't the worst referee by any stretch and I think on occasion he was top notch but far too often he wasn't. He was also the most arrogant seemed to be on a power trip too often and some awful awful decision making. the Con mika 'leading with the head' tackle and the Bradford/leeds penalty that wasn't leading to an offside try match are two of the many that spring to mind.

I'm sure Barry Lilley was itching to send off the ref on Thursday.

Question is: who sends off the match commissioner?

how many superleague refs are on the RFL books?

one way of having two refs would be clubs fixture planning! take this weekend just gone, all but our game were on friday night, if clubs and coaches want 2 refs then clubs need to give a little and schedule fixtures differently

1 game thursday-sky
1 game friday-sky
1 (2 if catalan at home) game sat evening, (thursdays' ref to get catalan game)

those 3 refs back up sundays' refs and alternate every week

3 games on sunday

surely refs can back up quicker than players and earn their full time role!

Forget touch judges.

A touch judge may well be wired up to the ref but any comment he makes is further information overload on an already hard pressed brain. Plus if the ref is as arrogant as some are then he may just decide to ignore them. A second ref, as I said before, reduces the workload and stress and what's more he has the power to halt play and call the infringement himself, irrespective of whether the other ref has missed or chosen to ignore the offence.

For me it doesnt matter how many referees the RFL put out in a game when the qulaity of them is becoming poorer as the game moves on.

Whilst the Referee in Chief is Steve Ganson and the referee's are not being held accountable for the poop performances then nothing will improve and the game will suffer as a whole because of it.

Whilst we need referee's in the matches to actually have game they have to realise they are not the be all and end all of the game.

Since they have become professional their levels of performance & in particular consistency should have improved but unfortunately this has not been the case and for me some see themselves as stars of the game. The days of being more forgiving of the part time officials is long gone and rightly so and as professionals they should be monitored and held accountable much like everyone else involved in the game. Looking back only a short while the likes of Russell Smith & Karl Kirkpatrick for me even though neither were faultless were better than the dross now.

Unless the RFL have a serious look at the current set up/ show headed up by Ganson then nothing will improve, even the likes of Cummins on Sky is constantly defending his Referee brethren even when it is clear they have made all mighty feck ups.

All we ask for as fans is consistency and accountability, but currently there is s0d all of it not only game by game but even in a single game by the same officials. Until they are accountable then nothing will change as its a closed private club and that needs to change.

I've said this before, but one of the fundamental problems with officiating the game is that too many decisions are made based on the opinion of the referee.

This is bound to cause inconsistencies, and the rules of the game don't always help.

Take ball stealing - almost anything might be given when the ball is lost in the tackle.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, ball stealing was allowed, and this meant that the ref didn't get involved at all.

And the touch judges need to given more responsibility, they're already part of the system and are being funded.
One of them is the standby ref, so it's not as if they're not qualified.