by KEVIN PAMBA
Incompetent referees, touch judges killing game
Look at where the referee is standing
in pictures ‘A’ and ‘B’ that I took during the SP Cup game between
Brian Bell Bulldogs and Mabey and Johnson Muruks in Madang last
Sunday.
The players in both pictures are in front of the referee as they
line up in defence against the opposition.
In rugby league, when defending players are in front of the
referee or the two touch judges as they line up to move up in
defence, it is regarded as being “off-side”.
The referee then blows the whistle and penalises the defending
team.
If the referee does not notice the mistake, the touch judge on the
side of the defending team, raises the flag indicating the
off-side.
The referee then sees the raised flag and blows the whistle.
Picture ‘C’ shows the players moving up in defence from an
off-side position.
In all these three off-side cases, the referee or the touch judges
did nothing and allowed the game to continue.
Some of the spectators and team officials could be heard screaming
“referee off-side” on many occasions.
I don’t know whether it was a genuine oversight or deliberate but
the Port Moresby referee simply ignored the offside play on many
occasions.
On certain occasions, the referee appeared to be inside the 10m of
the mandated defence line, allowing the defence of one team to
move quicker to tackle giving little room for the attacking side
to move.
The anomaly cited above did not generate any drama as fortunately
this game was played in Madang where people do not take the law
into their own hands during SP Cup games.
I am not condoning the bashing up of referees and touch judges
each time they are alleged to have ruled incorrectly.
But the point is that referees and touch judges are getting away
with incompetent, clumsy and biased administration of games.
Why should referees and touch judges destroy a game with their
poor refereeing because they are biased or incompetent and then
cower under the protection that “referee’s decision is final and
should be respected”?
This column thinks the biased and incompetent referees and touch
judges have for so long been protected by the game’s
administrators while teams and their supporters continue to be
treated as the bad guys.
The paying public is sick and tired of poor performances of
referees and touch judges in the SP Cup games.
If the SP Cup is a “semi-professional” competition, for goodness
sake, the refereeing should also reflect this.
Some of the referees and touch judges are said to possess Level
One and Level Two or Australian recognised refereeing certificates
but the way they administer the games speaks something else.
These so-called ‘qualifications’ are obtained from mostly the odd
one-week course that comes around once a while.
The question is, whether a one-week course is enough to qualify a
referee to run high-stakes games like the SP Cup.
The health and fitness of referees and touch judges is another
area that should be looked at.
At the moment, this area is not being addressed as health and
fitness of referees and touch judges plays a part in their
performance.
It is time the PNG rugby league administration fixes the problems
with refereeing or referees and touch judges will continue to be
bashed up.
Poor refereeing particularly by biased individuals also kills the
growth of the sport and this area must be addressed.
This column thinks referees have a very long way to go to catch up
with the milestone set by PNG’s only international whistleblower
Graham Ainui in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
I remember those days when I always liked watching games refereed
by Ainui at the Lloyd Robson Oval in Port Moresby.
Ainui was sharp, firm and fair and the way he handled the matches
were a delight to watch unlike at present.
