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Leeds won but not sure they emerged with the most credit :conf: Melbourne had so many key players missing and I felt had Smith and Inglis been present then they would have won. I certainly could not imagine Leeds doing anywhere as well if the scenario had been reversed.

Best player on the pitch; Billy Slater

worst player on the pitch: Ashley Klein

(at least for most of the first half)

as Kear said (on 5 live) ... if he's the best ref in SL......!

cyberpieman wrote:worst player on the pitch: Ashley Klein

What did you think was bad about his performance?

shades of the Salford game in Feb last year

much too fond of playing with his whistle

turning the match into the AK show

Was the best reffing I had seen for a while. Game flowed. In horrendous condition Klien held it together when things flaired up. Could have destroyed the game. Seen more penalties in the first ten minutes of some matches. Well done Klien, HC

cyberpieman wrote:shades of the Salford game in Feb last year

much too fond of playing with his whistle

turning the match into the AK show

To many times the kicker was taking out well after he had kicked the ball. Every time the Leeds player almost had his head taken of. Should have been a few sin binning but Klown didnt want to be seen in a bad light given it was a big game.

He also went to video ref for a storm try even after TJ had flaged for in touch, you could see Klown mothing the words "in touch" then going upstairs to video ref total cop out.

I believe RL has become incredibly difficult to referee with the nature of tackling today. So much so that we need to change the rules. I recently bought a RL weekly newspaper and every tackle on the front cover (There were 6) bar 1 on Feka was a form of grappling. 9 out of 10 tackles now involve the arm rising over the shoulder and some form of attack to the head. The referees cannot penalise every tackle so the situation is out of control.

I believe we now need to bring back an interpretation whereby any tackle above chest height is illegal. Far too much emphasis has been placed on lifting.

Klein, I thought he did okay. He wrongly penalised Slater for offside in the first half and Clarke cowardly tried to insinuate the chsers were within the 10 when they clearly were not. Other than that and perhaps some inconsistency in kick chasers he seemed to do okay.

The game has reached a point though were cheating is prospering. Leeds improvement has come in defence whereby they are downright nasty, knees, hand in faces and so on. Melbourne are similarly nasty. If players want to stand toe to toe and slug it out then fine but the present day habits of grabbing testicles, strangling etc is cowardly.

trotski_tgwu wrote:He also went to video ref for a storm try even after TJ had flaged for in touch, you could see Klown mothing the words "in touch" then going upstairs to video ref total cop out.

I think he actually mouthed "I think you're right." What's the harm in checking it? As it happened the TJ was spot on.

cpwigan wrote:I believe RL has become incredibly difficult to referee with the nature of tackling today. So much so that we need to change the rules. I recently bought a RL weekly newspaper and every tackle on the front cover (There were 6) bar 1 on Feka was a form of grappling. 9 out of 10 tackles now involve the arm rising over the shoulder and some form of attack to the head. The referees cannot penalise every tackle so the situation is out of control.

I agree to a certain extent, there are a lot of grapples in the game these days at all levels, though there is an emphasis on cutting it out. There are a lot of tackles though where the force of the tackle is on the shoulders and the arm makes contact with the head. In my opinion these should not be penalised, partly for the reason you say (it happens so often) and secondly because there is minimal danger in this type of tackle.

As for the 'Slater offside' as you put it CP... Slater was onside but the other 4 chasers weren't. Those other chasers put pressure on the reciever and they are interfering, the decision was spot on.

I didn't think tackling was anything as bad as you make out, I would say there were spoiling tactics, moreso from Leeds, particularly Leuleui putting hands in and Senior laying on two name a couple. Didn't think there was anything particularly dirty though.

I think it was a waste of time Rob, also inconsistansy with kick chase as a few late hits going in after the kick and he only saw one. Though one of the TJ had a great game but the other seemed to miss thing happening only a few feet from him.

It's not dirty Rob but its every tackle virtually. There is so much emphasis on slowing play down that to be honest I do not think the players even tackle in the true sense of the word. Nobdoy bends their back or goes low. It's all aborb the runner, lock the ball, get tea mates in, twist the ball carriers leg, dance with the ball carrier, roll on him, spoil, spoil.

We have got that because we have always been prepared to accept the concept of the tackler making contact lower and riding up on impact. When a player is 6ft minimum in 90% of cases why do we encourage/accept challenges to the last 1ft. They have 5ft to go at.

I do think if we are not careful we end up with a dour game. Saints killed Bradford with it last week. Tonight 2 teams doing exactly the same and cancelling each other out. I thought Slater was great, I enjoyed Kronks kicking but beyond that the players were athletes/strongmen with little or no rugby. At one point, leeds had no centres, yet Melbourne never attacked that weakness. In the first half with Leeds having no defenders out wide, the guy goes from acting half.