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Obviously spending too much time in the company of Ashley Clown if you ask me. Never a red card, yellow at best. Where was the warning, at least, for the retaliation?
:eh:
I would not normally question officialdom, however there does seem to be some bias against us this year by the whistle blowers. :conf:

That was my chilled out rant!

All Ben Thaler comments in this thread please

Just returned and what should have been a stroll in the park became very uncomfortable following the dicision to dismiss Mathers.

Full time referees do not work. It gives them far too much time to over analyse their job and you get flavour of the month edicts and the forearm seems to be the current one.

Home town referees does not work. Thaler awarded the most ludicrous penalty try ever when he refereed Wakefield earlier in the season. Tonight made him look similarly dubious in terms of favouring Wakefield.

Not seen the sending off on TV. The forearm did make contact with the face of the Wakefield player. Contact looked mild. Intent? How can you judge? If the forearm does come into contact with the tackler then the tackler is partly at faulty as his tackling technique is poor.

I may be wrong but I can rarely if ever recall the ball carriers forearm causing serious injury. The cocked forearm / elbow of a tackler is far more dangerous and causes far more injuries.

If you instantly dismiss the ball carrier for raised forearm then you do the same for every high tackle I presume? Thaler chose to place high tackles on report. Remember a high tackler is more dangerous than a raised forearm.

A raised forearm where no intent can be determined is seemingly worse than deliberately punching an opponent.

Even more ludicrous and this is something I have debated with Rob long and hard. Human nature being what it is, when you send a player off, few referees will then punish that team as they should. They become reluctant to act. You can actually get away with far more. Ben Thaler failed to sin bin Mark Calderwood for a professional foul on Danny Brough. So in effect, the referee loses control.

Equally, Thaler failed to sin bin any Wakefield players for repeated infringements.

Referees can be intimidated. They are human (honest) and Thaler was certainly feeling the pressure. Pressure that he created. His subsequent handling of the match bordered on farce.

Finally,I would like to offer mitigation for Richie Mathers. Having broke his first tackle of the season, he became anxious and panicked not knowing what to do.

Ben Thaler your not fit to be a referee

What a performance, several decisions, poor at best, against both teams. Mathers wasnt a red as someone said perhaps a yellow... why not Sculthorpe or the punch on Mathers? Nothing for that?

Uncomfortable indeed.

Thaler looks like giving klown a run for being the biggest **** to ever pull on a ref's shirt after tonights performance

The Mather decision was shocking - as Noble said on Sky extra - that happens 40 times a match. It was a penalty at worse. Demitriou then punched Mathers but didn't even get sin-binned - Thaler binned Burrow when he was involved in a set to and he didn't throw a punch!

Leo Latu - commited 3 high tackles and numerous other infringements - why wasn't he sin-binned?

Sculthrope hit Fielden with a far worse forearm in the run up to the Brough try. If you watch it you will see that Fielden is groggy - that was totally missed by Stevie Wonder impersonator Thaler. Sculthorpe throws a punch at Higham yet didn't even get binned.

Collectively Wakefield gave away 3 penalties in 3 sets; yet the bin wasn't even mentioned.

I used to think that Thaler had the makings of being a decent referee - tonight he was either incompetent or he favoured his home town team. Either way he should go back to NL1 where he clearly belongs after tonights performance

Ben Thaler - The worst performance that I have seen from this referee EVER.

Never a sending off i.e, Mathers.

A penalty yes a sending off, WAY, WAY ott.

You're not fit to
You're not fit to
You're not fit to referee.
You're not fit to referee.

cpwigan

Good post albeit with post-match adrenalin obviously still kicking in.

Your final comment was a bit OTT as I reckon BT is one of the best of a poor bunch this season. That said, I have not yet watched the match on TV. Allow me to reserve final judgment and get back to you tomorrow!

Kittwazzer wrote:cpwigan

Good post albeit with post-match adrenalin obviously still kicking in.

Your final comment was a bit OTT as I reckon BT is one of the best of a poor bunch this season. That said, I have not yet watched the match on TV. Allow me to reserve final judgment and get back to you tomorrow!

BT was P**S poor tonight,how about this from a Tics fan friend of mine re Mathers sending off "their seems to be one rule for Wigan & one rule for everyone else".

Kittwazzer wrote:cpwigan

Good post albeit with post-match adrenalin obviously still kicking in.

Your final comment was a bit OTT as I reckon BT is one of the best of a poor bunch this season. That said, I have not yet watched the match on TV. Allow me to reserve final judgment and get back to you tomorrow!

Definetly KW.

Last part of the post was in jest.

I do think we have not seen the supposed improvement that FT was meant bring. Other than fitness I think they may be over analysing their role and applying common sense would seem the best quality a referee can have.

gillysmyhero wrote:

Kittwazzer wrote:cpwigan

Good post albeit with post-match adrenalin obviously still kicking in.

Your final comment was a bit OTT as I reckon BT is one of the best of a poor bunch this season. That said, I have not yet watched the match on TV. Allow me to reserve final judgment and get back to you tomorrow!

BT was P**S poor tonight,how about this from a Tics fan friend of mine re Mathers sending off "their seems to be one rule for Wigan & one rule for everyone else".

The worst EVER display from Thaler that I have seen tonight.

I decided to watch the video first, before commenting, but I saw nothing to change my mind about Thaler's performance.
Right from that first penalty for ball stealing, which was just a knock-on (and even Stevo agreed!), he was on our backs.
The sending off was ridiculous, and as others have said, there were far worse things coming from Sculthorpe and Leo-Latu that were just let go.
Looking on video, I don't think the Calderwood incident was a penalty, as both were side by side chasing the ball.