CANBERRA COACH RICKY STUART’S REFEREE CONCERNS
* On the touch judge raising his flag before Sione Katoa’s try for Cronulla:
“I just criticised my players in there for not playing the whistle. Then they tell me the flag went up and the referee called knock on. So what are they meant to do?”
* On the forward pass call that denied Brad Abbey a try:
“I only saw the replay once and to me it went well behind a lot of passes that have been let go this year.”
* On this year’s crackdown:
“All this rot started at round one this year. I don’t know who came out and told the referees they had to come in and pick on everything in regards to the 10m rule, interpretation of ruck, all the work on the ground and hands on the ball, start nitpicking on shitty pieces of play.
“If you’re going to do that right in every tackle in every set you can find something in rugby league. That’s the beautiful thing about our game.”
* On external forces clouding referee’s judgments
“I believe we have very competent referees. And I think the training they do and preparation to get into a game is as good as it can be. We have too much noise, too many people around them not letting them doing their job.”
* On an email sent to coaches warning this week them players will be penalised for slowing down the ruck:
“We’ve ruined the first 14 rounds of the competition, we’ve lost fans and I know people who have turned off because of it. But then halfway through the year (NRL chief executive) Todd (Greenberg) comes out and says I’ve told the referees to stop nitpicking.
“We’re the only sport in the world that changes interpretations midway through the year … It’s like a cricket umpire saying LBW this week is only going to be leg stump and middle stump.”
* On the NRL’s bunker
“The bunker is a waste of time. For the referee to be able to use it as a tool for a ‘I don’t know’, is wrong … The bunker is making it harder for the referees.”