sportingFACTIONS :: Code XIII

I doubt if there was anything more predictable – following the debacle in Perpignan last weekend – than that the Salford City Reds and Karl Harrison were destined for a parting of the ways.

Sure enough today the following announcement was made by the Salford club chairman John Wilkinson:

The Board of Directors would like to thank Karl for his hard work and service during his five years here at Salford City Reds.  The club feel that with 13 fixtures remaining the time has come for a new direction.  We wish Karl all the best for the future.

Football Director Steve Simms will takeover as caretaker coach in the interim. So much for the much touted rise of the British coach.

However, Harrison – who until this morning was the longest-serving coach in the Super League (June 2002) and only recently was touted as Great Britain coach – must be wondering what the hell went wrong with his team this time around.

Having secured a top six play-off spot last season based largely on a miserly defence and a massive team work ethic they have suffered from a singular lack of one-on-one tackling ability this season.

Whether that is down to coaching, on field organisational ineptness, poor conditioning or just the appetite of the players Karl has recruited and assembled is now a moot point.

Despite indicators to the contrary, the announcement seems to have made monkeys of the national RL media; most of the papers I browsed today indicating that Harrison was safe for the moment. That’s hardly a strategy that will foster good media relations for Salford at a time when it needs all the friends it can muster, because that feedback can only have come from within the club at some stage yesterday.

Whilst it’s too early for any serious candidates to have emerged for the now vacant role there is the intriguing prospect that Warrington Wolves coach, Paul Cullen, who was far from happy with the booing his team received on Saturday, may fancy a change and a new challenge.
 

The RFL is endangering its players and jeopardising club finances by failing to act forcefully against the endemic foul play of repeat offenders.

Case in point: Terry Newton’s three-game ban for a high tackle on Leeds’ prop Jamie Thackary (see story here).

Newton is not the only one but he is the most obvious and persistent offender, with a tackling style of often shocking and inappropriate venom and recklessness. On top of his 10 game ban in 2005/6 and a two game ban earlier this year he now has another short rest.

But where is the incremental punishment that is needed to deter this behaviour and protect the potential victims?

We explained earlier in this blog (see story here) how we felt this ought to work and still believe it would help clear the game of the thugs or the just plain reckless.

Yet, the RFL see no problem here … slapping wrists after each offence without addressing the holistic and core issue, which is either endemic ill-discipline or at best very poor technique.

Surely it’s now time to act. Punish the act. Correct the issue. Protect the game.

But grow some b&lls first.

The introduction of professional referees this season was supposed to be a progressive step. Yet, here we are, just half way through the first season and the strategy is already in crisis.

Two of the six pro refs have now been suspended in the wake of the Bulls-Leeds Millennium Magic fiasco. Referee of the year in 2005, Ashley Klein, who was acting as video referee and wrongly awarded the penalty that led to the Leeds non-try, has now joined Steve Ganson on the ‘Suspended‘ list.

So, two of the top UK refs are thoroughly discredited (maybe irreperably so), whilst a third, Karl Kirkpatrick, having declined to go ‘pro’ has now defected to rugby union.

Oh, for the good old days. The days of Fred Lindop, Billy Thompson, Stan Wall and Mick Naughton … wait! What am I saying?! With the exception of Mick (who always seemed a nice guy and fair too), who wanted any of those guys reffing (sorry Stan)?

And just what those guys would have made of the role today we’ll never know … but 20-30 years later I can at least still remember them.

Yet, the refereeing role has changed so much in those decades and today’s ref must work under intense scrutiny. Every mistake is recorded and replayed, to be questioned and dissected by the ascerbic Stevo. How would your work suffer with that guy looking over your shoulder?

No, even with the remote support system of  miked-up advisor in the stands and a video referee, we are putting too much pressure on our refs. Without the hardy souls who take-up the whistle, there’d be no game.

But there are things we could do to help bail them out, such as -:

• The Coach’s Challenge - each coach would be allowed to challenge one decision per half during the game. The decision would be reviewed by the video ref and a ruling made. Each challenge would cost the challenging team one substitution should they lose it.
• The Automatic Review - before allowing any try the video review should automatically be invoked. It needn’t delay the game in most cases as it could be done whilst the kick was being lined-up.
• The Gag - not physically sadly – but getting Stevo to tone-down his critique wouldn’t hurt.

Whilst each of those options would help in easing the burden, at the end of the day it’s just a damn tough job! How much would they have to pay you to do it?

Referee, Steve Ganson, is as impartial and imperfect as any sports official; imperfect because he’s human and prone to the same assumptions and misperceptions as most of the rest of us. He’s no Bull-hater although that’d be a hard sell in West Yorkshire today!

Where he ought to be different though is in his training. The era of the professional referee is after with us now. And when the rest of us were rapt in the thrilling tension as Leeds surged for one final chance to clinch victory Ganson ought to have been trained to be cool; detached and observant and ruled by common-sense he might then have taken a second to ponder the weight of the moment before blowing his whistle and signalling that fraudulent game winning touchdown.

In that still, silent, pondering moment at the eye of the hysteria in the Millennium Stadium he might then have thought – “its worth double checking”.

I guarantee he will do next time … if there is a next time.

But that won’t help the Bulls, robbed of two vital Super League points by Ganson’s bone headed decision.

Yet, nice guys or not, theres no way on God’s green grass that the Rhinos will now willingly surrender their league points.

Nor will the RFL compel them to; nor should they. Is sport fair? Never. Unfairness, injustice – not defeat – is the fibre in our sports diet. Oh we don’t like it when we taste it – like school cabbage or thrice boiled cauliflower – but can’t live without it.

Ask Wigan fans how bloated a diet of soft and hollow victories can leave you. Yet, now after a healthy dose of unfairness and unjust thumpings over the past few years … now how sweet will that next Trophy win be?

Tough as it is to bear the Bulls’ll just have to suck this one up … but that next game, boy that’s going to be something.

Maybe they should put all four points on the line for that one?

The concept was visionary. The execution, bold. But what was the verdict?

The inaugural Millennium Magic experience is history; or should we say History? Whilst the jury is still out on the success or otherwise of this venture early indications are that it is here to stay. The fifty-eight thousand attendance for the two day event is evidence enough of its viability and the league clearly expect it to grow into a third showpiece for the RL calendar./p>

Now, did it have flaws? Are there lessons to learn and things to do better? Yes. And that’s the point. Even with all the blemishes this was a qualified success. Improved and polished it can become a festival of League for years to come.

Sceptical? Look back at the first Grand Final; at the 38k attendance. And all the sniping and bickering about that not being a fair way to determine the Champions. There was a real chance that competition could have gone the way of the Premiership Trophy and Merit Trophy and Top-16/8/4 playoffs of preceding generations.

Yet now the Grand Final is the jewel in the crown, copied by the RFU and envied by the FA. It draws capacity 75k crowds into Old Trafford and is an unmissable event in the UK sporting calendar.

Will ‘the Magic’ reach those heights? Why not? As awareness grows and with some fine tuning over seating management, ticketing arrangements and accommodation, this event can grow to be a spectacular marketing tool for Rugby League.

There is talk that next season it may be the Challenge Cup semi final weekend that moves to Cardiff. But if that’s just two games I’d say they were watering down the event and the concept. A mistake. Adding in some Super League fixtures might redeem that but they are at the mercy of the quality of the matchups. With the current ‘rivals’ format they are guaranteed exciting crowd-pulling games.

It’s down to the clubs now to back their original vision and push for a bigger and better event in 2008. Let’s hope they have the courage of their convictions and remain bold. And next year they should invite the ambitious Celtic Crusaders too, let them kick-off the weekend with the first game in Cardiff or close it with the final game. It would be another step in their transition to Super League and help them boost the Welsh game further.