It is the old misdirection play. The team loses a game and the coach starts to spray the referees in the post match press conference to take pressure off himself, and his team.
It is a move that is very old and very effective. Hell, even when you know what is going on you end up talking about referees all week, even if you are just defending the job they are doing.
I have a rule that I think NRL clubs should adopt, and it is all about a teams position on the ladder. You see, if you go to NRL.com the front page has the NRL ladder on it, but it only shows the top 8 teams. If you want to see teams from 9th place through to 16th place, you have to click a link.
My rule is that any team below 8th place, all of the NRL’s losers, should never mention referees. The fact is that most teams below 8th place on the NRL ladder have thoroughly earned that position and their record through terrible play, terrible mistakes, terrible effort, and of course terrible coaching.
When you are the last placed team in the competition, I don’t care how upset you are at decisions that didn’t go your way. You’re entire club needs to shut the hell up.
Now, this is something I apply to my own team in the Penrith Panthers. As always I need to remind some supporter bases that their clubs are not special in any way, shape, or form. The Panthers currently sit in 12th place on the ladder and they thoroughly deserve to be there. Earlier this year the Panthers blew up about referees, after a loss, and I was the first to say that everyone at the club and our supporters needed to shut the hell up.
The Sydney Roosters are running dead last in the NRL. They are playing really terrible football.
If you look at the Roosters losses this season you see that they got thrashed by the 11th placed Rabbitohs (Who they also beat a few weeks later for their sole win), they were beaten by the 8th placed Sea Eagles, the 13th placed Warriors, the 12th placed Panthers, and the 9th placed Dragons.
This isn’t a team that is hanging in their against the top guns in the competition. The Roosters have been losing games to the other worst clubs in the competition all season.
The Roosters are one of only four teams to give up 200 points so far this season. When you consider that the other three teams, the Knights, Tigers and Warriors have all been handed thrashing at some point this year, it is fairly horrible company. Indeed the Roosters have given up 40 points on two occasions this season, in the season opener against the Rabbitohs, and to the NRL Champions the North Queensland Cowboys.
On the other side of the ball the Roosters have the third worst attacking record in the NRL, only better than the Newcastle Knights and the St George/Illawarra Dragons, who by the way managed to score 20 points against the Roosters last weekend. The Dragons had only managed to score 59 points in 7 games all season until they ran into the Roosters last weekend. That is an average of 8.43 points per game until last weekend!
For those wondering, the Roosters are averaging 16.13 points in attack and they give up 25.88 points in defense so far through 8 games in 2016.
Does any of this sound like a team that finds itself in 16th position on the NRL ladder because of referees?
On Twitter formerLeagueFreak.com Guest Writer Andrew Ferguson has some amazing statistics he posted on his Twitter timeline.
#TrentRobinsonWhinge Since becoming coach in 2013, The Roosters have won 65.17% of their NRL games
— Andrew Ferguson (@AndrewRLP) April 26, 2016
#TrentRobinsonWhinge Refs who the Roosters have less than 65.17% success rate: Matt Noyen 0% (3 games), Luke Phillips 33.33% (3 games)
— Andrew Ferguson (@AndrewRLP) April 26, 2016
#TrentRobinsonWhinge David Munro & Adam Gee 40% (5 games each), Ben Cummins 46.67% (15 games), Gavin Reynolds 50% (8 games)
— Andrew Ferguson (@AndrewRLP) April 26, 2016
#TrentRobinsonWhinge Grant Atkins 57.14% (7 games), Henry Perenara 58.33% (12 games), Alan Shortall 60% (5 games)
— Andrew Ferguson (@AndrewRLP) April 26, 2016
#TrentRobinsonWhinge Gerard Sutton 62.5% (16 games)
— Andrew Ferguson (@AndrewRLP) April 26, 2016
#TrentRobinsonWhinge Roosters will be confused by Archer's comments. They won 20 of 36 under his officiating, that makes him a mate, surely?
— Andrew Ferguson (@AndrewRLP) April 26, 2016
#TrentRobinsonWhinge 8 Losses under Cummins since 2013: 3 have been by a margin of 10 or more, 2 more have been by more than a converted try
— Andrew Ferguson (@AndrewRLP) April 26, 2016
#TrentRobinsonWhinge Since 2013, Roosters have won 26, drawn 8 and lost 55 penalty counts (29.21%)
— Andrew Ferguson (@AndrewRLP) April 27, 2016
#TrentRobinsonWhinge There are only 5 refs since 2013 who The Roosters have won 42% or more penalty counts with
— Andrew Ferguson (@AndrewRLP) April 27, 2016
#TrentRobinsonWhinge This all amounts to the bleeding obvious. Trent, since you became coach, the Roosters have become ill-disciplined
— Andrew Ferguson (@AndrewRLP) April 27, 2016
#TrentRobinsonWhinge Ben Cummins isn't your problem, you have won less than 23% of penalty counts with 12 of 23 refs since 2013
— Andrew Ferguson (@AndrewRLP) April 27, 2016
I would love to see the NRL itself compile statistics like this and publicly call out whinging, losing coaches as Andrew did with his series of home run tweets.
The very last thing a losing team needs is a coach that is ready to make excuses. A losing club needs a coach that can find solutions to problems and look for ways to improve his team in the face on any adversity.
Blaming referees for losing games is not a solution, it is actually a problem.
One that just cost the Roosters $40,000…
