11 - 3 penalty count - A Ben Cummins special

[Bates]

I knew the weasel would screw us when early on Teddy made it out of the in-goal by about 1/2 metre & was grounded then was pushed back by a Manly second effort & the weasel did nothing & ruled a drop out.

Dont know why we didn't challenge that honestly.

That too was BS!

I've had the shi ts all day.

[Johnny Brass]

Klien is just a really bad ref he's not biased against the chooks. Cummings is another kettle of fish we have a really bad winning percentage when this guy refs our games going back for years there's something not right about the win loss ratio under cummings even when we were the best side in the game.

Can't agree with Klein not being biased against us, he has continually screwed us for a long period of time.
Its not just the roosters either that certain refs hammer the dogs,Titans and Tigers don't get a lot of love from them.
The 6 again rule has just made refs influence more obvious for the close observers of the game.
I must admit if I was a ref I'd be getting a mate to load up on whoever I favoured.

[roosterchook]

That too was BS!

I've had the shi ts all day.

He made it into the field of play then was pushed back. Clear as day except to a biased ref.

[roosterchook]

I don't disagree with that viewpoint Carlos, and sad but that will continue with our club.. My point was apart from ref "errors" or intentions we still had the cattle to overcome that disadvantage which made victory that much more sweeter. Our ability to put on 30,40 points against mediocre opposition has totally disappeared.. To regain that scoring ability against teams like Manly yesterday, and grinding the tough win against stronger opposition is entirely up to us, and would in turn take the ref bias out of the equation.

Unfortunately we are not good enough to beat our opponents + a biased ref nor should we be expected to be. If the refs played fair the table would look a lot different than it is now. Our game is over administered on field. The incorrect play the ball by Cherry led to a try instead of our penalty.

[Bruce Pickett]

Can't agree with Klein not being biased against us, he has continually screwed us for a long period of time.
Its not just the roosters either that certain refs hammer the dogs,Titans and Tigers don't get a lot of love from them.
The 6 again rule has just made refs influence more obvious for the close observers of the game.
I must admit if I was a ref I'd be getting a mate to load up on whoever I favoured.

Brassy
The 6A rules are an abomination and have really given the refs the power to give teams a leg up and escape total scrutiny. Worst rule ever introduced in my 50 years of following this great game. I never whinged about refs before this accursed rule, but I can’t hold it in anymore. That said, our defence has been pretty bad this year.

[ism22]

I'm too depressed to blame the ref for this one. It was farking annoying to watch though!!! We played our hearts out for the last 40 minutes (best defence I've seen from us all season) and that blonde dude with the BSB hair just gratuitously strolled over after seemingly endless 6 agains and piggy-back penalties.

What bothers me is our lack of 5th tackle options though!!! Blame the refs all you like, IMO a big difference is that DCE ended every set with a plumb kick that created an opportunity. Whereas, our 5th tackle options rarely felt lethal.

Hopefully Walker helps out in this department, though I'm not getting too excited about his return. We've had soooo many chances and our standing this season comes down to our failure to finish teams off.

I have Klein/Sutton as much as any Easts fan does (seriously, why do they ALWAYS ref us when there's like ~10-15 refs on the panel?!?!? IMO the NRL should spread the refs out a bit more to kill off any cynicism). However, I can't blame them when our footy's simply not up to scratch.

DCE kicked his team into a game that we otherwise dominated the running and defensive aspects of (without any kickers who come close to that sorta calibre). Manly signed DCE for life on $1m a year and he's been a terrific investment for them as he's just so gawd damn consistent and level-headed. IMO he's the closest thing we have to a Cronk in the game right now... THAT FACE!!! He never frowns, argues or gets negative... his face is always balanced and set on making the best decision possible.

My only ref question is... what year did Matt Cecchin retire from reffing? (Wikipedia says 2021 which sounds about right). I reckon he was always one of the better refs and our wins have dropped since his retirement. I liked how he stayed outta the game and just called what he saw. My biggest criticism of Klein/Sutton is that both seem to have mastered the art of making defensible Bunker calls. That is... they seem to know where the cameras are and thus which situation are gonna give them a free pass to reject calls they SHOULD have had an affirmative answer to by saying 'no try... sending this one to the Bunker'. You then get a million replays followed by 'no conclusive evidence to overturn the on-field ruling, we have no try'. FINE, but IMO it lowers the standard of evidence because in any given Klein/Sutton game, there ALWAYS seems to be a fark load of bug calls that are actually 'no decision' kinda calls because the ref refused to make an affirmative judgment call. Personally I think this should be pointed out in their performance reviews, with somebody asking them 'why did you send all those to the Bunker?!? Not saying you're biased but we wanna minimise the number of situations where a game's decided on the basis that there was "insufficient evidence"... we want you to be bold and decisive'.

Having said that, I think the problem is the rules, not them. It's almost as if they hide inside this shell because they know it's the best way to make a defensible call. It's probably what I'd do as a ref as you want your decisions to be defensible as opposed to 'bold' or 'good'. The result? The NRL's top dog refs (I bet Klein and Sutton have the best stats for making 'defensible' decisions) are cowards who rig games because the only way that running teams like us can score tries is if we get clearcut linebreaks where there're no question about the grounding. That... or if there's a flukey camera angle that shows we've definitively chalked the ball (which is uncommon as the cameras are fixed and I have no doubt that teams intentionally block them - again - I know I would if a team was about to come crashing over and I was in no position to defend it... well duh... stand in front of the camera then).

[weplayforprems]

Really, really poor. As always you can talk about our discipline all you like, but it makes no sense how we're hammering them through the middle of the field, and hardly receiving any 6-agains or penalties.

Multiple blatantly incorrect calls, too. Some absolute bludgers.

Robinson has had a few goes at match officials in his time, but it seems like it falls on deaf ears now.

this has always been the most galling thing. Every team we play is miraculously perfectly disciplined. There’s two decades of statistics that back up the lack of penalties we don’t receive. You have to go back to when Gus was coach to mount any sort of case for us being given a fair go.

my all time favourite was in 2015 when the club obviously clued up Buzz to do a yarn on it. The longest drought between a team not getting 7 penalties a game was about 4 games. We were at about 37 straight games without doing it despite being en route to winning a third straight minor premiership.

the week the story appeared we received exactly 7 penalties.

They are absolutely biased ****s. Whether it’s subconsciously or not or don’t even care. Just call a game fairly you ****s. You don’t seem to have any trouble finding every minor thing we do or even just making shit up.

[Tommy Smith]

this has always been the most galling thing. Every team we play is miraculously perfectly disciplined. There’s two decades of statistics that back up the lack of penalties we don’t receive. You have to go back to when Gus was coach to mount any sort of case for us being given a fair go.

my all time favourite was in 2015 when the club obviously clued up Buzz to do a yarn on it. The longest drought between a team not getting 7 penalties a game was about 4 games. We were at about 37 straight games without doing it despite being en route to winning a third straight minor premiership.

the week the story appeared we received exactly 7 penalties.

They are absolutely biased ****s. Whether it’s subconsciously or not or don’t even care. Just call a game fairly you ****s. You don’t seem to have any trouble finding every minor thing we do or even just making shit up.

Ahhh good times. When the refs had me foaming weekly and searching out stats to prove beyond all doubt their bias. And this was indeed the one that proved it.

http://www.thechookpen.com.au/vb5/fo...s-penalty-stat

Eight years later and little has changed.

Except perhaps that they've finally broken me to the point that I'm now just a casual follower of the NRL. A Rooster for life. But haven't watched a non-Roosters game all year.

[weplayforprems]

Ahhh good times. When the refs had me foaming weekly and searching out stats to prove beyond all doubt their bias. And this was indeed the one that proved it.

http://www.thechookpen.com.au/vb5/fo...s-penalty-stat

Eight years later and little has changed.

Except perhaps that they've finally broken me to the point that I'm now just a casual follower of the NRL. A Rooster for life. But haven't watched a non-Roosters game all year.

Holy shit did you find that stat yourself? Incredible work! It’s pretty much statistically impossible to be that biased if it’s not deliberate. That’s why our premierships are even sweeter because we had to beat 14 nearly every week instead of being served it up on a platter like a certain other club that’s won one comp in colour TV.

[Tommy Smith]

Holy shit did you find that stat yourself? Incredible work! It’s pretty much statistically impossible to be that biased if it’s not deliberate. That’s why our premierships are even sweeter because we had to beat 14 nearly every week instead of being served it up on a platter like a certain other club that’s won one comp in colour TV.

Stats Rleague as I knew it (even though the website is as per below) has all the p3balty stats throughout the years.

https://afltables.com/rl/rl_index.html

I had all kinds of excel spreadsheets going at the time. The other major discrepancies were how many penalty counts we'd win in a lopsided fashion vs losing penalty counts in a lopsided fashion. We were dead last in both categories. In fact losing penalty counts by 5+ was like our trademark back then. A 12-3 flogging was just the norm but never ever happened to, say, Souffs.

Also consistently finishing bottom 4 to last in penalties received.

They were all outrageous anomalies.

The lack of penalties received is what lead me down the rabbit hole of finding that outrageous stat of not receiving more than 7 penalties a mere 36 straight games when the league average was 1-2 lol

[BigCok007]

Ahhh good times. When the refs had me foaming weekly and searching out stats to prove beyond all doubt their bias. And this was indeed the one that proved it.

http://www.thechookpen.com.au/vb5/fo...s-penalty-stat

Eight years later and little has changed.

Except perhaps that they've finally broken me to the point that I'm now just a casual follower of the NRL. A Rooster for life. But haven't watched a non-Roosters game all year.

That is disgusting! How does the NRL respond to that… get every media outlet to focus on how ill disciplined the Roosters are… ffs that’s diabolical!

[Johnny Brass]

Brassy
The 6A rules are an abomination and have really given the refs the power to give teams a leg up and escape total scrutiny. Worst rule ever introduced in my 50 years of following this great game. I never whinged about refs before this accursed rule, but I can’t hold it in anymore. That said, our defence has been pretty bad this year.

Agree Bruce it's just given them carte blanche to influence games without any scrutiny.
Klein stayed out of it when we were down by 18 against the Raiders but as soon as we got a sniff and pulled it back to within a converted try i said he will get involved. Raiders made a break and he swooped like a bald headed eagle and gave them 6 again on the last tackle which we then defended and Teddy stuck a paw out and the scrum where he plucked the offside penalty and two points.
They can justify giving them but as previously mentioned its the ones you dont get that hurts you. Radley got hit in the head and got up slowly and looked at Klein who told him to play the ball and get on with it.
Have a look at souths games when officiated by the axis of evil and they are defending late in the tackle count and how many times Murray, Cook or Walker have a hand on the ball which effects the clearance kick and never get penalised with a 6 again.
It's so obvious with the refs i can generally sense within a set or two when they are about to get involved.

[Tommy Smith]

That is disgusting! How does the NRL respond to that… get every media outlet to focus on how ill disciplined the Roosters are… ffs that’s diabolical!

They get away with it because of tall poppy syndrome.

When the media and fans at large don't care because "**** the Roosters" then it emboldens the NRL and referees.

They essentially live in a consequence free world.

I know that was in 2015 but does anyone seriously think things have changed. Ironically 2016 was our best year because the refs knew they didn't have to hamstring us.

[BraveTheWorld]

They get away with it because of tall poppy syndrome.

When the media and fans at large don't care because "**** the Roosters" then it emboldens the NRL and referees.

They essentially live in a consequence free world.

I know that was in 2015 but does anyone seriously think things have changed. Ironically 2016 was our best year because the refs knew they didn't have to hamstring us.

Not to have a whinge or anything, but we are genuinely the most hated club bar none. No other club even comes close.
I saw a thread on Reddit quoting Robbo on the poor forward pass call from the weekend game, and every single comment is just saying how we cheat and how he can't coach.
Any other club, even the more disliked ones, would have received some sympathy from most fans if they received the calls we got on the weekend. Anyway, it is what it is though.

I remember seeing that thread about the lack of penalties we receive in 2015. You did fantastic work with those stats.
When it was getting a lot of publicity, it seemed to get a bit better for a while. Lately though, normal service has resumed.

I can only put it down to unconscious bias. I assume the refs hate us just as much as the average NRL fan does.

[player 1]

this has always been the most galling thing. Every team we play is miraculously perfectly disciplined. There’s two decades of statistics that back up the lack of penalties we don’t receive. You have to go back to when Gus was coach to mount any sort of case for us being given a fair go.

my all time favourite was in 2015 when the club obviously clued up Buzz to do a yarn on it. The longest drought between a team not getting 7 penalties a game was about 4 games. We were at about 37 straight games without doing it despite being en route to winning a third straight minor premiership.

the week the story appeared we received exactly 7 penalties.

They are absolutely biased ****s. Whether it’s subconsciously or not or don’t even care. Just call a game fairly you ****s. You don’t seem to have any trouble finding every minor thing we do or even just making shit up.

That was perfectly put. Thank you!