The Judiciary System is an embarrassment to the game

[BEC]

A judicial system without a legitimate avenue to challenge a charge is a clear sign that the overlords are not concerned with getting the call right or concerned with what is best for the game. They care most about being able to manipulate the system so that they can affect the players and teams that don't bow to their wishes.

The primace that you receive a lesser penalty for not bringing a challenge is simply a system set up to allow bad calls to go uncorrected. If they weren't looking to manipulate things and protect the refs that are on the pitch carrying out their manipulations, then they would have a system that reviews EVERY call sent to the committee in a public forum. It is done for practically every try...why not for players put on report?...Because the aren't concerned with getting it right. They only care about their own goals and the power to make it happen.

IMHO...it is tragic that the fans, media and clubs are letting league officials get away with this and other rule changes over the past 10 years that give them a greater ability to control things with less accountability. This is one reason the attendance and TV viewership is increasing at a rate less than general population growth and much slower than other Australian sports such as AFL, Rugby union, and basketball. (Look at per game numbers as total NRL attendance is up a bit due to the addition of a 17th team).

Enough of my rant. It's just that NRL has become my favorite sport to watch and I hate that people with an agenda are making it their own personal playground while telling the players and fans to fvck off.

[Steggles]

Well said. The manipulation gets worse with every year that goes by.

[Renman]

MRC= Pack of pussies

[RoosterBooster]

I think a bigger issue is players accept early guilty pleas for fear of extending their punishment and therefore are admitting guilt which the NRL can use in any future law suit against them.

[King Salvo]

Aggrieved clubs and players can appeal judiciary decisions to the NRL Appeals Committee.

In the judicial world, an early guilty plea to a criminal charge reduces the sentence by at least 25%, so in that case, the NRL mirrors the current judicial system with the early plea system.

Not sure a public forum to review NRL judiciary decisions would ever be a good idea; JWH would get more than 4 weeks if the "public" had a say.

The Match Review Committee is made up of former coaches. Referees and Players: Luke Patton was the MRC Manager; not sure if he still is and who else is on the MRC

The six-member NRL Judiciary Panel for 2024 is made up of Bob Lindner and Tony Puletua, along with former referees Henry Perenara, Greg McCallum, Sean Hampstead, and Paul Simpkins. - 1 ex-player and 1 ex-referee will be on the judicial panel for when players challenge the charge or grade, plus NRL Judiciary Chair Supreme Court Judge Geoff Bellew SC, who has the casting vote if the panel members votes are split.

Not much can be done about changing the system unless the Players Union steps in. The Players Union has former player representatives on the MRC/NRL Judiciary, perhaps. I assume that the Players Union was consulted on this current system when it was introduced in 2022 and rubber stamped it.

I am not sure if the NRL solely picks the people who are on the MRC and NRL Judiciary, although that makes little difference when the chair or manager has the casting vote if the other members votes are split. Not saying the Players Union rep will always back the player either.

[SupermanSupportsEasts4Eva]

Best way to make it public is to either enable fans to stream the hearings live or have fox league boardcast the NRL Judiciary live/on replay every week. They aren't real civil or criminal court cases so I don'tsee any reason why this won't be possible. This way the public can see the trail, and have a clearer understanding of the process.... and of course determine consistency (or not). The fans are the stakeholders and so should have visibility IMO. Of course this would naturally add revenue for the NRL and fox league. Thoughts?

[ism22]

IMO it's important to remember that it's not a court or a legal process, although they use terms such as 'charges', 'judiciary', 'duty of care', 'plead', 'guilty' and 'fine'.

It's an internal disciplinary process with no such statutory powers that for whatever reason grandstands as though it's a court.

As I noted in another thread, it's like challenging your uni grades through 'the process' (i.e. telling the lecturer they farked up... then telling the head of school that a lecturer who they probably hired/endorsed did a shyte job). It's not there to test the law... it's there to hand out punishments to staff who (essentially) their internal investigations team have already decided to have broken the rules.

---

Heck... reminds me of a shyte situation where a colleague (oooold old job) died (and had a brother working with him who was my housemate + close friend). This random, full hectic lebbo chick (who was shagging all the bosses - she was like 50 but had a boob job and lotsa cosmetic surgery so was 'appealing' to various bosses) suddenly became interested in the guy so asked me for his brother's contact details and their family address. At that point the dude (my housemate) wasn't even responding to my calls/messages so I was like 'no - I think he needs some space and you can talk to him when he's back from personal leave'.

She took it personally and started sending me heaps of inflammatory messages on our internal chat system + doing heaps of divisive shyte to undermine me behind my back (she was pretty junior but again, was in bed with various bosses). I filed an internal complaint about her. HR admitted her behaviour was pretty farked but managers refused to discipline her and HR were ultimately like 'the best solution is for you to move to a different area and have no further contact with her.

It was a shyte resolution that had no legal underpinning. However it was the easiest for the organisation as all the relevant managers refused to pickup the phone to me or respond to my e-mails (HR asked me to contact them, noting that managers would possess the skills/nous to handle such sensitivities - yeah nah - not when they're sleeping with her).

I COULD have taken it further and sought legal advice. However, it was easiest to just take the fix (resulted in me getting transferred to the legal area with an agreement that my law degree would be fully funded) so that was more valuable to me than seeing some random Lebbo chick get taken down.

That's the NRL's judiciary for you though. Think easiest solution for the organisation... NOT a legal fact finding process.

[bondi paul]

A judicial system without a legitimate avenue to challenge a charge is a clear sign that the overlords are not concerned with getting the call right or concerned with what is best for the game. They care most about being able to manipulate the system so that they can affect the players and teams that don't bow to their wishes.

The primace that you receive a lesser penalty for not bringing a challenge is simply a system set up to allow bad calls to go uncorrected. If they weren't looking to manipulate things and protect the refs that are on the pitch carrying out their manipulations, then they would have a system that reviews EVERY call sent to the committee in a public forum. It is done for practically every try...why not for players put on report?...Because the aren't concerned with getting it right. They only care about their own goals and the power to make it happen.

IMHO...it is tragic that the fans, media and clubs are letting league officials get away with this and other rule changes over the past 10 years that give them a greater ability to control things with less accountability. This is one reason the attendance and TV viewership is increasing at a rate less than general population growth and much slower than other Australian sports such as AFL, Rugby union, and basketball. (Look at per game numbers as total NRL attendance is up a bit due to the addition of a 17th team).

Enough of my rant. It's just that NRL has become my favorite sport to watch and I hate that people with an agenda are making it their own personal playground while telling the players and fans to fvck off.

Nice post Bec - your comment in the IMHO paragraph … it’s tragic that fans media and clubs are letting league officials …. Etc
please reconsider including the media as they collude with the NRL - it’s a partnership and will always back their partner whilst printing stories contrary to it. It’s all a smother to appease others whilst it generates income.

[Steggles]

Nice post Bec - your comment in the IMHO paragraph … it’s tragic that fans media and clubs are letting league officials …. Etc
please reconsider including the media as they collude with the NRL - it’s a partnership and will always back their partner whilst printing stories contrary to it. It’s all a smother to appease others whilst it generates income.

Let’s not forget betting agencies as partners. The NRL hierarchy are sailing very close to the wind if could be proven beyond reasonable doubt that they are influencing the outcome of games and their partners and/or themselves are profiting from such influence. What industry did PVL emerge from again?

[Waylander]

Their sole purpose seems to be to validate the officiating. Nothing could be more misguided.

[Tom Verlaine's Ghost]

In this entire season, to date, I've seen about 3 or 4 genuine head high tackles.

The rest -- just like JWH's -- are just politically correct bullshit, pandering to the lawyers, pansies, and assorted old ladies who run the game.

[The Bondi spy]

[QUOTE=Tom Verlaine's Ghost;n1062154]In this entire season, to date, I've seen about 3 or 4 genuine head high tackles.

The rest -- just like JWH's -- are just politically correct bullshit, pandering to the lawyers, pansies, and assorted old ladies who run the game.[/QUOTE

our three quarters have done 3 of them

[Renman]

Jayden Sewer has 2 charges and cops a $1000 fine for sending MJ off for a HIA. Salmon .. deliberate, very late and high. 2 Weeks. David Klemmer , 3rd offence, $3000 fine.

Yeh, that makes sense.

[Bates]

This reaming is proudly brought to you by The Sportsbet Bunker.

[roosterchook]

Let the two teams fight it out and get rid of the bunker and judiciary and Origin. Make the game all about your team trying to crush their opponents. The ref should be limited to 2 penalties per match only for severe breaches. No send offs, no sin bins, no HIA. Let’s return to making this a real tough man’s sport where no inch is given. Make it tough, make it rough and no more stupid 6 agains. Then and only then could it be called Rugby League the greatest game of all.