By DANNY LOCKWOOD
I’M NOT sure that my fellow Dewsbury compatriot Mike Stephenson and I agree about much, perhaps other than the fact that the Savile Town area where he grew up isn’t the place it once was.
(Savile Town today is home to the European HQ of fundamentalist Islam‘s most conservative sect, and the population is over 99% Muslim. Stevo wouldn’t be called on to sign many autographs if he stopped by).
It’s not the only thing that has changed in our mutual areas of interest. The sport of rugby league which the man his local hero-worshippers knew as ‘Mick Stivvy’ before he went to Penrith on a world record transfer fee in 1973, has changed out of all recognition too.
Stevo’s stellar broadcasting career is winding down to a close now; just a month or so left before he calls his last Old Trafford grand final and jets off into the sunset of the gorgeous beaches and bays north of Sydney.
He has his critics, as pretty much anyone paid to espouse a sporting opinion in the media does. All I can say is this – if you think it’s easy ‘entertaining’ viewers, listeners or readers week in, week out, for 10, 15, 20 or more years, then you ought to try it.
Mike Stephenson has been incredibly generous with his time and his devotion to the sport of rugby league.
The fact is that a fundamental aspect of his job is to provoke controversy. If there was a tin that Stevo’s job description was kept in, that’s what would be written on the front in block capitals.
Still, his faux outbursts are usually quite choreographed, kept within the bounds of respecting the game and its constraints. I actually did a double take upon hearing what I could only describe as sincere outrage at a moment late in Thursday nights Saints-Cas game.
It was meaningless in respect of the result, but spoke loudly about the common problematic theme League is wrestling with right now.
The video official was unable to overturn a clear no-try that match referee
Jack Smith awarded to Will Maher because he simply couldn’t rule on the one certain, and second probable, forward passes in the build up. In effect, he was hamstrung by our ludicrous operational rules.
Stevo, never backwards in coming forwards with emotive hyperbole, went a rare step further with a view which I was in absolute consensus with – that we effectively stood to be held to ridicule by other sports.
The decision in itself is quite a small thing. It didn’t decide at Wembley or Old Trafford final.
It didn’t consign a side to relegation.
It’s even quite insignificant in that it marked the nadir of an awful night for Jack Smith, a rapidly-promoted referee who has gained plaudits, but quite frankly had a stinker.
In the snakes and ladders that we are assured the Match Officials Department is these days, poor Jack could be running the touch at Dudley Hill this weekend.
That unfortunately is the price you can pay when you heap too much responsibility on shoulders not ready for it.
Our columnist and member of the new Match Officials audit panel Stuart
Cummings summed up the unfortunate situation perfectly.
I would like to push a thought Stuart’s way – if Union can ask the wider question of the video ref if there’s any reason the try shouldn’t be awarded, whatever the offence – including obvious forward passes – why can’t we?
We understand that not all forward passes can be discerned absolutely. Fine, then the protocols apply – but at least give the leeway to apply common sense, unlike now when we all have to pretend we haven’t seen an injustice perpetrated.
But there was a bigger problem on Thursday. Forget the video complexities – Jack Smith and his two touch judges (I assume he must have had some) had absolute nightmares.
That call shouldn’t have needed a video ref.
I had my hands over my face at times, as replays highlighted just how much they were missing. Embarassing.
It’s not Mr Smith’s fault. He may make a top rate match official, but that is some way off.
And while the policy within the revamped Match Officials Department is to ‘push the talent’ ever upwards, I suspect we will get more of this.
A precocious young talent who has a few good games is handled smartly by an experienced coach; nurtured, protected, developed. That doesn’t seem to be happening in the refs’ department right now – possibly because they are so light on numbers.
The fact remains that the performance of the referee is absolutely critical to the product we put out there for the world to see.
I know this is a work in progress, but if clubs can hire NRL talent, isn’t there some way our refs’ department could try doing the same, while these respective novice officials are learning their trade without the risk of bringing Rugby League into disrepute?Super League ebay
