David EdwardsStorm home, Harrigan counts his pay.
April 22nd 2008 01:26
Last night's clash between the injury plagued Canberra Raiders and a Storm outfit growing in form had the potential to be a boil-over. Whilst the Raiders were without players such as captain Alan Tongue, hooker Lincoln Withers, outside backs William Zillman and Phil Graham, and suspended forwards Trevor Thurling and Michael Weyman (to name a few), Melbourne had a team boasting numerous internationals, gun in-form fullback Billy Slater, and of course - lucky charm Michael Crocker, yet to lose a game with the Melbourne outfit.
Melbourne started flat, and Canberra were able to combine good field position with some early tries. The new inclusion of Michael Dobson was validated by two kicks leading to tries, and Carney's shift to 5/8 showed the versatility of a young player who should not be written out of the equation for Origin one. 16-4 at the break, and it was looking like the Raiders home record would stand strong, even against the best outfit in the NRL.
However Melbourne came out a different side in the second half, and made valuable metres up the ruck, gving them time and space to let their flyers run rampant around the flanks. Billy Slater was a revelation, with numerous line breaks and his obligatory try. Israel Folau leapt higher than the Lord himself to close the game out, and leave Raiders fans devastated. The clinical play of Melbourne was just too strong for a young Canberra team who were sorely lacking experience out on the field.
The talking point of the game would have to be the disallowed try to Colin Best, which would have extended the Raiders lead to 20-4.
Best maintained he had grounded the ball in time, saying: "I got the ball down first. I thought it was a try or at least should have got benefit of the doubt". Video referee Bill Harrigan downplayed Best's claims, saying that it was simultaneous, and under NRL rules that means the try must be disallowed.
It seems that every weekend there is a major discussion such as this coming out of a game, the consistency has to be questioned constantly. The fact that there is a benefit of the doubt rule in favour of the attacking team seems to have been ignored in a case like this, so what reason is there for the benefit of the doubt rule?
Bill Harrigan doesn't seem to have really extended himself after his refereeing career, copping out with a position on Channel Seven's "Gladiators", where all he does is play the role of an inanimate object and blow a whistle, something that a monkey could capably do - and has a cushy job pressing a button in the position of NRL Video Referee. And lets not mention those idiotic Lowes ad's with Daryl Brohman.
There are far too many inconsistencies in the decisions given on a weekly basis in the NRL, and it is about time something was done about it. However nothing will be done when the team that is wronged is a minor player in the competition, it will take a dramatic loss by a Brisbane or a Melbourne to get the NRL out of its inert state.
Melbourne started flat, and Canberra were able to combine good field position with some early tries. The new inclusion of Michael Dobson was validated by two kicks leading to tries, and Carney's shift to 5/8 showed the versatility of a young player who should not be written out of the equation for Origin one. 16-4 at the break, and it was looking like the Raiders home record would stand strong, even against the best outfit in the NRL.
However Melbourne came out a different side in the second half, and made valuable metres up the ruck, gving them time and space to let their flyers run rampant around the flanks. Billy Slater was a revelation, with numerous line breaks and his obligatory try. Israel Folau leapt higher than the Lord himself to close the game out, and leave Raiders fans devastated. The clinical play of Melbourne was just too strong for a young Canberra team who were sorely lacking experience out on the field.
The talking point of the game would have to be the disallowed try to Colin Best, which would have extended the Raiders lead to 20-4.
Best maintained he had grounded the ball in time, saying: "I got the ball down first. I thought it was a try or at least should have got benefit of the doubt". Video referee Bill Harrigan downplayed Best's claims, saying that it was simultaneous, and under NRL rules that means the try must be disallowed.
It seems that every weekend there is a major discussion such as this coming out of a game, the consistency has to be questioned constantly. The fact that there is a benefit of the doubt rule in favour of the attacking team seems to have been ignored in a case like this, so what reason is there for the benefit of the doubt rule?
Bill Harrigan doesn't seem to have really extended himself after his refereeing career, copping out with a position on Channel Seven's "Gladiators", where all he does is play the role of an inanimate object and blow a whistle, something that a monkey could capably do - and has a cushy job pressing a button in the position of NRL Video Referee. And lets not mention those idiotic Lowes ad's with Daryl Brohman.
There are far too many inconsistencies in the decisions given on a weekly basis in the NRL, and it is about time something was done about it. However nothing will be done when the team that is wronged is a minor player in the competition, it will take a dramatic loss by a Brisbane or a Melbourne to get the NRL out of its inert state.
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