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This is your opinion.
I have not seen the game, or spoken to the referee, but I know how we work as a group.
We try to be as consistent as possible, and we work hard to do it. Just like everyone else we have good & bad days, shit happens. If a referee has a bad game they may get appointed to a lower grade fixture for the following week, the same way a player may be dropped to a lower team, but it has to be seen as a bad game by us &/or RugbyWA, not just by supporters who may or may not be knowledgeable in how we have been asked to referee by the ARU & RugbyWA.
All Premier Grade referees complete reports on their game which are then commented on by the referee coach, these reports highlight areas of the game that went well or could be improved and point to specific times on the DVD to give examples.
We do all this, as well as fitness training and preparation for our next game, in our spare time outside of work & around our family commitments.
It takes a lot more effort than just turning up to train for 2 hours twice a week, and unlike most premier grade players we are not paid, we are volunteers giving up our free time to try and be the best referees we can be. Coops obviously being an exception as he works for RugbyWA.
We also do not have the facilities & opportunities that RugbyWA have given to the clubs to try and close the gap between super rugby & Perth Prem Grade. We're told that we will get this opportunity, but as we're 4 weeks from the end of the main season, I doubt it will happen this year.
It's easy to sit behind a computer and type criticism, but very few of you are willing to put your hand up and become a ref, or even become a referee coach, to help improve the level of refereeing that you state is not good enough. The constant complaining doesn't help a referee improve, what is needed is an understanding of what the referee should have been doing, why they were not doing it, and how they can change it. With specific points in the DVD so the referee can see what the issue is.
And before you do it, no that does not mean analyzing every decision a referee made on a public forum. If you are important enough to get a copy of the DVD, then I am sure you can send comments to RugbyWA who will pass them on to the refs association to consider. Polite & accurate comments are always welcome.
I tell the coaches at the end of most games that they have my email address and if they want to chat about any specific issues after they've reviewed the DVD, then I am happy to do so. I am quite content to say yes I made a mistake if I did, or explain what my thinking was behind a certain call, and listen to the coaches view of what they were trying to do. To me this helps both of us. To date no coach has contacted me.
We were supposed to have a mid season meeting between the Premier Grade referees & coaches to look at how things were going and iron out any issues, but it was cancelled due to a lack of interest from the coaches.
We are trying to do everything to ensure we have the best referees at every premiership game, perhaps a bit of team work as a Rugby Union could help achieve better results.
What more can we actually do?