NRL viewers, supporters and sponsors making their collective position clear regarding NRL refereeing

**UPDATE** Petition will be running until 2012 pre-season so keep on signing!

Like us on facebook too! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fed-up-with-NRL-bias-refereeing/276023595755761?created

This petition has been created for five reasons:

1) To bring to the attention of the NRL how many people are not satisfied with the standard of refereeing and INCONSISTENCY from some referees in the NRL and regarding the comments written below;

2) That we would like to see referees have to justify their decisions and for such information to be recorded and analysed and appropriate discipline taken on evident offenders or re-offenders (and that no referee is immune to this system no matter how much of a senior role that referee holds) - that is, we would like some type of effective method that will work better than what is currently put in place;

3)  Clubs are able to decide which rulings throughout a match they would like questioned by the method (or a similar method) listed in point 2 and are able to do so without facing discriminative retaliation within the NRL (there could also be some system in which captains could place or record referees on report throughout the game for decisions however this has immediate benefits and negatives perhaps not worth it);

4)  That we would like to see fair refereeing no matter which teams are playing or where that team is geographically from.

5)  We are only asking for a fair game.

Note:  This petition has not been created with any particular club in mind and seeks fair rulings for all clubs and players.

This petition will be forwarded to the NRL and we can only hope our discontent regarding the above issues is appropriately realised.

By taking your valuable time to digitally sign this petition you are demonstrating how strongly you feel about this cause and that point WILL be conveyed to the NRL regarding each and every single signature.

Some Background:

This is petition is very simple.  We, as fans, viewers and sponsors of the NRL, are fed up with INCONSISTENT refereeing in various games that are allowed to continue refereeing without appropriate investigation, scrutiny or discipline.  Each respectable person watching the game wants to view a game which has consistency in the refereeing at the very least for that game being played and if not week to week.  This is what is promised to us and this is what we expect from the NRL, judiciaries and referees.  We, as fans, supporters and viewers, also believe this is what the teams and players who put so much time and effort into their performance expect and what the sponsors of the game who attribute their company image to the NRL expect also. 

We just want a fair game and a fair off field judiciary process that sees all club sides become punished or let off for similar incidents and treated the same – consistency - this is what the referees are supposed to represent and maintain while refereeing a game.  As Australians we do not support nor believe in unfair advantages, teams should win fair and square or as close to fair and square as possible.  A referee should approach a match with a certain mentality - as if they were refereeing between two of their loved children which should naturally create a neutral stance when making decisions.  Even commentators, professionals within the league, find it necessary to point out referee decisions they find unusual (this comment regarding commentators in purely listed out of interest and it not the reason behind this petition).

It is obvious this is not the case given the games many of us have witnessed this year.  We believe there have been so many incidents of the aforementioned that there is no need to create such a lengthy list however we would still like to show our discontent with such incidents and occurrences.  In reality, each game should be treated with just as much importance, however, to see referees who could only be branded as bold, make decisions for or against one side and not treat the opposing side with the same discipline or optimism in major games is very disturbing – it seems like such referees have no fear or concern about being reprimanded for such obvious conduct as they know they will not be disciplined (this clearly indicates that the current system is not working).
 

We do realise that referees are also prone to make mistakes from time to time, but when those mistakes are consecutive then this should not be acceptable.  A mistake could be classified as a wrong call OR being more critical of one side and less critical of the other side (for example: penalising one team of an incident but then ignoring the other team when they create a similar incident).  There SHOULD be a system that records this to IDENTIFY trends in referees who are not performing appropriately.  Even under the two referee system, both referees need to take the same approach to a match.

Will post updates regarding the outcome of this on the facebook account:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fed-up-with-NRL-bias-refereeing/276023595755761?created